138 
These valleys are excellent meadows. In the summer the sloughs or 
lakes often dry out, and in general the amount of water varies much 
according to the season.. Some years there may be a good meadow 
t GR Srx 
where the year before was a lake or «a dry valley. From Pound and 
Smith’s report in the publication of the Botanical Survey of Nebraska, 
No. 1, I find that regions like these were met with in Cherry County. 
CLIMATIC CONDITIONS. 
The altitude of the region is from about 800 meters to over 1,200 
meters, The railroad tracks at Halsey are 2,695 feet or 821.4 meters 
above the sea level; those at Whitman, 3,588 feet or 1,095.6 meters. 
The hills rise much more than LOO meters above the valley in which the 
railroad runs, the highest therefore attaining an altitude of over 1,200 
meters. 
There have been local weather stations at Thedford and Whitman for 
four years. The reports from 1890 to 1892 are very incomplete, and the 
report for 15.3 at date of writing is not yet published, It has there- 
fore been impossible to obtain the exact data concerning temperature 
and rainfall. .According to the excellent meteorological charts pre- 
pared by Prof. Goodwin D. Swezey, of Doan College, Crete, Nebr.,! and 
published in the Report of the Nebraska State Board of Agriculture, 
1892, the average rainfall in this part of Nebraska during January, Feb- 
ruary, and March is less than 1 inch per month; during April, 1 to 2 
inches; during May, June, and July, 3 to dinches; during August, | to 
» inches; and during September, October, November, and December, 
less than 1 inch. The average rainfall for the growing season, April to 
August, is 14 to 16 inches, and the average total per year is 20 inches. 
This seems to speak favorably for the sand hills, but another fact must 
be taken into consideration, viz, that the sand hills with their seant 
! Now at the University of Nebraska. 
