APRIL.

The weather conditions during April were notably constant, and there were few features to distinguish it from April of past years.

mean.

The mean barometer of the month was 29.930-about .05 above the April The highest barometer was 30.404, on the 3d; the lowest, 29.444, on the 9th. The pressure during the month was somewhat higher, and the range somewhat less, than during the same month for several years previous. The mean temperature of the month was 55.37°, being 3° above the April average. The highest temperature was 83°, on the 26th; the lowest, 19.5°, on the 3d. This was the lowest April temperature recorded at this station during the past seven years. The greatest daily range, was 40°, on the 5th; and the least daily range, 10°, on the 14th and 30th.

The

The mean percentage of humidity during the month was 55.38 per cent. The April average is 60.80 per cent. The ranges were not very great. highest daily mean was 85.7 per cent., on the 14th; the least, 28.3 per cent., on the 5th.

The total rainfall during the month was 3.57 inches, being nearly an inch below the April mean. The greatest April rainfall ever recorded at this station was 7.65 inches, in 1876; the least, 1.67 inches, in 1875.

The prevailing wind of the month was southeast. Total number of miles traveled during the month, 6,629 miles. Heaviest velocity, 32 miles, from the southeast, at 3:15 P. M., on the 8th.

The wind's direction was recorded 210 times, as follows: N. 45 times, N. W. 27 times, W. 4 times, S. W. 4 times, S. 31 times, S. E. 46 times, E. 15 times, N. E. 28 times, and calm 10 times.

[Reports on the prospective fruit crops were about as follows: The winter was unusually severe on shrubs, trees and plants; not so much from the low thermal range as from the protracted mean and other atmospheric conditions, such as humidity, etc. March added greatly to the injury, as on the 7th the thermometer marked up to 83°, and for six days the mean was over 55°. This developed the buds to a vulnerable point, and started a flow of sap that proved fatal to many trees and shrubs. Following this, came the low range of March 14th and 19th, with 9° and 15° respectively. This was again succeeded by the high ranges from March 25th to the 29th, inclusive, the thermometer on each day marking over 70°, and on the 27th, up to 84°. This abnormal period was followed by another low range, on April 3d and 4th, the minimum temperature being 19.5° and 21°, respectively-the lowest April range at the Leavenworth station, and within a fraction the lowest range recorded in this vicinity for forty-eight years.—F. H.]

MAY.

The most remarkable points in the meteoric conditions during May were the high temperature, low humidity, light rainfall, and severe storms on the 13th and 29th.

The atmospheric conditions during May were almost coincident with those of May, 1874. There is only a slight difference in the mean barometer, temperature, humidity, and total rainfall of the two months.* In May, 1874, the

* [It will be recollected that in the winter and spring of that year (1874) the snowfall in the Rocky mountains was also light.-F.H.]

highest and lowest temperatures were 94° and 41°, respectively. The year 1874 was the hottest in the records of the station. The maximum temperature of July, 104°, and August, 107°. The mean pressure of the month was 29.864, which was normal. In May, 1874, 29.865. The greatest daily oscillations were on the 2d, 3d, 4th and 29th. The highest barometer was 30.256, on the 6th; the lowest, 29.390, on the 3d.

The mean temperature of the month wns 68.96°. This is the highest May mean in the records of the station, which are complete from 1872, to date. Mean temperature of the month of May, 1874, 67.30°; the lowest 41°, on the 6th. The greatest daily range, 31°, on the 17th; least daily range, 6.5°, on the 14th. The highest daily mean was 82.5°, on the 25th; the lowest daily mean was 55°, on the 5th.

The monthly mean percentage of humidity was 58.64; (in 1874 it was 60 per cent.;) this was 6 per cent. below the May average. The highest daily mean was 87.7, on the 14th; the lowest, 36.7, on the 4th.

The total rainfall during the month was 3.04 inches; of this, 1.18 inches fell on the 13th, and 1.43 inches on the 29th. The dryest May since 1874. The May average is 5.59 inches.

As there have been many persons inquiring how the temperature and rainfall of the past spring compare with the same period of previous years, the following table showing the mean temperature and total rainfall at this station, for the spring months (March, April and May), for the period of seven years, has been compiled for the information of those interested:

The following table, showing the average temperature and average rainfall over the lower Missouri valley during the spring months (March, April and May) of the past five years, and the average of many years previous, will prove of interest to those desiring to compile some data as to the effect produced on the growing grains, by the weather of the past three months-rainfall in inches and hundredths:

The prevailing wind of the month was south; highest velocity, 60 miles per hour, from the north, at 7:07 P. M., 29th. Total number of miles recorded during the month was 6,858. The direction of the wind was recorded 217 times during the month, as follows: N. 32 times, N. W. 9 times, W. 4 times, S. W. 8 times, S. 86 times, S. E. 48 times, E. 15 times, N. E. 10 times, and calm 5 times.

Number of clear days during the month, 7; fair days, 14; cloudy days, 10; and on which rain fell, 15.. SAMUEL W. RHODE, Sergeant Signal Corps, U. S. A.

[A very interesting sequel to the foregoing report was omitted, for the want of room.-F. H.]

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: We cordially welcome you among us; and we congratulate you that you again meet to give countenance and support to a pursuit which at the present day interests and is the delight of the whole civilized world. Yes, wherever a ray of civilization sheds its luster on this earth, one of the beams of that ray is horticulture. It forms the charm of the leisure hours of the highest, the wisest, and the best. It is the healthy employment of the humble and the industrious. Absorbed in the cultivation of his favorite flower, his patch of vegetables, or his orchard of fruits, the poor man envies not the wealthy, nor is his sane and well-braced mind disturbed by the diseased and empty dreams of the ambitious. How happy for millions, had a knowledge of horticulture with its refinements, in former times been more universally disseminated and encouraged among mankind. How different might have been the history of South America, from its discovery to this day, had Pizarro and the ministers of religion who accompanied him associated the cross which they bore with the spade, the rake, and the pruning-knife, rather than that of the lance, the sword and the gun. How different would have been the existence and fate of the many nations who passed lives of misery, and were finally exterminated. How different would be at this day the face of the immeasurable plains, the far-stretched forests in such a heavenly climate. Her history would have been one of peace and prosperity, instead of one of blood and desolation. Her plains would have been covered and adorned with swarms of happy and industrious people, by whom the names of these discoverers and civilizers would have been venerated and held sacred.

Horticulture may be emphatically named as one of the arts which exhibit most preeminently the peace and prosperity of a nation, and should certainly be upheld and encouraged by all to whom these happy results of human reason and divine religion are held dear. Horticulture is probably in its infancy in this country, but if it is, it is the infancy of a giant. How few have given it the attention they should. And yet we have an almost numberless variety of flowers and plants; and of fruits we may boast of the strawberry,

the peach, the plum, the pear, and the apple. Indeed, we have much to encourage us in this great work. It requires but little labor to produce great results. Nature has been lavish in her gifts to this climate. The glorious beauties of our sunsets amply testify to the purity of our atmosphere, and the almost tropical sun during the summer months perfectly matures the juices, the pollen, and the seed of our plants. For the grateful shades of other lands, the ingenuity of the horticulturist here can easily find a substitute, but no other country can imitate our glorious sunsets. The very essence of this pursuit is to overcome difficulties, to make the wintry desert to blossom like the rose. If circumstances were all favorable, if everything flourished spontaneously, of what value would be your meeting to-day?

Again extending to you all a cordial welcome, with the hope that this meeting may be both pleasant and profitable, and one to which in the future we may all refer with pleasant recollections, I thank you.

An appropriate response was made by H. E. Van Deman.
The following essay was then read:

A FEW WORDS ON FORESTRY.

BY GEO. Y. JOHNSON, LAWRENCE.

"The groves were God's first temples, and ere man learned

To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave,

And spread the roof above them, ere he framed

The lofty vault together, and rolled back

The sound of anthems in the darkling wood,
Amidst the cool and silence he knelt down,

And offered to the Highest solemn thanks
And supplications, for his simple heart
Might not resist the sacred influences,
That from the stilly twilight of the place,

And from the gray old trunks, that high in Heaven
Mingled their massy boughs, and from the sound

Of the invisible breath, that swayed at once

All their green tops, stole over him, and bowed

His spirit with the thought of

Boundless power and inaccessible majesty."

'Tis thus that one of the grandest of Nature's children discourses of the groves, and in the fullness of his heart renders a tribute of praise to the great Father of all for his goodness and the grandeur of his works. The world is benefited by having once contained so sweet an interpreter of Nature's treasures. If men do pause and wonder at the meteor-like ascension to place and power of a Cromwell or a Bonaparte, who passes quickly along the stage of life, and retires to the ante-room called death, why should they not pause before the majesty of a stately tree, which has for centuries withstood the very elements, and still holds its lordly head erect, crowned with its coronal of green leaves?

From time out of mind and date, men have been forest-destroyers. God created the forests, man destroys them, and in consequence reaps the curse.

In one of "God's first temples" man first dwelt, and, happy in horticultural pursuits, devoted himself to dressing the garden and caring for the trees. But when in an evil hour, he stretched forth his hand against that temple to destroy it, injured Nature, by such climatic changes as this very destruction causes, "made it too hot for him," and the burning heat of the sun destroyed every green thing; and thus man, with his own hand, erected that flaming sword that turned every way, forever separating him from his Eden, and compelling him to either perish of starvation or to seek new and fertile fields, there again to repeat the same sad experiment. And from that day to this, man has gone on destroying and leaving sterility and famine in his deserted track. The rains ceased, or at least came at unseasonable intervals; so production of cereals became uncertain, or perhaps entire failures—and he must follow up the forests, in order to secure the rainfall necessary to the growing of food to support himself and flocks. And thus, man has been continually lingering in the outer courts of God's temple. The stories of the aborigines of America indicate that their forefathers came down from the northwest and followed the forests, built their cities, deserted, and built anew farther down, as pursued by the "flame of fire" created by their forest destruction. Man has ever moved toward the forests, and recent discoveries have found the locations of Meroë, Thebes and Memphis all were, at different dates, the capital of ancient Egypt, and without doubt were located in the midst of rich agricultural districts, as their existence would have been impossible in any other kind of location-thus showing that the capital of that nation has been thrice removed because of the sterility caused by the destruction of those things provided by Nature to equalize the moisture for the benefit of Nature herself, and for her children.

Historians leave it recorded that the valley of the Nile was once a dense forest, and to-day along its borders, as well as along dry channels of what were once large rivers now traceable far into the Great Desert, are found petrified trees and stumps. Man must have commenced in the upper valleys of these rivers and closely followed the receding forest, which was before him the perfect picture of beauty, and left behind him, closely following upon his heels, an arid waste and burning desert.

When Moses sent out the twelve scouts to reconnoiter Palestine, they came back in due time and reported the land covered with groves and flowing with milk and honey. In blind bigotry and fanaticism the Jews cut down the groves because men worshipped idols therein; and this destruction went on to such an extent that almost the entire country became sterile-a barren place "where no water is;" and its then majestic Jordan has dwindled into a contemptible brook, into which a school-boy would scarce cast a “pinhook." And the once beautiful oleander-wreathed-shore sea of Galilee has almost degenerated to a pool, and their green and pleasant mountains, Horeb and Nebo, are barren piles of rock and sand.

The large areas of country in western Asia, from which to-day comes to