82 TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 



The flora of the prairies of northwestern Minnesota differs more from the 

 flora of the wooded northeastern Minnesota than wooded Minnesota 

 differs from wooded New York." 



"THE SAHARA OF MINNESOTA." 



They who have taken observation know that vegetation is very meagre 

 and stunted on the north and westerly shore of Lake Superior, having a 

 long and dreary belt several miles wide in some places. This condition is 

 traceable to the cold winds sweeping from the north and northeast over 

 that great body of water. Suppose the forest inland and westward from 

 the desert-like coast were literally destroyed by axe and fire, as is actually 

 portending, what would be the effect upon the climate and upon vegetation 

 in that latitude, and upon the state at large '? Imagine the whole forest 

 from Lake Superior to the Red River and north to the international bound- 

 ary, stretching also hundreds of miles southward imagine it swept away. 

 Nothing is plainer than that the sources of our river system would be 

 dried up, and all that interesting region would be transformed into a 

 dreary desert "the Sahara of Minnesota." The winds from the lake, 

 rushing from the frozen north, then uninterrupted for the forest is gone 

 intensified and infuriated by the desert, would fall upon our agricultural 

 crops farther south with immeasurable ruin. This is not conjectural ; it 

 is reasoning from cause to corresponding effect, from what we know of 

 other parts of the world where like furies have been provoked by like de- 

 forestation. 



SNOW MANTLE. 



Prof. Bailey speaks of the benefits of snow upon the flora. Remove the 

 forests there, and the formation of snow is lessened, because the forest 

 humidity is neutralized by the open wind-swept desolation. The forest 

 trees trap the snow, mantling the flora, slowly melting and trickling into 

 the ground, and furnishing the water supply in the summer to our rivers. 

 Nothing could be devised more calamitous to our agricultural and correla- 

 tive interests than the destruction of the natural forest in the northern 

 part of Minnesota, and nothing should be watched by our legislature with 

 more jealous vigilance than the preservation and culture of dense forests 

 in all that lake and reservoir region. 



Here the forest reserve system comes up again for consideration, and 

 will not down, despite the formidable opposition. Climatic conditions, the 

 conservation of our waters, the business interests of the entire state abso- 

 lutely necessitate its organization. 



EFFECTS OF HEATED ROCKS. 



In northern Minnesota, more especially along Rainy Lake river toward 

 the northeast angle of the state, a country once covered with pines and 

 other trees, the fires have at last literally burned them out root and branch, 

 leaving huge piles of bare rocks that heat up in the days of summer and 

 remain warm in the night. Hence, rain clouds sweeping over that desolate 

 surface, formerly condensing in gentle showers, now dry up or pass over 



