EFFECT OF DRYING WINDS. 271 



legislature on the subject of the injurious destruction of forest-trees in 

 that State, the importance of checking the evil, and the expediency of 

 encouraging the planting of trees as a means of shelter and protection 

 to crops, fruit-trees, &c. A special report^ was made by a committee 

 of the House, whereof E. C. Kedzie was chairman, and the subject was 

 considered in its various relations, but more particularly with reference 

 to its agricultural importance. The effects of woodlands upon the heat, 

 moisture, and winds were noticed, and, although, no meteorological 

 records exist for showing the conditions that existed in a primitive state, 

 facts were not wanting to prove that changes in the climate had already 

 taken place. The winters within the last forty years had been growing 

 more severe. Thirty years before, the peach was one of the most abun- 

 dant fruits of the State, easy to cultivate, and the tree bearing it early ; 

 it was planted everywhere, and yielded its luscious harvest, especially in 

 the southeastern part of the State. Then, frost from May to October 

 was unknown, and spring-flowers appeared in January, in Lenawee 

 County. Now, the peach is a most uncertain crop, and unseasonable 

 frosts may happen. The report further says : 



The destruction of the -^heat as well as the corn crop is becominj? a matter of great 

 anxiety to cur farmers in many sections, and the winter-killing of the clover in the 

 eastern part of the State, last winter, not by " heaving," but, apparently, frozen dead 

 in the ground, and appearing black and rotten in the spring, may be another i^roof of 

 climatic changes of great significance to the farmers and the dairymen. 



An excess of evaporation over rain-fall had been observed, and clear- 

 ings, which tend to greater dryness by exposure to winds and to the sun 

 might increase this disparity to a degree highly prejudicial to agriculture.^ 



The need of shelter from drying winds, in an agricultural country 

 was next considered, and facts were cited from an address by T. T. 

 Lyon, as showing the results of improvident clearing in Michigan, and 

 especially the southern i^art. He says : 



The natural result of this wholesale destruction is manifesting itself in the higher 

 winds, the more sudden changes, and the more extreme cold of our winters. * # » 

 Two years since, at a similar meeting, I availed myself of the opportunity to urge upon 

 the agriculturists of the State the importance of action in this matter. During the 

 next winter the wheat crop of the entire State, from the want of the usual covering of 

 enow and the general lack of shelter from wind and sun, was diminished in amount 

 more than half, a loss to the State, in a single year, of more than 5,000,000 of bushels. 



The committee proceed to notice the effect of shelter upon crops and 

 the value of even slight protection, and, citing again from Mr. Lyon's 

 statement, say : 



In many parts of this State, it is found that if farmers harrow their wheat and then 

 roll the ground smooth, the crop is usually an entire failure ; if harrowed and not rolled, 

 a partial crop is secured ; but if plowed with gang-plows, the furrows running north 

 and south, a good crop is almost certain. 



The reason was found in the slight protection from the biting south- 

 west winds and the shelter for snows which these furrows afforded. 

 A dead furrow, running north and south, would preserve a streak of 

 green through a field otherwise dry and bare ; a fence would protect a 

 still greater breadth ; a hedge more, according to density and height ; 



' House Document, No. 6, L -gislature of 1867. See, also, Appendix to Report of 

 Michigan Board of Agriculture of 1866. 



2 At the Agricultural College, in Lansing, observations from March to November, 

 in lS6r» and 18G6, showed an excess of evaporation amounting to 6^ inches in the former 

 year and 2J in the latter, or 25 and 8 i.er cent, in excess of rain-fall. 



Mr. I. A. Lapham, LL. D.. of Milwaukee, made observations extending through five 

 years, by exposing a basin of water and measuring the depression with a micrometer 

 screw every morning, and his general result of the period gave an annual mean of 23.61 

 inches rain and 32.58 evaporation, a difi"erence of 8.97, or 37 per cent, of the former. 



