328 AGEICULTURAL REPORT. 



couditiuiis oi' climate or soil iu the general surface adverse to the rea 

 sonable expectation of success. Localities will probably be found on 

 ■which no efforts would be successful, but of the general capacity of the 

 climate of the plains to sustain forests there can be no doubt. And 

 this is also as decidedly true of deciduous trees of the ordinary class 

 belonging- to the older forests of the East, as it is of evergreens, cotton- 

 woods, and poplars. On the northward slope of the drainage toward 

 Hudson's ]jay, in Dakota and Minnesota, the river borders in localities 

 protected against fire often show fine clumps of elms, maples, and oaks, 

 not less luxuriant than those of Michigan or Ohio. On the more dis- 

 tant plains of the Athabasca and its sources even more abundant natural 

 forests of maples, oaks, and other deciduous trees are found, the single 

 condition necessary to their existence appearing to be protection against 

 fire and casual destruction. 



At Fort Kearney, on the Platte, with a rain-fall of 25 inches, there can- 

 not be greater intrinsic difficulty in planting forests than on the Moose 

 or Pembina Elvers, at the forty-ninth parallel, and on the same merid- 

 ian. A narrow belt east of the Black Hills and west of the Missouri, 

 embracing the "Bad Lands" and the Missouri Valley for some distance 

 above Fort Sully, appears to be more decidedly deficient in rain at the 

 critical seasons than any part of the country surrounding it on either 

 side, possibly due to the exhaustion of the surplus moisture in the season 

 of showers by the elevated mountain-summit of the Black Hills, the Big 

 Horn, and AVind lliver Mountains. Two years of observation at Fort 

 Pierre, 1855 to 1857, would appear to support this view, as also do the 

 general and local descriptions of the country by travelers and resi- 

 dents. Observations at Fort Sully, however, which is very Jiear Fort 

 Pierre, both being on the Missouri near the forty -fourth parallel and 

 the one hundredtii meridian, show for 1872 an abundant summer rain- 

 fall; while in 185G there were but 3^ inches, in 1872 the quantity was 

 10 inches. The range between the quantities in extreme years is at this 

 point undoubtedly great, and the advers*^ influence on general cultiva- 

 tion may be considerable. 



But none of this difficulty exists after i)assing a short distance west- 

 ward at the same latitude. The bottoms of the Little Missouri Eiver 

 abound in timber and grass, and all the country west of the one hundred 

 and third meridian appears to have a favorable climate, the Powder 

 Eiver and Yellowstone districts particularly. In the more decided val- 

 leys of Montana, near' the Eocky Mountains, local deficiencies exist, 

 and irrigation is necessary. Facilities exist for such irrigation, how- 

 ever, in abundant mountain-streams and easy diversion of their waters, 

 but far the greater body of open country north of latitude 44'^ appears 

 to need no irrigation. At Fort Eandall, on the Missouri, at 43° north 

 latitude, and not far below Forts Sully and Pierre, before referred to, 

 there is a reasonable abundance of rain from May to September; and 

 on all the coteaux, or higher prairies of Eastern Dakota and Western 

 Minnesota, there is no materinl deficiency. The same conditions are 

 known to apply to the Eed and Pembina Eiver districts, and to the 

 country on the Assiniboine and the Saskatchawan, chiefly beyond our 

 boundary. As far as surveyed, the Upper Yellowstone district is found 

 to be profuse!}' watered, though the vicinity of the new jiark is too 

 greatly elevated to be free from summer frosts. 



Descending toward the Missouri the climate is greatly softened, how- 

 ever, and it is especially mild about Fort Benton, where, also, though 

 but 2,G00 feet above the sea, the spring and summer rains are reason- 

 ably abundant. 



