448 ANNUAL REPORT. 



by the state, of personal liberty, in the free and independent pur- 

 suit of personal and co-operative industry, regulated by wise 

 laws. A high degree of intelligence, of scientific and practical 

 education, and restless activity of the leading portion of the 

 population, combined Avith the natural impulse of the whole 

 people to build up a great, independent and mighty nation, led 

 those institutions, laid down and guaranteed in the fundamental 

 constitution of the country, into the track of a marvelously suc- 

 cessful development. 



The immigration from the other side of the ocean continues 

 constantly and in great numbers, even promises to assume larger 

 dimensions in the future. Hundreds and hundreds of thousands 

 of persons, wishing to evade the dominant circumstances on the 

 other side, and to take i^art in the blissful institutions of this 

 country, are flocking to our shores. They are eager to take part 

 in the common and paying activity for, the development of its 

 rich treasures, and the use of them for their own benefit and for 

 the welfare of the whole people. 



Similar to the high, rising stream overflowing its banks in 

 quiet but rapid course, spreading over the territory adjoining, 

 supplying the soil with fertilizing material, the great stream of 

 immigration is spreading over the southern, but more particu- 

 larly over the northern and western regions of the country, to 

 transform the wilderness into cultivated fields. A comparatively 

 small portion of immigrants remain, either temporary or perma- 

 nent residents, in the older states of this country. 



Simultaneously with the rapid increase of our jjopulation and 

 its wonderful distribution over every section of the continent, 

 with the consequent marvelous increase in the production of the 

 jjrime necessaries of life, it is highly important that we should 

 take heed to the i^reservation of our forests where still left in 

 their primitive grandeur, aiid cultivate them where destroyed by 

 the hand of Nature or man. Every person noticing the diff"er- 

 ence in the appearance of the territory of the United States, be- 

 tween the seventeenth century and the present time, must be 

 favorably imj)ressed with the surprising development made dur- 

 ing that time. Not only the development of this immense terri- 

 tory, as stated hereinbefore, its increase to its present grandeur, 

 in so wonderfully short a space of time, but the change of the 

 climate of the country is also very surprising. In the same ratio as 

 the destruction of a large portion of the forests and the cultiva- 

 tion of the soil has progressed the climate lias become milder 



