320 



AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



as to such value. Geological research has greatly enlighteiied us as to 

 the origin of the strata which make up the general surface, aud the 

 X)lateaux and mesas are nowhere more forbidding or barren than the 

 plains or valleys. In the immediate mountains, also, great numbers of 

 instances appear in which, as in the Uintah Mountains, the high lateral 

 ridges are composed of nearly horizontal strata, with a level surface, 

 and the ridge or declivity is wholly one of denudation through an orig- 

 inally level mass. Graziug-tracts and forest-belts of singular luxuri- 

 ance lie along these summits and ranges, and these have a great value 

 directly available in the immediate occupation of the country. 



The actual climate of the plains aud basin districts has now been 

 very closely determined by scientific observation. The most valuable 

 agency has been that of the military posts, at all of which careful 

 records are kept of the quantity of rain falliug, as well as of the tem- 

 perature, aud often of the humidity, winds, and other conditions. At 

 the eastern border, and at a few localities farther west, individuals 

 have kept equally valuable records, from the whole of which a close 

 approximation to a positive climatology may be deduced. From these it 

 appears that tlie rain-fall of every season continues abundant as far west- 

 ward as the ninety-eighth meridian, nearly. In Kansas, on the Arkan- 

 sas and Kansas Elvers, the dry surface begins soon after passing Council 

 Grove and Abilene, and from Fort Zarah to Fort Eeynolds, on the Arkan- 

 sas, a distance of three hundred miles, the country is very dry. On the 

 Kansas Eiver, from Salina to the sources of the Smoky Hill Fork, and 

 beyond these to Denver, the deficiency of rain is considerable, but not 

 so great as on the Arkansas. On the Platte, from Fort Kearney to the 

 foot of the mountains, the like deficiency exists, but still less than on the 

 Kansas, the degree of deficiency being lessen going northward. Again, 

 on the line of the Canadian Eiver, at the thirty-sixth parallel, there is 

 less deficiency of rain than on the Arkansas at the thirty-eighth, to 

 whatever cause this may be due. In the "Bad Lands" of Nebraska 

 and Dakota, and in the valleys east and south of the Black Hills, there 

 is a material deficiency of rain, but on the upper plains of the Missouri, 

 the Yellowstone, and other rivers northward, the deficiency in spring 

 and summer is not so gTcat. The deficiency here spoken of is more 

 definitely the sensible deficiency experienced in cultivation or shown in 

 the vegetation and surface evidences than the measured deficiency in 

 quantity falling. It is a striking fact that the actual quantity falling, as 

 shown by the rain-gauge, would in most climates be considered ample. 

 At Fort Kearney, on the Platte, for instance, at the very border of the 

 arid region, as generally described, the quantity of water falling in 

 spring and summer is one-half greater than that falling in the same 

 seasons on the border of Lake Ontario, New York. 



Locality. 



Summer. 



Fort Kearney, 99° west longitude 



Osvrego, New York 



Niagara, New York 



Fort Laramie, 104" 47' west longitude 



Fort Riley, 90- 25' west longitude 



Fort Randall, 98° 12' west longitude.. 

 Denver, 104- west longitude 



Inches. 

 11.35 

 7.63 

 9.81 

 5.09 

 9.37 

 7.1G 

 1.00 



