320 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



made is only $5,000, to be expended each year out of the state treas- 

 ury in a dry and dangerous year. I need not say to you that that 

 amount would go but a very little way in such a drouth as they ex- 

 perienced in the state of Maine and in other eastern states. The 

 current appropriation made by the state of Minnesota to carry out 

 the fire warden law is $5,000, but out of this $5,000 must be 

 paid also all the expenses of the central office, four thousand 

 copies of the annual report, printing expenses, clerk hire, post- 

 age and traveling expenses — all come out of this $5,000. We 

 should ask the next legislature to increase that amount, at least 

 double it. I give you warning that if we should have as bad a 

 drouth as they had in the state of Maine and in New York and 

 Pennsylvania in 1903, the law would be unable to withstand it. 



Then the state should make a little appropriation to develop this 

 Pillsbury forest reserve. You will remember that Gov. Pillsbury 

 gave the state a thousand acres of cut-over land in Cass county 

 for forestry purposes, and the forestry board has begun the ad- 

 ministration of. that tract. We have a little annual appropriation 

 of one thousand dollars to pay the expenses of that department, 

 clerk hire, postage, etc., and out of that $1,000 we have started 

 a nursery of 'about one acre where we are cultivating spruce seed- 

 lings. The nursery is in first class shape, and we have about a 

 million young seedlings growing, and we want to plant those on 

 the Pillsbury reserve to raise spruce for pulp. We want to run 

 lines so we may know exactly where they are. Last April, by an 

 act of congress, 20,000 acres of forest land was set aside, which the 

 forestry board and the land commissioner selected in St. Louis 

 county. It lies in two townships and borders upon and includes 

 twenty-seven lakes. We ought to have a little money to carry out 

 a working plan aryi to permit the forestry board to make a thorough 

 investigation of the possibilities of this tract and to see that it is 

 properly administered. 



Then, as your president said in his address, there should be a 

 little appropriation to sustain this forestry association. Twenty 

 years ago the legislature very liberally appropriated $5,000 for the 

 State Forestry Association. Mr. Hodges, a very active man in 

 forestry interests, got this $5,000 appropriation because he had that 

 push and energy that gave him a great reputation. For some years 

 the legislature has not appropriated one cent for the forestry asso- 

 ciation. Then two years ago the legislature passed a bill authoriz- 

 ing the state forestry board to purchase k tract of land at a price 



