204 ANNUAL REPORT 



land to live — unless we become interested in forestry and plant trees 

 to protect the people. We ought to have a thousand copies of thi«i 

 paper published immediately, and it ought to be distributed widely. 

 We must commence this work of national defense. The war of the 

 rebellion and all other wars possible cannot do the damage that this 

 work is now doing, in order to satisfy the avarice and greed of men, 

 and in consequence of their ignorance, at least many of them. I 

 want a hundred copies of this myself, and I will send them to scien- 

 tific men throughout Europe, and those who are interested in forestry 

 generally. 



Col. Stevens said he hoped the motion would be adopted, as the 

 paper was a valuable one. 



Mr. Harris moved to amend the motion by authorizing one thousand 

 extra copies of the paper to be published at the expense of the So- 

 ciety, not exceeding twenty-five dollars. The motion was carried. 



Mr. Thompson said he would order a hundred copies for distribu- 

 tion in Iowa. 



Col. Stevens. Mr. President, we have an honored member among us 

 in the person of Col. Robertson, who for many years has been travel- 

 ing in Europe for the purpose of gaining information in regard to 

 agricultural matters and everything pertaining to the benefit of man- 

 kind. He is our first president of this Society, and I should like very 

 much to hear from him as to his explorations in Europe. 



Col. Robertson. Mr. President, I will not take your time with any 

 remarks, but I may say here that I was requested by your Secretary to 

 prepare a paper upon climatology and other kindred topics. I re- 

 ceived his letter while traveling in Northern Europe, and was so oc- 

 cupied at the time that the matter was neglected. But the subject is 

 one of great interest to me, and it will afford me great pleasure to pre- 

 pare a short paper for publication on the topic of economic climatolo- 

 gy for Minnesota. 



