22-i ANKUAL EEPOET. 



those destructive forest tires of wliicli we read, as in summer of 1883, that they 

 raged for weeks and so filled the air with the smoke of their burning, that the sun 

 appeared as a ball of copper and the obscurity at midday so great that navigation 

 was rendered most difficult and dangerous. 



In the Northwestern angle of Montana, up near the British line is alsoja grand for- 

 est covering several thousand square miles of mountain and valley, and existing 

 under the same climatic conditions as on the coast, except that perhaps remote as 

 it is from the oceaa a more narrow margin exists as to limiting dryness, thus mak- 

 ing the danger from destruction from fire greater than on the coast. A lumberman 

 from Wisconsin who has caref ullj^ examined this forest, on being asked if he did not 

 fear competition from this source with the lumber of Minnesota and Wisconsin , 

 said: ''The climatic conditions under which this forest exists are so precarious that 

 since the Northern Pacific Railway has penetrated the heart of this region, making 

 it accessible to the destroying hand of man, that I expect in ten years to see it 

 obliterated by tire from off the face of the earth." It is a source of gratification -to 

 those who have the best interests of the country at heart to know that this great 

 danger is appreciated at its full value and that a prominent member, with wise fore- 

 sight, has introduced a bill in Congress providing for the withdrawal of this tract 

 from settlement, and containing provisions looking to the preservation of this for- 

 est tract in a manner which while providing for its perpetuation, will secure the 

 proper use of its resources to the people. 



Minnesota from its geographical position in the centre of the continent, nearly 

 equi-distant from the oceans and their modifying infiuences, has in common 

 with all other countries similarly situated in its latitude, an essentially continenta 1 

 climate. The effect of this remoteness from the.se equalizing influences is to cause 

 great differences in the seasons, the winters being cold with great extremes of tem- 

 perature and the summers warm but not hot, and the amount of moisture to be 

 decidedly variable in quantity. These variable qualities of the climate, while 

 undoubtedly very favorable to the best mental and physical development of man, 

 and by the avoidance of the diseases and pests of warmer localities peculiarly adapt- 

 ed to the profitable production of live-stock have an important limiting influence 

 on perennials or those plants in which growth and development do not take place 

 in a single season. While the summers have an almost ideal temperature and rain- 

 fall for the development of the apple, pear, peach and other fruits of temperate 

 latitudes, in tlieir highest perfection, the great extremes of cold during the winter 

 except under favorable local influences are almost if not quite decisive against their 

 profitable production. It would seem that the intelligent horticulturist recogniz- 

 ing these inevitable limiting influences, would seek to produce those fruits such as 

 the Russian apple, the plum, raspberry, currant, cranberry and other small fruits, 

 which seem not only lo be tolerant but absolutely to require a cool climate to suit 

 the requirements of their best growth. 



As to the parts of the State most suited by climate to fruit raising, the south- 

 eastern part in the partially timbered counties, and that part north of the cities of 

 Minneapolis and St. Paul and east of the Mississippi, extending north to the North- 

 ern Pacific Railway and Lake Superior, will undoubtedly, by reason of the heavy 

 forest belt and its proximity to the equalizing influence of Lake Superior be excep- 

 tionally favorable to the growth of the grasses and small fruits. 



