398 ANNUAL EEPOKT 



That when, as in a hot spring, the radiation, or better exhala- 

 tion, is not equal to the absorption, there being more ascending- 

 gap than the distributive channels can utilize, a gorging gas fer- 

 ments in the cells, and decay follows. 



That when a plant is so molecularly constituted as to be imper- 

 vious to the undue action of calorific waves, their motion being- 

 intercepted, as though it were clothed with a heat-proof coating, 

 like that of asbestos, it is reliable and entitled to the rank of 

 "ironclad." 



Whether these views be deemed correct or not, we are agreed 

 in one thing — at horticultural success hinges largely upon 

 temperamental uniformity. The extremes of heat and cold do 

 not necessarily depend upon latitude or altitude. The maxi- 

 mum and mimimum of temperature is greatest where the air is 

 driest. In the far southern plains of India, in Australia, in 

 Cf^ntral Asia, or wherever drought reigns supreme, there is the 

 intense action of heat and intense reaction of cold. In the 

 Sahara of the torrid zone, the temperature rapidly runs down to 

 freezing when the solar rays cease to infringe upon the burning 

 sands. Where there is little or no vapor overhead to check the 

 calorific drain, these extremes obtain. Being dry, our prairie 

 climate is subject to them; hence the battle we have to fight. 

 There seem to be two ways out of our difficulty — either to con- 

 tinue our long yet hopeful experimentation, acclimatizing a 

 special class of plants, or else undertake the herculean task of 

 changing our climate from a dry condition to one of a more uni- 

 form humidity, thus fitting it for the introduction and growth of 

 a greater variety of plants, including cherries and pears, and 

 perhaps peaches. 



So long as we have to pet our plants and put dresses on them, 

 while out in the cold, success is precarious and profits thin. In 

 the long ago, when we were school folks in New England, or 

 somewhere near the sea coast, noboby had to fret and stew as we 

 do to make a tree live. It would grow in spite of us. We did 

 not have to blanket the raspberries, and blackberries, and straw- 

 berries. They laughed at our neglect and proffered luscious 

 fruits unearned. If we could have such a climate restored, with 

 such a soil as ours and knowledge of plant treatment, would we 

 not have in our adopted country a very paradise! But, you say, 

 we are working in that direction; true, but at a ^'poor, dying 

 rate." While we are building up, forest vandals are tearing 

 down. The "big woods" of Minnesota that have exerted a 



