STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 189 



grown out there from seeds, cuttings and yearling seedlings, within 

 lOO days from date of planting had thrust their roots down into 

 the earth to the depth of two to four feet, pumping their own 

 water — growing like weeds, and laughing to scorn influences that 

 theoretically ought to have destroyed them. In fact, their growth 

 was so rapid I dared not use the cultivator among them enough to 

 keep the weeds down, and even with this precaution their termi- 

 nal buds delayed their appearance later than usual, but they ripened 

 up in good shape, and have gone into winter quarters in good con- 

 dition. Although not strictly called for, or in order, I desire to 

 make mention of another fact, because the majority of mankind 

 don't remember much of anything more than a year, and this 

 paper will be a part of the record in the progress of forestry. 



The big freeze of May 20, 1882, or thereabouts, extended all over 

 the Northwest — giving them a dose of genuine winter all through 

 Central Iowa — killing down their corn and giving it a backset 

 from which it never fully recovered, had similar disastrous effects 

 on forestry. Millions of young ash and box elder plants, from the 

 seed, planted the preceding fall, were then just fairly out of the 

 ground, and were utterly destroyed. Our earliest planting of box 

 elder and cotton wood yearlings had commenced putting forth 

 leaves. The buds of the white willow cuttings were swollen full, 

 and the white willow hedges of one year's growth and upward 

 were nearly in full foliage. This freeze had no apparent effect on 

 any of the foregoing of one year's and over, except the cottonwood. 

 In our railroad work, I estimate nearly or quite one-fourth of our 

 yearling cottonwoods of the earliest planting were killed, root and 

 branch, by this unexpected freeze. In certain localities in Minne- 

 sota, in the central portions of the State, I observed young arti- 

 ficial forests where rows of cottonwoods, ten to twelve feet high, 

 were killed out, root and branch, by this same freeze, the rows of 

 ash, elm, box elder, willow, and other varieties in the same groves 

 escaped unharmed. I have always been a staunch friend of the 

 cottonwood and am yet, and don't propose to go back on it. It is 

 a good friend of ours; but for all that this weak spot in its character 

 should be recorded. 



LEGISLATION. 



Some of you may deem this a digression. Not so. We are here 

 on business, the vigorous prosecution of which promotes the com- 

 mon'wealth. The machinery of state was constructed for the very 

 end we have in view — the promotion, security and protection of 



