80 ANNUAL REPORT. 



wealth he has developed, and he cau no more prevent them from 

 the enjoyment thereof than from the benefit of sunlight or rain- 

 fall, which are the common wealth of all God's creatures. Hence 

 I take the ground that it is not only eminently proper, but that it 

 is the duty of the state, in every suitable way to aid bj appropri- 

 ate legislation in the development or erection of this sort of com- 

 mon wealth. * * * And if I succeed in stirring up the whole 

 legislative menagerie to a realizing sense of their duty in this 

 behalf, T shall feel that I have not lived in vain." He also said at 

 a horticultural meeting at Rochester, in 1878 : " The highly 

 refined, fastidious and aristocratic element of our large towns and 

 cities, unite in [despising their noble tree, the cottonwood. But 

 Avho cares? It has its own merits, merits that will cause it to be 

 propagated, cherished, nourished and protected by willing hands 

 and loving hearts, until the great interior treeless region of the 

 North American continent shall have been reclaimed and become 

 one of the traditions of the past. When the marble monuments 

 vainly erected to perpetuate the memory of the names of its tra- 

 ducers shall have crumbled into dust ; when even the State Horti- 

 cultural Society has ceased to exist, even then will this 

 monumental tree shed its blessings and its cotton alike upon the 

 just and the unjust. I propose to stand by the cottonwood. 

 Whether planted on a sandbank or a river bottom, in the door 

 yard or in a desert, on the prairie or in the timber, the result is a 

 great, sturdy, healthy forest tree. It is a success, and that's why 

 people plant it. It don't fool away years of precious time getting 

 ready to do something, but is up and coming from the word go. It 

 is emphatically a pioneer tree. This and the white willow will do 

 more to prepare the way for the cultivation of fruit trees than any 

 other agencies I can think of." 



We measured a cottonwood last month, planted by R. L. Cot- 

 terell, of our county, some twenty years ago, that measured nine 

 feet and two inches in circumference. And a tree standing near 

 the Zumbro Falls mill, in the wrecked district, measured fifteen feet 

 and four inches round. Since the tornado passed over this place 

 we have appreciated this and the white willow as never before. 

 We look upon the seeds of the cottonwood as so many harbingers 

 of mercy wafted on pure snowy wings to a needy people. 



In speaking of blizzards, simoons, and like winds, Mr. Hodges 

 says : " These elemental forces are undoubtedly rll right and play 

 an important part in the economy of nature. We have only to 

 guard against them when on the rampage, and in doing this, for- 

 estry is the prime factor, the central figure in the whole business." 



