858 
STATE AGKICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
beauty to the landscape, and at the same time secure nearly all 
the combined benefits of protection to crops, timber for uses 
in the mechanic arts, and those climatic influences which we 
all regard as so important. Of course, no rules can be given 
for such tree planting. Generally where the surface is some¬ 
what undulating (for we have no hills), the planting should be 
done mainly upon the higher portions of the farms, and along 
the water courses. Where the surface is level, belts may be 
planted upon the north and west of the farms, with groves up¬ 
on the least valuable portions. The last would intercept the 
straight lines and give diversity. But if each prairie farm¬ 
er were to follow his own taste, or adapt his planting to se¬ 
cure the greatest profit in timber or protection to his own farm, 
planting about one-tenth of his own land with trees, it is prob¬ 
able that all the desirable ends which we have been consider¬ 
ing will be gained, and the landscape sufficiently deversified to 
be pleasing to the eye. 
Here, then, brother farmers, and fiirmer students in this 
university, we have two pictures presented to us. In the one 
we look into the future and see wide spread desolation—an ex¬ 
tended treeless country, visited by destructive storms, by se¬ 
vere drouths, with its streams dried up, and food for man and 
beast in such scarcity that the poor can scarcely obtain a supply. 
In the other we see a charming landscape, a rich, fertile coun¬ 
try, a population enjoying all the blessings which flow from 
peace and plenty. 
'Which will you choose ? Will we take warning in time, 
and arouse ourselves to action in an interprise which promises 
such rich results ? 
