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practical operations of agriculture, and recommeudiug an immediate 

 connection and correspondence between the Department and these in- 

 stitutions, on all subjects pertaining to experiments in the science and 

 practice of agriculture, and pointing out some jjoints of the basis upon 

 which they should be made to stand. This was all a committee, com- 

 posed of so many members, could do, and this action was unanimously 

 adopted by tlie convention. All else, the work of the convention, had 

 its origin in resolutions proposed by its individual members, which were 

 as various as the different projects which were calculated to affect agri- 

 cultural interests. The disposition of the public lands, how they should 

 be best appropriated to promote the success of the colleges and of edu- 

 cation generally, was discussed in all its i^hases; the threatened de- 

 struction of forests, how they might be preserved and increased, claimed 

 the attention of the convention as a subject of important interest, and 

 tbe action of Congress was strongly invoked to pass such lavrs as would 

 induce purchasers and ovvuers of pwblic lands to protect the timber yet 

 in forest, and plant upon the prairies, where now there is no timber. 



The wiiole doings of the convention made the impression that the con- 

 ference had been a profitable one ; that it had linked the Department 

 with the agricultural institutions of the country; that each might profit 

 by the aid of the other, and that both would act in harmony to promote 

 the common good. 



FORESTS AND THE PUBLIC LANDS. 



The following views on the conservation of forests of the public lands, 

 and on the proper basis of land-grants for educational purposes, are 

 those personally entertained and presented by the Commissioner of 

 Agriculture : 



The public lands and the disposition which shall be made of them by 

 the Government of the United States is a subject of such magnitude 

 and importance, and so nearly allied to those agricultural interests of 

 the country which this Department has in charge, that the duty devolves 

 upon me to observe and carefully scan any movement with regard to 

 them which has a tendency to disturb or promote the ultimate progress 

 and improvement in the cultivation of the soil. 



The destruction of the forests of the country, which is now going on 

 with so fearful rapidity, should arrest the attention of Congress long 

 enough to institute the inquiry, What can be done to prevent so great a 

 calamity as that which now threatens us ? — the want of a sufficient 

 quantity of timber to meet the actual necessities of life, and, what is of 

 equal imj)ortance, the climatic influence which will be occasioned by de- 

 nuding the earth of its timber, and plants of the shelter and protection 

 which it affords. It is not my purpose to stop here and inquire into the 

 philosophj' of the causes of water-fall ; nor how the electrical rain-bearing 

 clouds are dissipated before their watery elements can reach the earth. 

 These are points which I prefer to leave to scientists, and which, happily, 

 I think, they have not overlooked, but, on the contrary, have brought 

 much learning to bear upon them, which may ripen into conclusions 

 which will be received as practical truths. It is enough for us now to 

 know the palpable facts that our springs of water, and the streams 

 that issue from them, are greatly diminishing in volume ; that our wells 

 have not tiie depth of water they formerly had ; th^t our crops suffer 

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