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452 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
sota compares with other sections in this respect. Along the Gulf 
and Atlantic coast, from New Orleans to New York, this percentage 
is lowest, being only eight or nine. As we go toward the interior it 
increases to twenty per cent at Omaha, and then going north it 
diminishes to fourteen per cent in Minnesota. On the Pacific coast 
it is least at Portland, being thirteen per cent, then gradually in- 
creases to the south until San Diego is reached, with the large 
mean annual deviation of thirty-seven per cent. 
With over forty inches of rainfall, irrigation would rarely be of 
much benefit, except as a means of fertilizing the soil. The cloud- 
iness in these districts is usually sufficient to prevent excessive 
evaporation, which is really more of a factor in causing a drouth 
than lack of rainfall : 
In districts having less than forty inches, it is only a matter of 
time before irrigation will become universal, and that force at work 
more than any other to compel its application is the steady increase 
in population. 
It has been pretty well proven that, unless overtaken by some 
terrible catastrophe, the world’s inhabitants will so increase in the 
comparative near future as to render the obtaining of sufficient 
subsistence impossible, and in China and India, where this increase 
is now most marked, a moderate drought, reducing but slightly 
the yields, causes a dreadful famine and great distress throughout 
the region affected. 
We here in Minnesota are now at that stage where the inevitable 
can be foreseen, but on account of the many complications involved, 
including the necessity for new laws and great engineering abil- 
ity, no general plan of adoption is likely to be put in practice for 
some time to come; and its necessity is not so very urgent, either, 
as farmers do make a living as it is, and, while waiting for the new 
era of smaller farms and larger yields, a valuable lesson is being 
learned in conserving the moisture already available through im- 
proved methods of cultivation. 
RELATION OF WATER TO PLANTS. 
(Prof. B. T. Galloway in an article entitled ‘‘ Water as a Factorin the Growth of 
Plants.” summarizes as follows, and in this is found the gist of the whole valua- 
ble article. Itis worthy of carefulstudy. Secy.) 
SUMMARY. 
The facts presented show— 
(1) That water makes up the largest proportion of the weight of 
green plants, indicating at once its great importance. 
(2) That water, with the food which it contains, is obtained by 
plants exclusively through the roots, and therefore a well-developed 
root system is essential to the best development of the plant. 
(3) That the development of root system may be controlled in 
various ways, thereby increasing or decreasing their ability to ab- 
sorb water and food from the soil. 
(4) That a saturated soil is detrimental to the growth of roots; a 
