STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 233^ 



as a shorter process, insuring more certain and happy results^ 

 cross and hybridize our finest kinds lor still greater excellence." 



" Plant the best seeds of every good fruit. 

 Good fruit to raise, some lands to suit; 

 Fi'uits which shall live their bounties to shed 

 On millions of souls when you shall be dead. 

 These are creatures that do the Avorld good. 

 Treasures and pleasures, with health in your food. 

 Pleasures which leave in the memory no sting, 

 No grief on the soul, no stain on time's wing." 



I have before alluded to forestry as part of the work of horti- 

 cultural societies. Forest trees are known to exert a favorable 

 influence on the climate, and a beneficial influence on fruit cul- 

 ture and gardening, and they are so essential to the comfort and 

 safety of man, that their planting and encouragement present a 

 worthy subject for our consideration. I have never felt its im- 

 portance so much as since the great cyclone of the twenty-first 

 of last August, destroyed a portion of your beautiful city, 

 striking terror to the hearts of all, and causing much suffering- 

 and loss of life. Shortly after that event I spent a few hours in 

 making observations over the scene of destruction, and from 

 what I observed, I am satisfied that forest trees are the greatest 

 boon that can be given to portions of this State. Among other 

 things, I observed that buildings surrounded with screens of Cot- 

 tonwood and other timber suffered less than where there were 

 no trees, and in some instances escaped with only slight injury, 

 and I am satisfied in my own mind that it lies in the power of man 

 to avert much of such fearful calamities. If, twenty years since, 

 or even ten, there had been planted and cared for twenty acres- 

 of fast growing timber, such as cottonwood and willows, upon 

 every quarter section of land for ten miles up the Cascade Val- 

 ley, and, in addition, trees had been planted about the farm 

 buildings and along the roadsides, that terrible storm would have 

 passed almost harmlessly over you. If the saving of human life 

 and property from such destruction, if comfort, happiness, and 

 a feeling of security are of any account, let it stimulate you to 

 encourage the planting of trees upon every farm and along 

 every highway in the county. They will not only serve as a pro- 

 tection, but will enhance the value of property, and lend charms 

 to the country, and, by judicious selections of varieties will, in 

 the course of time, prove more remunerative than any other crop 

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