STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 153 



material wants? lu the horticulture of Minnesota, where man's most 

 vigilant care and greatest skill is taxed to the utmost to counteract 

 the perpetual war of a remorseless climate, I can conceive of no tree or 

 class of trees so admirably adapted to meet the wants of our horti- 

 -culturists and farmers as our coniferous trees. 



There is a grandeur about an evergreen imparted by no other tree. 

 All people of keen perceptions admire them, whether in clumps or 

 single specimens, planted to adorn the humble cottage of the villager 

 with his one small lot, or the palatial residence and extensive grounds 

 of his more pretentious suburban neighbor, or planted in any shajje 

 upon the ample and capacious farms. I repeat, there is a beauty and 

 a grandeur about them which fills the heart of every appreciative 

 person with delight. As windbreaks in this climate they should be 

 regarded as indispensible to the comfort of man and beast; of their 

 benefit to orchards and their influence on fruit trees there can be no 

 doubt, while used as a protection from the severe winds. But it is 

 not only as windbreaks that they are valuable. In this climate remote 

 from water, even though we find hardy varieties of apples which, so 

 far as growth is concerned, seem capable of resisting the extremes of 

 our climate, still they produce but little fruit, owing to the fact that 

 their fruit buds kill or their vitality is so impaired that they produce 

 but little or no fruit. 



Evergreens, when planted around and among apple trees, are said 

 by one of our best authorities to continually give off an exodium of 

 warmth and moisture that reaches the distance of its area in height. 

 Such being the fact, if evergreens are planted around and among our 

 fruit trees a double purpose will be filled, and the evergreens, so util- 

 ized by the farmer or fruit grower, will thus be made not only a pro- 

 tection but an imparter of life force, whose power will gladden the 

 heart of each and everyone who lives within its influence. Men 

 thrive only on diluted oxygen, purified to a certain extent from the 

 carbonic acid which animals and fires are constantly throwing into it. 

 Collective man enhances the impurity Is there a remedy? There is, 

 and one entirely under the control of man. It is the absorption of 

 carbon out of the air by increased forest areas, especially of pines, 

 balsam and spruce, red and white cedar. As the commercial world 

 utilizes electricity to do its will, so should the State see that a suffi- 

 cient number of nature's silent but obedient agents, in the shape of 

 evergreen trees and forests, are raised up to aid in purifying the air 

 and otherwise contribute toward the amelioration of our rigorous 

 climate 



