RAINFALL ON THE PLAINS. 



535 



Fig. 4. Japanese Manikins, dressed in Chrysanthemums, represented as making Tea. 



(Prom a photograph.) 



them will, no doubt, go on increasing, for they are justly, on ac- 

 count of the many desirable qualities they combine, appreciated 

 very highly. Translated for the Popular Science Monthly from 

 La Nature. 



-+*+- 



RAINFALL ON THE PLAINS. 



By STUART 0. HENEY. 



THE general impression seems to be that the rainfall has in- 

 creased and is increasing on our " plains " because of their 

 settlement and cultivation. It is fancied that, as the population 

 moves westward, augmented precipitation follows, so that there 

 is now sufficient rain where ten or twenty years ago it was too 

 dry. Travelers who ride swiftly across this region in a day find 

 towns and catch glimpses of farming operations where five years 

 ago they saw but a barren waste. They conclude that a marked 

 climatic change has taken place, and infer that it can only be due 

 to the presence of population. They fancy that the cultivation of 

 the land must produce marked hygrometric results. That this is 

 a remarkable fallacy becomes certain when attention is called to 

 the evidence. 



In the first place, neither history nor science gives any testi- 

 mony to show that the tillage of the soil and the planting of trees 



