STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 413 



to the American PomologTcal Society, the American Association 

 forthe Advancement of Science, and the American Association of 

 Nurserymen, Seedsmen, and Florists. Let us have a law on the 

 subject — and vote any man a bore who violates it. G 



THE CAUSE AND PREVENTION OF DEVASTA- 

 TING FLOODS. 



There can be but little doubt but the yearly increasing floods in 

 the Ohio river are rendered more frequent and severe from the fact 

 that all its main branches have been, to a great extent, stripped of 

 the forests through which they formerly flowed. The Alleghany 

 the Kanawhas, the Big Sandy, all these have had their forests 

 stripped away and the soil can no longer retain the rain and water 

 formed by the dissolving snow, and the immense amount of water 

 falling upon this great area of country slides down the steep hill 

 sides and into the river channels at once. As the tributaries meet 

 and join each other the task to hold and bear them onward is more 

 than the Ohio can bear and its banks are overflowed, and wide 

 spread damage and disaster must follow. It is a well understood 

 fact that forests protect the country adjacent to them from de- 

 structive floods, and also from severe droughs. In Europe this is 

 so well understood that for many years past the governments of 

 Germany, Austria, and Italy have been spending immense sums of 

 money in planting millions of trees on waste lands on the head 

 waters of the rivers, and are restricting by severe means the de- 

 struction of the remaining forests. The time has fully come when 

 something of the kind should be done in the United States. — John 

 N. MuRDOCK, in Wabasha Herald, February 24. 



FRUIT TREES IN LYON COUNTY. 



In the last ten years I have set upwards of 300 apple trees in 

 Lyon county, and not one has died from climatic causes. 



Marshall, Sept. 17, 1883. J. W. BLAKE. 



