THE MULCH VS. CULTIVATION, 449 



are. By the plow and harrow scatter it about within the soil. These 

 manure nug-gets, so to speak, are absorbers and detainers of 

 moisture that comes up from below by capillation due to surface 

 culture, and is easily absorbed through the dust blanket from the 

 summer showers. 



DEFORESTATION AND ITS RESULTS, AS THE 

 FISHERMEN VIEW IT. 



FRANK H. CARLETON, MINNEAPOLIS. 



Twenty years ago Minnesota was a fisherman's paradise. Until 

 the destruction of its forests began, Minnesota was famous through- 

 out the country for its numberless lakes and streams of clear, cold 

 water, teeming with the gamiest and most edible of fish. The tem- 

 perature of its land and water was such as to promote the propaga- 

 tion, growth and development of the greatest abundance of solid 

 and deliciously flavored fish, so unlike the soft, flabby and tasteless 

 fish of regions south of us. A generation ago the great sj'^stem of 

 lakes, marshes, springs, rivers and giant forests which went to make 

 up and protect the sources of the great Mississippi had no parallel 

 in the United States east of the Rocky mountains; while the lesser 

 systems of the Minnnesota, the Red River of the North, and the St. 

 Croix and their tributary lakes and streams, were great sources of 

 water of which many nations would be protid and desirous to con- 

 serve. 



But with the destruction of the forests of Minnesota, the same re- 

 sults in the diminution of water supply have followed as in the older 

 countries of the world where forest destruction has gone on, and we 

 are but repeating history. The lakes and rivers have receded, the 

 springs have dried up, the rainfall has decreased, and the atmos- 

 phere has lost much of its humidity. That water shrinkage has 

 been exceedingly large is a fact known to every observer. Today 

 Minnesota is full of dried up lakes and streams. As we ride through 

 the country we see from the car windows grass growing in what a 

 few years ago were beds of large bodies of water, where fish were 

 once abundant. As I read these sentences, each of you can recall 

 lakes and streams which have seriously declined in depth and size 

 or have dried up all together. Stand on the beach of almost any 

 lake in Minnesota and cast your eyes shorewards, and you can eas- 

 ily see the shore line of a generation ago, when the water stood six, 

 eight or ten feet higher than it does today. But this is not all, for 

 from year to year we can see that the drying up process is still very 

 rapidly going on. Many of the lakes have become grass plots, and 

 many brooks have widened into broad expanses of sand or gravel, 

 over which in the summer season we pass dry shod. The interest- 

 ing address of Walter C. Brower, which has been published by the 

 Minnesota Forestry Association, describes in a most authenticated 

 manner the extent of water decrease in Minnesota and is worthy our 

 most careful consideration. 



As agriculturists you know how quickly an unprotected hill loses 

 its soil. The rain is not stored in the earth to feed perennial 



