8 



by which to judge of the temperature of the plains. The presence of a great 

 ocean, with its broad, open bosom continually exposing to the biting air its 

 fresh warm currents, and evaporating its waters to moisten the dry atmos- 

 phere, gives a stability and controls the temperature, unknown when we reach 

 a point almost 2,000 miles from each ocean, and 1,000 from the Gulf of 

 Mexico. 



The wind set in motion on this treeless plain, charged with heat or cold, as 

 the case may be, meets no resistance as it sweeps BOO or 600 miles, and like 

 some falling body acquires velocity as it makes distance from the mountains 

 to the settlements east of the river. 



On the tropics the trade winds blow continually from the east. As these 

 strike the Mexican coast in the Gulf of Mexico, they are deflected to the 

 north along and among the ranges of the mountains east of the Rio Grande. 

 There all humidity is lost, and they are dried to excess as they reach and 

 pass the 40th parallel, where the prevailing winds of the globe are from the 

 west. From the snow-capped mountains they roll in torrents across the 

 broad plains of New Mexico, the Indian and Colorado Territories, over Kan- 

 sas and Nebraska, easily surmounting the narrow belts of timber, which are 

 at first hid in the deep channels of the water courses, then spreading out 

 but slightly at the Missouri and the rivers of Iowa ; thus almost unobstructed 

 they fall upon the prairies and thin oak openings of Illinois and Wisconsin, 

 without local impediment. 



Having discovered whence our dreaded enemy comes, and how he comes ; 

 the remedy is plain ; and it become the duty of every land owner to build 

 up proper obstructions to his march. It is also the duty of the state to lend 

 protection and assistance to the land owner, by the enactment of such laws 

 as shall make it an inducement to the owners to undertake the task. As the 

 wind comes from south of west, it indicates that the timber to break its 

 force should be planted on the west and south sides of the land to be pro- 

 tected. The north side will not so much require protection until such de- 

 struction has taken place in our northern forests as shall let in the winds 

 from the north ; but even then those winds would come to us like the south- 

 west wind which reaches Michigan, more or less tempered by passing over 

 Lake Superior. But the beltings of any number of tracts of land of ten acres 

 each will all be protected on every side by merely closing up their ultimate 

 north and east sides, which may be done by a half belt, or such rows of trees 

 as ought to be planted along every road side. 



As it now is, we look over the state and see in the southern, most populous 

 and least wooded portion of the state of Wisconsin, the forests have been 

 destroyed at such a rate that they do not yield a supply adequate for the 

 wants of the present inhabitants ; and the forests of the northern regions, 

 heretofore considered the inexhaustable store house of wood for the adjoin- 

 ing treeless districts will soon be so reduced that the people must look else- 



