/ . . 7 i Pt 
a ANNUAL REPORT. 
of the Big Woods, they extend, en masse, only to about the center of 
Blue Earth county, the area of continuous timber is extended con- 
siderably further south through the agency of the valleys of the Blue 
Earth, the Cobb, and the Maple rivers,—tributaries of the Minnesota 
that run nor thward from the watershed that lies along the southern 
State boundary line. Consequently there is more than the usual 
-amount of timber, for prairie lands in Faribault and Freeborn coun- 
‘ties. In those counties, as the suppression of the prairie fires is ren- 
«dered more complete by the forming of the soil, the scattering shrubs 
of oak and the aspens, that are avant couriers of encroaching forests, 
bring on more and more the character and aspect of a wooded coun- 
try. Other species then gradually venture out from the sheltered 
valleys, and flourish on the open tracts. It is in some of these more 
southerly spurs from the main body of the Big Woods that the shag- 
‘bark hickory (Carya alba., Nutt.) sometimes appears. 
The existence of this great spur of timber, shooting so far south 
‘from the boundary line separating the southern prairies from the 
morthern forests, and its successful resistance against the fires that 
‘formerly must have raged annually on both sides, is a phenomenon 
in the natural history of the State that challenges the scrutiny of all 
observers. While it holds mines of wealth, open to the practical 
economist, it affords to the scientist a rich field for observation and 
study. With timber, comes the fauna that is peculiar, in our lati- 
tude, to timbered regions. This fauna is strikingly different from 
that of the prairies. The bear, the wolf, deer, a great number of 
forest warblers, and numberless winged insects, that would other- 
wise be restricted to the northern half of Minnesota, are by this 
spur of timber brought into a much more southern latitude. The 
deer at present roams over the whole of this tract from north to 
south. It furnishes shelter for thousands of birds that winter among 
us, but which otherwise would become exterminated, or driven from 
the State. It has also its climatic effect, and its sanitary influence. 
It is eminently a region of small lakes. What may be the cause 
underlying. that has wrought this wonderful diversity in the heart 
of our great State is a subject for legitimate investigation, but the 
limits of this paper do not permit me to enter on that. It is only 
possible here to give a few notes, and to call attention to some of 
the salient points. That this tr act is destined to be one ef untold 
benefit to the State cannot be questioned. It is as yet but sparsely 
inhabited, and the details of its natural history are unknown. 
The following have been noticed by Mr. L. M. Ford: Two varie- 
ties of the wild gooseberry (Clematis Virginiana,) a well known 
climber, blooming in August; the Dutchman’s pipe, (Arestolochia 
sypho,) another climber ; one variety of the honeysuckle, (Lonicera ;) 
the leather wood, (Dirca palustris,) a dwarf sort of thorn, heavily 
laden with fruit in autumn, probably Crataegus coccinea, and near 
Minneapolis the trailing juniper, (Juniperus prostrata.) 
TREE CULTURE IN NOBLES COUNTY. 
ADVANCE OFFICE, WORTHINGTON, Minn., Jan. 16, 1875. 
LL. M. Ford, Secretary Horticultural Society: 
Your letter asking information concerning tree culture in Nobles county, 
