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135 



United States Department of Agriculture. North 

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POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



Irtesian Wells and their Flow.— That 

 part of the definition of an artesian well 

 given by the Department of Agriculture 

 that includes all subterranean waters which, 

 on being reached or opened from above, 

 are found to flow by pressure to a higher 

 level than the point of contact, is accepted 

 by Mr. R. Ellsworth Call, in his preliminary 

 paper on Artesian Wells in Iowa, as complete 

 in itself and as properly defining artesian 

 water. Artesian flows may be variable, that 

 is, may exhibit sometimes increased and at 

 other times decreased flows of water, but the 

 artesian characters are still very marked. 

 Originally all artesian waters are meteoric, 

 that is, are all waters which reach the earth 

 by precipitation as rain. That they shall 

 percolate to lower strata, be included between 

 impervious sti-ata or layers of clay or close- 

 textured rock, is a necessary condition. But 

 the total water thus held in confinement has 

 a definite relation to the catchment basin on 

 the one hand and to the total annual rain- 

 fall on the other. It is easily seen, then, that 

 artesian waters may vary with the season ; 

 that in dry seasons, when the wells are shal- 

 low, they will soonest show decreased flow ; 

 that in a series of years when the precipita- 

 tion is far below the normal the artesian areas 

 may entirely fail, again to present good wells 

 whenthefallof meteoric waterreachesthe nor- 

 mal or rises above it. Wells may then, in a 

 certain sense, be temporary and still be arte- 

 sian. In the case of the deep wells, those 

 that lie far below the range of variation from 

 causes connected with the variable factors of 

 annual character that mark shallow wells, ar- 

 tesian flows are apt to be more constant ; but 

 even here there are certain variable features 

 which show differences through longer inter- 



vals of time. No artesian basin exists any- 

 where, but it will be found necessary, sooner 

 or later, to control, by mechanical means, the 

 total flow or " output " of the several wells. 

 The waters are bound to be exhausted in the 

 long run if there be no well-planned govern- 

 ing relation between the consumption and the 

 known sources of supply. The deepest and 

 the largest flowing wells will sometimes be 

 taxed beyond their " life," and then, for a 

 time at least, they must be allowed to rest. 

 No owner of artesian wells in the glacial 

 districts, where the wells are shallow, can 

 afford to allow his well to flow and the 

 water to be wasted. 



Different Effects of Denndation, — De- 

 scribing the old, or abandoned, fields of the 

 south. Prof. W J McGee spoke, in the Ameri- 

 can Association, of the different aspects pre- 

 sented by the results of denudation accord- 

 ing to the situations of the fields. When the 

 tracts are low or gently undulating, they are 

 quickly clothed with vegetation ; but when 

 they are hilly and high, the ravines or deep- 

 ened gullies invade the hill slopes and up- 

 lands, until in some cases the entire soil is 

 washed away and the verdure-clothed sur- 

 face is transformed into a glaring sand, while 

 the bottom lands, once the most fertile of 

 cotton fields, are clogged with the sand swept 

 from the hills until they, too, are ruined for 

 agriculture. The reasons for this accelerated 

 denudation may be sought for in the rela- 

 tions which geologists have found to exist 

 between the elevation and the configuration 

 of lands, their climatal conditions, and the 

 character of their vegetation. An area stand- 

 ing high above the base level for a consider- 

 able period assumes a rugose configuration. 

 There is also a configurative characteristic of 

 the prairie and another characteristic of the 

 woodland, the latter being more rugose ; and 

 the geologist trained in this line of investi- 

 gation can discriminate at a glance between 

 the lands cleared of forests by human agency 

 and those that are naturally grass-covered. 

 The configuration of Mississippi and other 

 parts of the southern United States indicates 

 considerable altitude above base-level and an 

 originally forest-covered condition. The sur- 

 face slopes are too steep to withstand the 

 action of. the storms and streams when the 

 forest coverinK is removed. It is true that 



