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FORESTRY. 187 
ing associations, in whichevery landholder who chooses, may become a 
stockholder and obtain the necessary funds for forest planting, to be done 
under such conditions as may be agreed upon between him and the tech- 
nical advisers of the bank, so as to secure the result sought. 
In addition, establish nurseries from which seedlings may be secured at 
lowest rates, in large quantities, of such kinds as are best adapted for 
such wholesale use, and as far as possible have the planting done under 
expert advice. The money to be loaned at lowest per cent. of interest 
and to form a lien upon the plantation until ready for the axe. 
Such a plan may sound chimerical to you, and perhaps the time has not 
yet come when it is practicable. Yet I can imagiue that it would be 
quite feasible to inaugurate some such movement in some of the better 
settled portions of your state, especially if it were possible to engage the 
interest of the state government and the state credit in such a work of 
internal improvement. 
In conclusion, I cannot let the opportunity pass of directing your at- 
tention to another part of your state where another phase of the forestry 
problem awaits solution. 
While we are discussing here the re-foresting of the plains at great ex- 
pense, in the northeastern parts of your state you allow the irrational de- 
vastation of natural forests, by which thousandsand millions of acres are 
turned into barren brush and waste lands. 
As long, therefore, as the association does not see its way clear to in- 
augurate a re-foresting plan, it would be well to support a plan by which 
to prevent deforesting where it can do no good, but infinite harm. I 
therefore make a plea for the Minnesota National Park for which your 
association should use its best efforts immediately. 
CLIMATIC INFLUENCES OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS UPON 
THE AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS OF MINNESOTA 
AND DAKOTA. 
BY EDWARD L. BERTHOUD, C. E. 
Your question for discussion as to “‘The Climatic Influence of the Rocky 
Mountains on the Agricultural Products of Minnesota and Dakota,” is a 
very complex problem. It requires the collection of a numerous mass of 
facts obtained by observation: and generalization of the effects of all, 
which makes a very compiex equation, so to speak. Some of these can, 
however, be stated as forming part of the equation to be solved. 
First—The presence, for the major part of the year, of vast snow fields 
on the Rocky Mountains, and its numerous branches or offshoots. 
Second—The effect on temperature and air currents by the melting of 
these snow fields, and the drainage to the east and northeast of vast 
bodies of water of low temperature through the treeless plains, extending 
from the mountains to the Missouri River, and the Red River Valley. 
Third—The effect on vegetation of prevailing westerly winds deprived 
of their humidity. 
Fourth—The influence of the excessive radiation of heat at night on 
vast surfaces under a cloudless sky, at altitudes varying from 6,500 to 
