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180 MINNESOYVA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Senator Dawes of Massachusetts, and he drew a picture of the 
condition of the forests of the famous Berkshire Hills, and 
said that the rivers were drying up and agriculture was suffer- 
ing in consequence; but he said that lately an influence to pre- 
serve those forests had been started, and interest evoked, and 
they are re-clothing those mountains, though only to a small 
degree; he said that already they are reaping benefits from 
that course. 
Mr. Wilcox:—There is just one thing more that I think 
should go down upon our records. While the beneficial infiu- 
ence of large bodies of water, as mentioned by our friend Har- 
ris, is well recognized and its modifications of the climatic 
conditions on the eastern and southern shores of our great 
lakes enable those situations to become prominent as fruit pro- 
ducing regions, the opponents of this park system declare that 
there is no well established data to show that large forest areas 
serve to modify climatic conditions in a similar way. Well, 
there are many of us who believe the statement to be true, 
which was made by an eminent professor, that the leaves 
of an oak tree, that is large enough to have two hundred 
thousand square feet of leaf surface, on a sunshiny day 
will evaporate fifty barrels of water. This is a field in which 
there has not been enough scientific investigation carried on, 
but we all know that trees evaporate large quantities of 
water through their leaves, and that as far as the root surface 
extends we find the moisture of the soil almost entirely 
absorbed. Now, if it is a fact that the leaves of trees throw 
off a great quantity of moisture, that moisture certainly goes 
into the air; and it is my belief that a forest, through its 
leaves, gives far more moisture to the air than the same area 
covered with water would furnish. 
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