46 KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



of rainfall. The local evaporation is valuable to us, because it furnishes the 

 conditions necessary to wring from the atmosphere the moisture we want. 



The water supply of timbered countries has been reduced by removing the 

 timber, and again increased by replanting. Yet the annual supply of moisture 

 in the atmosphere was not materially different in the years of a short water 

 supply from those of abundance. The removal of the timber removed one 

 of the essential conditions of rain precipitation, viz. : local evaporation. The 

 replanting of the timber was simply the restoration of the desired condition. 



Many of our residents feel discouraged on account of the severity of the 

 drouth on our western frontier during 1879 and part of 1880. Were such 

 drouths of frequent occurrence, it would, indeed, be discouraging, but it 

 must be remembered, that its like was never known in the history of the 

 Plains, and we only find a parallel to it for a shorter period in the drouth of 

 1860, when the pioneer settlers in this vicinity suffered about all that our 

 frontier settlers have done in the past year. Such an extreme period of 

 drouth we have no reason to anticipate oftener than once in every twenty 

 years, although we are liable to periodic drouths on a smaller scale, the same 

 as any other portion of our country. We must not, therefore, judge of the 

 future by the experience of the past two years; we must take the average of 

 a succession of years. 



Within the past few months I have heard the wish often expressed that 

 the western half of the State might be cut off from Kansas, and attached to 

 some other State or Territory, so that we might not be compelled to shoulder 

 the responsibility for the recent failure of crops on our western frontier, and 

 consequently suffer in reputation. 



The remark is a foolish one, and the authors will acknowledge it before 

 they are many years older. 



The rainfall will, in my opinion, never be so great in western Kansas as in 

 eastern Kansas, but its soil requires less. I do not believe that western 

 Kansas will ever be a general farming country in the sense that eastern Kan- 

 sas is, but I do believe its natural resources are just as great. 



We do not condemn eastern Kansas as a farming or fruit country because 

 bananas and oranges cannot be successfully raised in it; nor do we condemn 

 Florida because the products of a cold climate are not successfully produced 

 there. 



Our Western farmers have been experimenting in the past few years, and 

 the stimulating effect of the recent drouth has not been without fruit. New 

 discoveries are being made each season of some new plant more especially 

 adapted to the climate and soil. The rapid development of the Egyptian, 

 or rice corn, in the past two years, is a notable instance of this. The success 

 and value of this new crop, and its ability to stand even as severe a drouth 

 as that of this spring, has been shown beyond a doubt. 



The successful and profitable manufacture of sugar from amber cane has 

 been fully demonstrated by Mr. Bennyworth, at Larned, Pawnee county, 

 this season. Mr. Bennyworth has spent about $25,000 in the experiment, and 



