“MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 47 
On motion of st Dartt, President Smith was allowed $3. 00 for 
ostage. 
_ Adjourned to seven o'clock. 
THURSDAY EVENING. 
The Society assembled shortly after 7 o’clock, in the hall of the 
House of Representatives, President Smith in the chair. 
The committee on constitution and by-laws was re-appointed, and 
ordered to report at the next annual meeting. 
NOTES ON THE BIG WOODS.—BY N. H. WINCHELI..—READ BY PROF. LACY. 
“The Big Woods” of Minnesota consist of a southward spur from 
the forest-covered portion of the State, covering a strip about forty- 
five miles wide in the centre of the State, and reaching nearly to the 
Iowa State line. By this spur the prairies of the State, at least 
those in the southern part, are divided into two parts, the greater of 
which lies on the west of the Big Woods. The great material ad- 
vantage the farmers of Minnesota occupying the prairies, have over 
those who in other States are much further removed from timber, is 
easily seen, while others who prefer timbered land to prairie, have 
the choice of thousands of acres yet unoccupied in the region of the 
Big Woods. The boundary of this southern prolongation of the 
northern timber is not well marked, the trees gradually becoming 
thinner and smaller, and more and more restricted to the valleys of 
streams, till the country is changed to a treeless prairie. Around 
the outskirts of the woods small oaks and aspens constitute almost 
the only arboreal vegetation, but within the woods a great variety of 
hardy deciduous trees are found, mingled with the usual species of 
shrubby vegetation. ‘The general surface is much more rolling than 
in the prairie region on the east or west, and the soil seems to be 
coarser, with more frequent boulders. Yet there are also extensive 
flat tracts in the Big Woods, that are as level as any prairie region. 
In general, the Big Woods may be thus bounded: Beginning a 
few miles west of Minneapolis the eastern edge of the Big Woods 
crosses the Minnesota in a line toward Lakeville in Dakota county. 
Continuing in a southerly direction, it passes about a mile east of 
Cannon City, and of Owatonna, when it takes a short bend to the 
west and northwest, passing about four miles north of Waseca, and 
near Kast Janesville, in Waseca county. In Blue Earth county it is 
variously modified by the valleys that are tributary to the Minnesota 
from the south. Continuing west, about six miles south of South 
Bend, it turns north and crosses the Minnesota, sending out a spur 
northwestward which follows indefinitely the Minnesota valley. 
Running along the west side of the Minnesota, distant from it about 
four miles, it begins to bear off toward the northwest at St. Peter, 
and passes five miles west of Henderson. Between Arlington and 
