FOEEST CIJLTIVAIION ON THE PLAIN't;. 321 



Here we sec that uo western post is greatly deficieut in spring rains 

 as compared with Central iSiew York, and only Denver and Laramie are 

 materially deficient in snramer rains. 



These facts are very striking, and on examination they are found to 

 characterize the entire area of the plains at the most critical season for 

 vegetable growths, the three months of spring; and, in fact, the month 

 of June is also included. It has long been known that many of the 

 rivers of the plains have Hoods in May and June; this is especially true 

 of the Kansas, which has its rise in a secondary tract of high lands, a 

 hundred miles east of Denver, and of the general line of the foot of the 

 mountains. Eecent observation shows that this tract is quite well 

 watered in spring and early summer, at least in contrast with the line 

 of the Arkansas, and with the overshadowed valleys, at the very 

 foot of the mountains. It is sufficient proof of this profusion, that 

 the entire volume of the Republican Fork, Solomon's Fork, and Smoky 

 Hill Fork, of the Kansas Eiver, as well as of several tributaries of the 

 Platte on the north, and the Arkansas on the south, is derived from this 

 isolated area. The Avater thrown off from this tract, four degrees of 

 longitude in length, or from 100^ to 104° west longitude, and two de- 

 grees of latitude in width, 38.p to iOp north, is fully as great as the 

 average water-drainage of an equal area in Michigan or New York. 



The characteristics belonging to it undoubtedly are simply those of 

 profuse rain-fall and too rapid drainage to the river-beds. There being 

 no forests, and little or no such abnudauce of other vegetation on the 

 surface as would serve to arrest and diffuse the rain, either by absorp- 

 tion into the soil or by retention in swamps, grass or wood lands on 

 the surface, the chief value derivable elsewhere from such profu- 

 sion here disappears. In this tract, surrounded as it is by plains of 

 such extent as to prevent any protection from prairie-fires, there has 

 really been no chance in a state of nature to attain forest growths. The 

 narrow line of cotton woods and willows at the river borders was only 

 preserved by being almost in the water, and however adequate the nat- 

 ural rain-fall to sustain forests, there was still no chance for them with- 

 out the protection of man. On this extension of prairie soils and uni- 

 form surface, where every acre is really arable land in the fullest sense, 

 would appear to be the most favorable spot for initiating practical meas- 

 " ures to intersperse forests with cultivated fields. Two or three great 

 railroad lines traverse it, affording ample means for communication and 

 the support of settlements. Establishments on the northern and west- 

 ern borders of such a tract are essential, and here they are easily made; 

 indeed, they are to some considerable extent made already, the line of 

 the Union Pacific Eailroad, and its brauch to Denver, being already a 

 line of not distant settlements, and of i)ossible complete connection of 

 protecting establishments. 



The precise quantity of rain falling on this district should be ascer- 

 tained. To do this, observations must be taken at the sources of the 

 Smokj" Hill and Eepublican Forks of the Kansas Eiver, about 103'^ 

 west longitude, and also on the South Platte and its tributaries. It is 

 probable that the whole territory intervening between the Platte and 

 the Arkansas is better watered than the immediate valleys of either of 

 these rivers. In attempting to determine the quantity for the plains 

 generally, we have a gTcat abundance of observations in Kansas, Ne- 

 braska, and Minnesota, the most conspicuous feature in all cases being 

 the profusion of rain from May to July. Generally, in Kansns the sum- 

 mer aggregate is greater than in any locality or State of its latitude 

 eastward to the sea-board. This averag;c ranges from fifteen inches at 

 ^1 A 



