28 ANNUAL REPORT. 
PAPER OF HON. L. B. HODGES. 
Mr Hodges was called upon to read his paper, which*we Ss r 
lows : 
PLANTING TREES FOR SHADE AND ORNAMENT ON STREETS A’ 
ROADS—WHAT TREES TO PLANT, AND AND HOW TO Ply 
THEM. 
The foregoing is the heading of the accompanying article. The text was 
furnished by Prof. Lacy. I don’t know what book he got it out of; neither do I 
care. 
There ought to be a good many sermons preached on that text to all the peo- 
ple of Minnesota. Right here in Rochester it don’t seem so necessary. The 
people here have appreciated the importance and necessity of this work, and 
have taken hold of it in earnest. The changed appearance of this town-site, as 
between 1854 when I first camped on it and now, 1878, is due more to tree 
planting than any other one class of improvements. 
Great as has been the change in this immediate vicinity within so short a Lin, 
still greater changes have occurred in other localities. Villages and cities origi- 
nally built on the open prairie, without a tree or shrub in sight, whose streets and 
avenues were formerly raked fore and aft by the fierce blasts of winter, and 
scorched by the blazing suns of summer, have by the intervention of the tree 
planter, been converted into bowers of beauty, protected alike from furious wind 
and blazing sun. 
No investment of time and money is more satisfactory or more permanently 
useful than that employed in planting forest trees aleng the lines of our public 
highways. In a prairie country like ours, no investment adds so much to the 
beauty of the country or the ready cash value of the real estate so adorned. The 
prosecution of this good work appeals alike to the best judgment and most eculti- 
vated taste. 
Much has been done in this direction, but far more remains yet to be done. 
We have done just enough to thoroughly demonstrate the practical nature of the 
work, the thorough adaptability of our prairie soil to develop magnificent speci- 
mens of forest trees. 
In the tree planting returns for 1877, the number of rods planted to trees and 
hedges along the public highways of Minnesota is given as 265,633, equivalent 
to 642 miles and 192 rods. The returns are imperfect, incomplete. One thou- 
sand miles would be much nearer the mark. This is a good beginning, but only 
a beginning. 
Have any of you figured on the probable number of miles of public highway in 
the prairie portion of Minnesota? There are full five hundred prairie townships 
in what is known as the treeless region of Minnesota. Then there are at least 
half as many more prairie townships in other comparatively well timbered coun- 
ties, like Olmsted and Dodge. This rough estimate, which I think is below the 
actual figures, gives us 750 townships of prairie. Allowing thirty-six miles of 
public highway to each township gives us 27,000 miles. This must be doubled 
to give us a row each side the highway, making a total of not less that 54,000 
miles yet to be planted along the highways of the prairie regions of Minnesota; 
enough to reach twice around the globe and some four thousand miles to lap 
