CLIMATIC MODIFICATION OF FKIIT. 367 



CLIMATIC MODIFICATION OF FRUIT. 



A. I. COLL.'^IAN, (JUKMM., 1C»\VA. 



Mr. FrcHident: ^'ollr beautiful city is very near the g-eop;-rapliical 

 center, east and west, of the western continent, and is one of the 

 best in the central states. Your railroad facilities are anionpf the 

 best. Your state is noted for its tine lumber and mineral products 

 and its broad fields of golden wheat. Connected by the Mississippi 

 to the Gulf of Mexico and by the chain of lakes to the Atlantic, you 

 can load your famous whalebacks with golden wheat and feed the 

 people in the old world. Your state is noted for its educational and 

 religious institutions, and its people for intelligence and refinement. 

 And as we climb the mount and look over into your beautiful state, 

 we cannot help thinking that you are occupying the lovely valley 

 God has given to a chosen people. 



The climate of a country depends chiefly upon its latitude and 

 elevation; it is also afifected by the ocean and its currents. From 

 the Japan current a stream of warm water flows northward with a 

 similar current from the gulf stream, which tends to moderate the 

 cold of the arctic region and to balance the cold currents flowing 

 south. The general flow of the ocean current, westward in the 

 tropical and eastward in the temperate regions, coincides with the 

 atmospheric movements. In the tropics, the winds blow to the west 

 and are called trade winds; in the temperate zones they blow to the 

 east and are called return trade winds. The temperature of the 

 atmosphere is regulated by winds or currents of air, while that of 

 the ocean is regulated by currents of water. All is the effect of the 

 combined action of heat, cold and air. Heat lightens the water, that 

 the air may lift it from the ocean and lakes; the wind carries it in 

 the form of vapor over the land; the cold makes the vapor heavier 

 than the air, and then it falls in the form of rain, dew, snow and frost. 

 Minnesota is very favorably located, being near the geographical 

 center, east and west, and at the head of the great Mississppi valley. 

 The vapor from the Atlantic and the lakes is carried west, from the 

 Pacific east and from the Gulf north, and meets the cold current of 

 air from the north that follows the water in the two great rivers to 

 the Gulf. This cold current cools the atmosphere, and vapor falls 

 in the form of rain, which accounts for the fact that we have a great- 

 er rainfall in the Mississippi valley or the central states than in the 

 eastern or western states. 



In Minnesota the average rainfall is about twenty-six inches- 

 The southeastern counties of Minnesota and a strip along the 

 eastern line as far north as Duluth receive about thirty-five inches. 

 Iowa receives about thirty-five inches. The northern half of Mis- 

 souri has an average of about thirty-five inches; the soutliern half 

 being nearer the (iiilf receives more than forty inches yearly. Illi- 

 nois, northern half, thirty-four inches; southern half, forty inches. 

 In Nebraska the range is very great, like a shingle with the butt 

 end eastward; along the river and western end, very thin; in the 

 southeastern section the range is twenty-four to thirty inches. In 



