40 ANNUAL REPORT 



of Marseilles. The same plants are destroyed every season 

 without such protection. It is not the cold of winter but it is in 

 the spring the harm is done. I mention that fact to show what 

 may be done by very slight protection. Again, we find that 

 heavy storms may be prevented, or the destruction arrested; 

 they may be stopped in their j)rogress, 



Last season while I was in Switzerland, at a time when the 

 crops were in fine condition there came these storms; all along 

 the different valleys, from south to north, in every direction; 

 about Lucern, and to the north of us that great grape region, 

 where the destruction amounted to millions of francs for that 

 season, and I suppose to two or three millions of dollars in fact. 

 It is proven by the fact now demonstrated that wherever vine- 

 yards were protected by trees of any extent, the storm took the 

 same direction as it did here, northeast, or easterly, and the 

 vineyards escaped; where not so protected the vineyards were 

 destroyed, or the crop for the season. 



There has been great alarm in the vicinity of St. Paul about 

 cyclones, as they are called; tornadoes, if you please; great alarm. 

 People around here and in other localities in Minnesota, rushing 

 into their cellars. Have you never heard of that before? 



Prof. Porter. Yes, sir; every time a cloud comes up. 



Col. Robertson. Every time. Now, as I was about to re- 

 mark, this is what I am interested in. I have investigated the 

 subject as far as possible for the last quarter of a century to 

 ascertain if ever a cyclone or tornado ever got over our big 

 woods; that's the point! 



Mr. T. M. Smith. We have had them at St. Paul. 



Col. Eobertson. No, sir; never one! 



Mr. Smith. I saw the time when the storm took down a hotel. 



Col. Eobertson. I saw that. But you don't know my nomen- 

 clature, but I remember the storm very well which was so se- 

 vere in Kittson's addition to St. Paul; I was here at the time in 

 1853. It was a building yet unfinished on the "balloon" style; 

 but it was no tornado, or cyclone. You mean one of those fun- 

 nel-shaped things that comes down with a spout to the ground. 

 I mean to maintain, sir, that you are entirely mistaken, that 

 there was no such storm as that. The name cyclone we borrow 

 from the Indian Ocean; the hurricane from the West India 

 Islands. And when they reach here the spout is lost, as it must 

 be in the big woods to get here. We have never seen a tornado 

 this side of them; they never get this side; I have the record of 



