STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 75 



We are so far from the Pacific that if we get a breeze from it 

 iu winter it is liable to come by the northern route and have 

 every particle of warmth and moisture frozen out of it. So if a 

 breeze comes from the Gulf those Xorthern Iowa fellows need all 

 the warmth and moisture and it reaches us deficient in those 

 elements. The great lakes are on the wrong side of us, for we 

 seldom if ever get winds from that direction. So our climate 

 must be to a great extent just what latitude, altitude and our 

 immediate surroundings make it. 



Wind is the great equalizer and preserver of temperature. 

 It sweeps the warm air in contact with the earth continually 

 along the surface, not allowing it to rise up and have its place 

 filled by cold air from above, as it would do in case of a calm in 

 the absence of sunshine. In this way those places deprived of 

 Tthe direct rays of the sun by clouds or otherwise are made warm- 

 er and overheated places are made cooler, and who will say that 

 wind does not generate heat by the frictiou of the i^articles of 

 matter of which it is composed either among themselves or by 

 being forced against obstacles? Does not the mercury ahcai/s 

 touch its lowest j)oint in the absence of wind. We know that a 

 suffocating heat is present in the cyclone. Is this caused by 

 the great velocity of the wind or is it an incipient state of 

 electricity which produces heat and an immense power without 

 producing the electric spark? Who will analyze the cyclone and 

 define its constituent elements ? 



To judge of the value of wind to the fruit grower we must con- 

 sider tl^e source from whence it comes. If it has passed ov^er a 

 long stretch of high level prairie it will be far less beneficial 

 than if it has passed over an equal extent of low-lying country 

 abounding iu streams, lakes and forests. If our Mississippi Valley 

 extended from southwest to northeast so that prevailing winds 

 would sweep it lengthwise it would be better adapted to fruit 

 growing than it now is. Lake Miunetonka alone is not suflQcient 

 to give to that region its notoriety as a fruit-growing section. It 

 has the additional benefit of winds from the valley of the Min- 

 nesota from Mankato down, and to the west there are moderately 

 elevated timbered lands with numerous lakes and not very far 

 off the valley of the Minnesota again. Now, suppose we could 

 elevate Miunetonka four or five hundred feet, bringing it up to 

 the level of our central, southern and western high prairies, 

 let the Minnesota Eiver be dried up, fill up the valley and re- 

 move the forests so that there would be a broad sweep of high 



