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ANNUAL REPORT 



repeal the timber culture act and do nothing more, I should de- 

 plore it. We do not intrench upon that law; but we simply want 

 to extend the movement of forestry on a more extensive scale, to 

 cover the country at large. Let us plant ourselves squarely upon 

 a position, and let us determine that we shall accomplish some- 

 thing in the grand march of expansion and advancement. 



President Elliott. Now, Mr. Dartt, I have been keeping track 

 of this forestry question for a year or two, and there is a wide 

 spread feeling throughout our country in regard to this same ques- 

 tion of forestry. People are beginning to believe that our present 

 supply of timber is not inexhaustible; they know that in a few 

 years we shall be without timber, unless something is done to stop 

 this devastation by fire and this cutting down of everything. We 

 have come down to something that will bring back those broad 

 acres into forests again. The question is, how are we going to do 

 it? We must do it by agitation. It is not going to be done by 

 this society, nor by any other society; it is to be done by every one 

 lifting a light breeze when he can. We can write to our congress- 

 men and representatives and tell them our wishes, and in that way 

 we will have some influence on their vote. If there is any one 

 state in this union that has need of forestry protection it is Min- 

 nesota. I haven't at my finger's end the figures in regard to the 

 number of acres that are burned over of our fine country every 

 year, but it is something immense, and that is one cause of our 

 loss of timber. Fire runs through it, and unless it is cut the same 

 year or the next year, it is useless; and it is only this kind of agi- 

 tation that is going to bring people to their senses. We have quite 

 a number men in congress that are interested in this direction. It 

 is by educating the people that we must do a large proportion of 

 this work, and we have to get at it in an economic way. The Van- 

 derbilts are putting out a large tract of country in Georgia or South 

 Carolina, and Robert Douglas has the contract for planting two 

 thousand acres of evergreen trees there, in the next two years. 

 And so the thing is only beginning, and if we can do anything to 

 help this work along it is our duty to do it. 



Mr. Dartt. I move that the clause be stricken out. 



The resolutions brought in by the Forestry Committee were 

 then voted upon and adopted. 



The discussion on grapes was then resumed. 



Mr. Latham. I was at Mr. Robertson's place when his grapes 

 were ripe, and tried the fruit. I made a collection over there 

 which went into my special collection at the State Fair. They 

 have one variety, I think the Poughkeepsie Red, that is a cross 



