24 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL ADDRESS, MINNESOTA 

 STATE FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



C. M. CORING, PRESIDENT. 



Gentlemen of the State Forestry Association: — 



It is little more than forty years since Minnesota was admit- 

 ted to the sisterhood of states, and then the population was less 

 than that of the city now clustered around its largest waterfall. 

 The inheritance which came to this people was one so rich that 

 its value could hardly be appreciated. In area it was larger than 

 that of the six New England states, and equal to that of England 

 and Scotland combined, embracing fertile prairies, grand rivers, 

 beautiful clear water lakes surrounded with groves of hardwood 

 timber, and at the head of the waters of the great river which 

 extends to the ocean, and along its tributaries, forests of pine and 

 other valuable timber which seemed so vast as to be inexhaust- 

 ible. The value of these rich possessions soon attracted to the 

 state emigrants from various sections of our own and other coun- 

 tries, and along with the development of our agricultural and man- 

 ufacturing resources, as is usual in all countries, the destruction 

 of the grand forests began in the most reckless and profligate man- 

 ner, continuing until the present day ; and now, in alarm at the 

 inevitable result of this wanton destruction, thoughtful citizens are 

 striving for ways and means to avert the disaster which has be- 

 fallen other peoples through the same source. Citizens of other 

 countries and other states have witnessed their streams run dry, 

 lands that were once fertile become arid plains through floods at 

 one season and lack of moisture at others, and efforts which have 

 met with a very small degree of success made to reforest the de- 

 nuded territory. Is it not better for us to preserve and econom- 

 ically use what little timber we have left than to wait until it is all 

 gone and then endeavor to grow more? 



Our national and state governments have permitted the destruc- 

 tion of our valuable forests to go on, notwithstanding the knowl- 

 edge of the experience of older countries and older states, and the 

 necessity for their preservation for the protection of our agricul- 

 tural interests, the foundation of every nation's prosperity. 



Prof. Cleveland, in his work on Forest Planting, quotes the fol- 

 lowing from Marsh's "Morn and Nature;" "Sir John Herschel 

 enumerates among the influences unfavorable to rain, absence of 

 vegetation, especially- of trees, saying : 'This is no doubt one of 

 the reasons for the extreme aridity of Spain. The hatred of a 

 Spaniard toward a tree is proverbial. Many districts of France 



