26 
WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
destructive winters have enforced the reason for intelligent cau¬ 
tion in a matter of so much moment. 
But, notwithstanding these gains during the past twenty 
years, there is still a vast amount of ignorance concerning this 
whole subject of fruit-growing—concerning what to plant, 
where to plant, when to plant, how to plant and cultivate. 
As no section of our heaven-favored land in which the suc¬ 
cessful production of the staple fruits of the temperate latitudes 
is impossible can hope to be a permanently acceptable place 
of abode for our people, it is a question of general and state in¬ 
terest as well as private. 
For these reasons the state has wisely considered it a matter 
of true policy to foster such agencies as have been instituted 
for the promotion of this most interesting and highly impor¬ 
tant branch of our industry. Certainly no legislative encour¬ 
agement could be more properly given. 
Measures looking to 
THE PRESERVATION AND PRODUCTION OF FOREST TREES 
Are of very great moment, and urgently demand the attention 
of the state. 
Nature gave to Wisconsin an endowment in the form of tim¬ 
ber, the immense value of which has not been appreciated, nor 
will be, it is feared, until our magnificent forests have fallen be¬ 
fore the ruthless axe of the lumberman, and instead of a well- 
tempered and kindly climate, fertile fields and rapidly advanc¬ 
ing improvements, we present the sad spectacle of a people 
struggling half vainly under scorching suns and withering 
blasts, and against the odds of a scarcity of the most essential 
materials to carry forward the civilization so nobly begun. 
We seem blind to what, as a state, we owe to the excep¬ 
tional richness of this inheritance. The voice of experience, 
the warnings of history, and the teachings of science are alike 
unheeded. 
It is undeniable, in the first place, that forests, or even trees 
