ANNUAL WINTER MEETING. 67 



procured, and as the Farmers Institute seemed to be the best 

 possible medium by which to get it to the farmers and bring 

 this question of forestry before them, they voted that I should 

 have this manual published in St. Paul, as cheaply aspossible* 

 and then attend the farmers institutes, fairs, conventions and 

 places of that kind, wherever the question of forestry could be 

 brought to the attention of the people, but provided always, 

 as the bill provided, that as long as the supply of these books 

 ]asted they should be freely distributed to everybody in the 

 state who wanted a copy. I immediately set about that work, 

 and to the best of my knowledge and the best knowledge of 

 those with whom I could correspond I prepared a manual, and 

 I am sorry it did not meet the approval of Brother Harris, as 

 it did meet the approval of the editors of agricultural papers 

 and tree planters throughout the country, very little criticism 

 being made in regard to the book. In every way that I possi- 

 bly could, by pen and word of mouth, I tried to stimulate an 

 interest in this matter, and I succeeded as well as expected. I 

 arranged with Mr. Gregg to give at least one lecture at each 

 Farmers Institute on the subject of forestry. To you who at- 

 tended the farmers institutes where I gave that lecture and ex- 

 hibited the chart in regard to the arrangement of trees around 

 the homestead I need not say that it was well received. In ad- 

 dition to that I prepared a pamphlet on forestry, of which I 

 had ten thousand copies printed. I also had circulars sent out 

 over the state regarding the planting of evergreens, as the ex 

 ecutive committee instructed me to use about two hundred 

 dollars of that money for the distribution of evergreens ; that 

 plan was generally approved, although there was some very 

 severe criticism, but on my own responsibility, believing it 

 would meet the approval of the president of the association, I 

 distributed some three thousand. The entire first edition 

 being exhausted, I secured the printing of five thousand 

 more. Now I got that printing done so cheaply that the 

 entire ten thousand cost only a little more than Jhalf as much 

 as the first five thousand. What that book is, whether it 

 contains the information our people in the state would like, 

 I will not say anything about, but the book is here and will 

 speak for itself. 



Now, so much as regards the forestry question. During 

 this time I have done the very best I could possibly do. Every 

 voucher, every amount of money expended has been thorough- 

 ly looked over by Governor Marshall and Auditor Braden 



