158 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



There is an average of 170 clear days during the year while St. Paul has 

 hut 100. The average of clear and fair days is 300, while St. Paul has 292. 

 There art- more days when the sky is brilliant and the air clear, dry and 

 hracing, than there are in the southerly part of the state. 



The prevailing winds are westerly and are generally mild, but in the 

 forests there are well marked paths of destructive winds, which generally 

 blow in straight lines, some, however, were the whirling winds called cy- 

 clones. 



The geological formation of this region is drift overlaying archaean 

 rock. The lower stratum of the drift is a blue-grey clay, from a few 

 inches to many feet thick. Over this clay is a thick stratum of sand, 

 gravel, boulders and yellow clay in a confused mixture, which forms the 

 subsoil of this region. This is .covered by a loamy black soil, varying 

 from an almost imperceptible amount to a depth of a foot or more, being 

 thinnest on the sandy uplands and deepest on grass lands. 



The land surface of this region is divided into uplands and lowlands. 

 The uplands are rolling, broken and interrupted by the lowlands. They 

 are covered by forests, the character of which appears to be determined by 

 the subsoil. A subsoil of sand produces principally black pine. If it is of 

 sand, gravel and boulders Norway pine predominates, while white pine 

 nourishes on a clayey subsoil. These are conveniently designated as 

 black pine, Norway pine or white pine lands. They are not confined to 

 any part of this region, but the black pine lands are most abundant in 

 the southerly, Norway in the central and the white pine in the northerly 

 parts. Besides these lands there are limited tracts near the larger lakes 

 and rivers called hardwood points, that have a much richer and deeper 

 soil. 



Where the native forests are undisturbed on the pine lands, besides the 

 pine, there are a few scrubby oaks and clumps or thickets of poplars, and 

 an occasional white birch. On black and Norway pine lands there is a 

 meager undergrowth which becomes luxuriant on the white pine lands 

 and hardwood points. 



Where the native forests have been removed there springs up a dense 

 growth of oak, birch, linden, elm. poplar, hazel and young pine. But ap- 

 parently the young pine after a few years overtops the other growth and 

 shades it to death. 



Sugar maple, elm, linden, white and yellow birch, oak and iron-wood 

 grow on the hardwood points, rivaling the trees of the "big woods" about 

 Lake Minnetonka. 



. Ferns are everywhere prominent among the herbaceous growth, while 

 forage plants are scanty, except the wild pea, which is plentiful on white 

 pine lands and hardwood points, and makes a fodder that horses and 

 cattle relish. 



Flowering plants are many, varied and magnificent when in bloom. 



The lowlands are divided into swamps and grass lands. There are tam- 

 arack, cedar, spruce and peat swamps; the most being tamarack, which 

 increase in number and extent from the southeasterly towards the north- 

 easterly part of this region. 



The grass lands are the beds of former lakes, and the borders of receding 

 lakes, and savannas near rivers. The soil on these is usually deep and 



