15)0 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



But it is not so even fifty miles west of us. Between there and the 

 Rocky mountains the blizzard has its way, often far down into Texas. 

 The effect is caused, in small part, of course, by the mechanical resist- 

 ance ; but very much more by something else. Whether by the elec- 

 trical qualities of the leaves, twigs, branches, and trunks of the trees, or 

 whether the control is by means of some agent as yet unknown, the fact 

 is at least a general one. There are the almost treeless prairies, and 

 there are the cyclone, the blizzard and the tornado. Here are the for- 

 ests, and a very important degree of exemption from the fury of all these 

 storms. 



DROUTH HISTORY. 



Again, to use our own county of Holt as an illustration, or as a 

 sample : 



Lying between two rivers, we are surrounded on all four sides, ex- 

 cepting a part of the north, by many m.iles of uneven country covered 

 with timber. Squarely between us and the hot southwest winds is the 

 peninsula, timbered and uneven, that includes Doniphan and a part of 

 ]-5rown counties in Kansas. 



When the great drouth of i860 compelled the settlers of Kansas to 

 call for aid there was no hunger in Holt, and when the greatest of drouths 

 lasted for the years 1885, '86 and '87, growing worse each year, there 

 was enough • to keep the animals from suffering, and no human being 

 needed to lack for plenty to eat. and that of the best quality. We claim 

 much of this partial ex-emption from drouth is due to our peculiar soil, 

 but by night and by day the leaves were standing their guard around 

 and over us, shading the soil, moistening the air, and hindering the 

 winds. 



Look at the map of our state. All along our eastern border the 

 Mississippi. The great Missouri running more than 600 miles of its 

 course inside our bounds, and emptying into it the Nodaway, the Platte, 

 Grand River, Chariton, the Osage, itself a large river, and the Gasconade 

 scarcely less than the Osage ; and into these many smaller rivers, and 

 into them all a host of creeks. The streams are well placed all over 

 Missouri, and on either side of every stream an array of hills well nigh 

 covered with timber. 



Ask history if the settlers of Missouri ever sought or needed aid. 

 Nay, for the trees were here, and their leaves have covered us as with a 

 shield. 



Shout for joy ye people that dwell in the shade and the shelter of 

 the forests. Abide in this land, the land of peace and plenty — the 



