232 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. Elliot: While we are all interested in horticulture, there 

 is one thing that almost every horticulturist produces, and that 

 is potatoes. We would like to know the best package to ship 

 potatoes in. 



Mr. McLean: The most desirable package is sacks. They 

 must be sacked somewhere, and it might as well be done where 

 they are dug as anywhere else. 



Mr. Elliot: The reason I asked the question, in going out 

 into the country I saw farmers putting them in sacks. 



Mr. Brackett: Is there a marked difference in the price of 

 very early blackberries compared with those that come in later? 



Mr. Palmer: The earlier berries bring considerably more 

 than those that come in later. 



A MODEL FORESTRY COMMISSION. 



By the official initiative of the Secretar}'- of the Interior, the Hon- 

 orable Hoke Smith, a national investigation has just been set on 

 foot, which, by the sheer force of its authoritativeness, must compel 

 legislative attention. By the constitution of the National Academy 

 of Science, it becomes the duty of this body to undertake the inves- 

 tigation of any scientific problem upon the request of the head of a 

 department of the government, and such a request for the study of 

 the subject of forestry Secretary Smith has made of the presidentof 

 the academy, Professor Wolcott Gibbs, who has responded in a 

 spirit commensvirate with the importance of the secretary's wise 

 and patriotic action. In his acceptance of the task President Gibbs 

 says: 



It is needless to remind you that the matter you refer to the Acad- 

 emy is important and difficult. No subject upon which the Acad- 

 emy has been asked before by the government for advice compares 

 with it in scope, and it is the opinion of thoughtful men that no 

 other economic problem confronting the government of the United 

 States equals in importance that offered by the present condition 

 and future fate of the forests of western North America. 



The forests in the public domain extend through 18 degrees of 

 longitude and 20 degrees of latitude; the}'^ varj' in density, composi- 

 tion and sj'lvicultural condition from the most prolific in the world, 

 outside the tropics, to the most meager. In some parts of the coun- 

 try they are valuable as sources of timber supply which can be luade 

 permanent; in others, while producing no timber of importance, 

 they are not less valuable for their influence upon the supply of 

 water available for the inhabitants of regions dependent on irriga- 

 tion for their means of subsistence. The character of the topogra- 

 phy and the climate of most of the region now embraced in the 

 public domain increase the difficult}^ of the problem. Scanty and 

 unequally distributed rainfall checks the growth of forests, while 

 high mountain ranges make them essential to regulate the flow of 

 mountain streams. 



You have done the Academy the honor of asking it to recommend 

 a plan for the general treatment of the forest covered portions of 

 the public domain. That its report may be valuable as a basis for 

 future legislation, it must consider: 



