6 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



servers who are trying to reduce to order the laws of meteor- 

 ology of this great country. The work is of lasting benefit. 



But it is true that Columbus was denied the privilege he 

 asked of entering the harbor of San Domingo, which he had 

 opened, to ride out a storm which he foresaw, when Spain's 

 treasure fleet ignorantly put to sea only to be dashed to 

 pieces. I remember as a boy a statement which was so uni- 

 versally considered true that it passed into a proverb, " the 

 green woods won't burn." I have lived to see the air in the 

 green woods so dry that a match dropped among them would 

 ignite the leaves in them as if they were straw in your fields, 

 I remember when the forests of Pennsylvania stretched away 

 mile after mile and you might travel an entire day without 

 seeing more than a single house. At that time when a lumber 

 camp was opened in the wilderness it was almost impossible to 

 dry the wash of the week as it hung upon the line, because 

 from April to October, during most years, the woods reeked 

 moisture. But as the cleared areas of evaporation increased in 

 extent, the tree-shaded areas of moisture-retention decreased 

 in extent. To-day the dry atmosphere makes cleanliness and 

 godliness possible anywhere in Pennsylvania. These state- 

 ments may appear trifling, but they are important in helping us 

 to conclusions while our meteorological friends are bringing up 

 their data. When they are prepared to substitute something 

 more exact and accurate, I pray that they may have a speedy 

 delivery. 



I have been asked repeatedly during the past season, why 

 is it that, ninety-eight years ago, when the country was covered 

 with forests, that a stone in the Susquehanna River at Har- 

 risburg was bared by the low water and marked, and that 

 never until this season has it been seen again uncovered. The 

 question is apropos of the forestry agitation, but it is easy to 

 answer. Presence or absence of forests has not been shown to 

 increase or to diminish rainfall. There is everything to lead 

 us to believe that there always have been and always will be 

 years of exceptional drouth. All that we claim is that in a 

 forested region a given rainfall will produce more lasting re- 

 sults for good than in an open country. For aught we know 

 to the contrary, the greatest drouth that has ever fallen upon 

 this land may have been before its discovery by the whites. 



There are certain inquiries with which it seems almost 

 a waste of time to concern ourselves. For example, the 



