78 • ANNUAL REPORT. 



the land north to the city limits is owned by non-residents who ex- 

 cuse themselves from planting trees on the ground that tenants will 

 not properly care for them. We would say in justice to these 

 land owners that had they realized the necessity of planting trees 

 as a means of protection to life and property, we believe it would 

 have been promptly and cheerfully done. Non-residents owning 

 large tracts of land destitute of trees, exert an influence on these 

 tornadoes not fully appreciated. Were a man to give me my 

 choice, either to have a 1000 acre tract of land destitute of trees, 

 located southwest of my house and close to it, or allow him to set 

 up a powder magazine near it, I think I should choose the latter. 

 From the aforesaid tract to the worst part of the devastated dis- 

 trict, trees were few and far between. Let the History of Winona 

 and Olmstead County give the natural result of such neglect : 



"On the afternoon of August 21, 1883, the citizens of Rochester 

 and vicinity, observed a peculiar condition of the atmosphere. 

 The air was murky and oppressive. The heavens were overcast 

 by clouds of a dull leaden hue, and apparently there were three 

 strata, but moving in different directions. About three or four 

 o'clock the clouds began to concentrate immediately west of the 

 city, a slight shower of rain passed over, and for a few moments 

 succeeding, the air was still as a tomb. Soon light, fleecy clouds 

 were seen scudding athwart the sky at lightning speed, the great 

 dark mass in the west assumed a greenish cast, the heavens blazed 

 with pale yellow lightning, and soon a roar was heard that caused 

 stern faces to blanch and brave hearts to throb with terror. In a mo- 

 ment the storm was upon us. With a roar like ten thousand demons, 

 it swept down upon the beautiful city. Like a great coiling serpent, 

 darting out a thousand tongues of lightning, with a hiss like the 

 seething roaring Niagara, it wrapped the city in its hideous coils. The 

 crashing of buildings and the despairing shrieks of men, women 

 and children were drowned in its terrible roar. An hour later, the 

 pale moonbeams fell upon two hundred ruined homes, two score of 

 dead, ghastly faces, and the stillness of night was broken by the 

 moans of the wounded and dying. What tongue or pen can half 

 describe this terrible scene of desolation and deaths." 



Nature's laws are inexorable, unyielding, and to defy them, or 

 run counter to such laws, shows a weakness, an obstinacy that is 

 open to the highest censure. 



The inhabitants of Pompeii who were flourishing in all their 

 glory at the commencement of the Christian era, with a city 

 of 35,000 inhabitants at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, with villas all 



