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The following paper by Dr. Warder was here read by the Secretary : — 

 THE CLIMATIC INFLUENCE OF TREES. 



BY JNO. A. WARDER, M.D., NORTH BEND, HAMILTON CO., OHIO. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Ontario Fruit Growers' Association : 



After hearing the paper on "Protection to the Orchard " read at the recent Pomo- 

 logical Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts (September ] 5th, 1881), you, Mr. President, 

 conferred upon its reader the honour of an invitation to prepare a lecture for presenta- 

 tion at the approaching meeting of your Society at Hamilton, Ontario. 



The proposition was accepted with hesitation — partly on account of impaired health, 

 but mainly because of an apprehension that yourself and your worthy confreres, as fruit- 

 growers, would be disappointed in the character of the topic .selected — "The Climatic In- 

 fluence of Trees." However, after traversing a portion of your beautiful and productive 

 Province in the lovely days of October, and after beholding the wonderful progress that 

 has been made by your citizens in clearing off the dense forests that once clothed your 

 fertile soil ; while observing and considering the changes consequent upon converting the 

 woodland into the farms, the forest into the prairie — the conviction became stronger that 

 the theme must be drawn from that group of topics, which deserve so large a share of the 

 thoughts and consideration of the American farmers and statesmen. 



A perusal of such numbers of your valuable transactions as have been kindly fur- 

 nished by the secretaries of the two leading societies of the Dominion, also assure the 

 writer that such a theme as the one about to be presented may be welcomed by you, and 

 he feels encouraged by finding that, on your side as well as on ours, forestry is becoming 

 an important question, and that, to some of you as well as to some of us, the sprite will not 

 down — the question must be met : the sooner the better ! Nor should the great interests 

 involved in the word be ignored, either by agriculturalists or statesmen. It is high time 

 that our attention should be directed to a consideration of the subject in its bearings 

 upon the agriculture of our continent and its future maintenance and prosperity. 



The transactions of the Ontario and Montreal Societies already contain evidence of 

 your interest in forestry, as shown in the valuable papers relating to Canadian forests by 

 Mr. A. T. Drurnmond, Mr. Jas. Little, Mr. H. G. Joly, Mr. O. M. Dawson, Messrs. 

 McAinsh, G. Peacock, and others, which may be read with profit, and which show that 

 your attention has already been directed into this channel, all of which encourages me to 

 continue. At the same time, the intelligence and the familiarity with the subject thus 

 displayed by your own members, might well cause a stranger to feel some difiidence and 

 hesitation on entering an arena with which you are supposed to be so much more familiar 

 than a casual visitor. It is, however, but a limited portion of the subject which it is 

 proposed to discuss at this time, Mr. President, and as you are aware, the task is under- 

 taken only after having consulted you, and having received your approval of the discus- 

 sion of " Wind-Breaks, and Shelter Belts, and Sheltering Groves for Ontario." 



Reference has already been made to the extensive clearings that have been effected 

 by the generation of men now occupying the interlacustrine region of fertile lands in 

 Upper Canada. It seems almost incredible that in half a century or less, so vast a change 

 should have been eff"ected in the condition of this broad plateau, as is evident even from 

 the car windows of the rolling train. Over wide areas the forests that once encumbered 

 them have disappeared, leaving no traces of their former existence in the smooth and 

 wide savannas of smiling fields, covered with bountiful crops and beautiful herd.s. In a 

 brief period the howling wilderness of woods and swamps, which greeted, and might well 

 have repelled, the sturdy settlers, has been transformed by man's persevering industry 

 into the smiling prairie. Wonderful transformation ! 



The very stumps of the sylvan monarchs have been rooted out ; the soil has been 

 tamed of its wildness and brought into the highest culture over wide tracts ; and, with 

 the evidence of high farming that so generally prevails, there have come also the improved 



