STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 39 



-to spare. Never in our history has the prospect been brighter or the people as a 

 ■whole more prosperous than to-day. 



The State Horticultural Society has also reached and occupies an lionorable 

 position among- the institutions of the state, and is now where it can make its in- 

 fluence felt for usefulness. Our membership is larger than ever before and is com- 

 prised of the most zealous and enterprising men of the state, man}' of them of large 

 experience and capable of enduring miich self-denial if, as a result, they can see 

 our interest advanced thereby. Our state has already a world-wide fame for the 

 healthiness of its climate, the fertility of its soil, and for the intelligence, enterprise 

 and morality of its people. We have the Mississippi river and the great lakes, the 

 ■one giving us a highway to the ocean, the other water communication with the 

 ■older states of the East. And we have a system of railroads, managed and 

 equipped in the best possible style, which aft'ords ample facilities for travel and 

 commerce and a market for almost ever}- farmer at his door. The new industry of 

 cane growing promises soon to relieve us of the great expense of importing our 

 isugar, which is so essential to good living, and perhaps jield us a revenue. And 

 but two obstacles are m the way of our .state becoming one of the best for the habi- 

 tation of man that the sun ever shone upon. 



We are here for the transaction of business of great moment to the state. The 

 ^obstacles are such as doubtless can be removed or remedied, and it is the mission of 

 this society to do it. 



First, we have treeless prairies over which blizzards occasionally sweep with fury 

 carrying with them suffering and sometimes death to man and beast, and blockad 

 ■ing our railroads, causing enormous expense to keep them in a condition to trans- 

 port the necessities of life to the hardy pioneers who are opening homes upon the 

 frontier. Tli^ several railroad companies are deserving of praise for their almost 

 ■superhuman efforts made during the last winter to keep down the blockade and 

 •carry food and fuel to those who were literally shut off from the civilized world. 

 Had they failed, who can tell the horrors that the opening spring would have re- 

 vealed? We may do very much to modifv or remove this evil by giving a portion 

 -of our time to the encouragement of forestry. I am aware that in Europe and the 

 "Eastern states forestry is not classed with horticulture. But here for the present, 

 :at least, they must go hand in hand, for every one knows that forests have a favor- 

 •able influence upon climate, by softening down the temperature, breaking the force 

 •of winds and somewhat charging the atmosphere with moisture. I believe that if 

 •every quarter section of prairie in Minnesota and Dakota had the shelter of a 

 •timber belt two rods wide around them, and they were checked off into squares or 

 -forty acres by like belts, and an evergreen grove of five or six acres to shelter the 

 buildings, the land would produce better crops, the difficulty to fruit culture would 

 be removed and there would never more be danger of snow Idockades. It is our 

 ■duty to encourage the planting of wind breaks and shelter belts, groves and forests 

 in order that suitaljle timber may always be at hand for fuel, fencing and the 

 •manufacture of agricultural implements and furniture. Forests cannot be raised 

 in a night but require half a century to bring them to their best. But they will 

 •commence yielding returns in fuel in five or six years, therefore it is unwise to 

 4elay their planting a single season. Thousands, of those who are carving out 

 laomes on the prairies are either young and inexperienced, or men who liave all 



