698 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



therefore, lend iis to believe that if timber strips are planted at dis- 

 tances apart not greater than a half mile, or in other terms, if every 

 160-acre lot is surronn<!led by a belt of trees like that at Garden City, 

 a very considerable x^rotection will be afforded to the entire acreage. 



If the plains of Kansas were cross-sectioned by snch timber belts, 

 platting the State into ICO-acre lots, the blizzards and the hot winds 

 that now possess an unobstrncted passage wonld be stayed in their 

 conrse, their blighting and desiccating effects wonld be largely dimin- 

 ished, and thereby a long step wonld be taken toward that climatic 

 amelioration which alone is wanting to make a large part of the prairie 

 a veritable garden spot. — o. l. fassig. 



Variations in the character of the seasons, H. Gawthrop 

 {Amer. Met. Jour., 11 {1895), No. 9, pp. 332-339). — The antlior presents 

 fignres showing the conrse of temperatnre at Philadeli)hia from Octo- 

 ber, 1888, to October, 1893, which period he divides up into 44 courses 

 averaging 42i days each. As a snbstitnte for his plan of averaging 

 daily means in 30 day periods the courses which he now adopts are 

 not restricted to any definite number of days ; in fact, the longest of the 

 44 comprises 101 days, viz, from Jan nary 2, to July 12, 1890. After 

 some very general remarks he concludes — 



"Tlie primal cause for the variations in tlie cliaracter of our seasons must be 

 traced back tlirongli all the effects of dinrnal and seasonal insolation, and of the 

 cyclonic storms in the lower atmosphere, where it is manifested to ns, np to the 

 ever-tlowing westerly current above, . . . 



"The vast movement from west to east of the upper atmosphere in our middle lati- 

 tudes, extending to a widtli of 2,000 miles and more, I would liken to a river with its 

 swift current in the middle, gradually lessening in velocity at the sides and bottom, 

 though there is one movement ditferent from auy river, and that is the oscillations 

 north and south with the sun. . . . Like a river, however, it must have a per- 

 sistence in its flow, because of the inertia of its great volume, and yet again, like 

 a river, this inertia may be overcome, and the direction changed by obstacles or 

 influences in its bed, A straight ditch through a meadow becomes a crooked creek, 

 by reason of the inequalities the water meets iu its flow, and the river in greater 

 A^olume swings in longer stretches from bend to bend. This, then, is my thought, 

 that the great atmosj)heric river changes its course, southing at one time and north- 

 ing at another, because of the influences it meets iu passing over the surface of the 

 earth." 



Among the iniluences disturbing this upper current he enumerates 

 the two great continents and the two great oceans of the world, the 

 annual movement of the snn northward and southward, and the tropical 

 cyclones. He conclndes by an appeal for the exploration of the njiper 

 atmosphere. 



[The exploration of the upper atmosphere is undoubtedly an impor- 

 tant desideratnm, bat it may well be doubted whether there is a 

 uniform westerly current at great altitudes doing the work that is 

 imagiricd by Mr. Gawthrop.] — C. ABBE. 



Rhythm in the weather, H. H. Clayton {Amer. Met. Jour., 11 

 {1895), No. 10, pp. 376-380). — ''To most persons nothing seems more 

 irregnlar and fitfnl than the weather. Yet I think there is good reason 



