96 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Col. Stevens: I do not think Minnesota is going to suffer for 

 want of water. Now, if you can grow forests that brings rain 

 fall; they retain the moisture in the ground. A year ago last 

 summer it was my pleasure to travel over a portion of the 

 prairies of Minnesota. Forty years ago I traveled over the 

 same prairie, and except on the banks of the Minnesota river 

 there was no timber. When I went over that country a year 

 ago I was surprised at the timber that was raised by the farm- 

 ers. Nearly every house had trees on the west side to protect 

 it. Mr. Smith during the last few years has been distributing 

 trees and evergreens all over the state and the result is very 

 encouraging. A friend of mine from west of the Big Woods 

 told me to-day that Mr. Smith's trees nearly all grew. That is 

 very encouraging. Our farmers must be educated to raise 

 forest trees It is just as much a nack to raise forest 

 trees as it is to raise apples. You plant a tree out on 

 the prairie it is going to die if you pay no attention to it. It is 

 useless to plant forest trees and expect them to grow without 

 cultivation. Keep the plow in motion and that will be sufficient 

 to make forest trees grow. I think we need have no fears for 

 Minnesota, but I have some doubts about Dakota, and unless 

 some plan is devised to avoid it, Dakota will go back to what it 

 was forty years ago. You may raise a good wheat crop with- 

 out rain, but you cannot grow forest trees without rain. 



E. H. S. Dartt: It is undoubtedly an unfortunate fact for us 

 that the country is growing dryer and dryer with time. In Wiscon- 

 sin it commenced to grow dry and it continued to grow dry as long 

 as I staid there. Now the gentleman says we may escape the 

 calamity in Minnesota, but Dakota is going to catch it. Now I 

 think we are catching it in Minnesota every year, and it is 

 those dry, hot winds that come in from the southwest that 

 wither our trees. 



M. Cutler: In the northeast we have our greatest extent of 

 water surface, and when our winds are in that direction they 

 are moist and damp usually, and from that direction we invaria- 

 bly get our snow storms, and from the opposite direction we 

 get our hot winds. Now, what injured friend Barrett's wheat 

 crop last year was not the winds from the north, from the pine 

 woods, but the winds from the southwest, from the desert 

 region. Now, the winds that did us the greatest damage last 

 summer were those hot, dry winds. 



Dr. Frisselle : It has been said that the cutting away of the 

 forests has caused our lakes and rivers to dry up. I wish to 



