DAIS 



DAKOTA 



657 



A common ration for COWH kept in milk-dairies ; 

 brewers' Drains are not thought favourably of 

 in cheese or butter dairies, where any food tliat 

 ir.i'iilv hemmes sour or tainted is scrupulously 

 avoided, and is wholly prohibited by the owners of 

 factories or creameries, and by condensers of milk. 

 Hoots of various kinds are rarely used in America, 

 the hot, dry summer climate and the greater ease 

 of growing tlie equally valuable feeding crop, 

 mai/e (commonly called corn), combining to make 

 rout -crops unpo)iiilar. When roots are grown, the 

 long ml or the yellow globe mangels are preferred. 



'llie use of ensilage has been found very con- 

 venient in the dairy, and this practice is rapidly 

 extending. In the dairy districts of Wisconsin at 

 lea>t 2000 silos were built in 1888, the serious 

 damage to the feeding crops by the dry season of 

 the previous year having induced dairymen to secure 

 ample feed by growing corn which sutlers little 

 from drought, and to some extent enjoys dry, hot 

 weather and preserving it green in silos. It is 

 (|uite certain that the cheapness and ease of produc- 

 tion of this grand fodder crop has given a greater 

 stimulus to the American dairy than any other 

 favourable circumstance. The abundance and 

 cheapness of the grain (corn), and also of bran, 

 enable American dairymen to produce cheap milk, 

 cheese, and butter ; and there is no other cla&j of 

 American farmers who enjoy equal comfort, and 

 even wealth. 



Dais ( Old Fr. dels, dots, from Lat. discus, ' a 

 quoit,' 'platter;' in late Lat. 'a table'), a term 

 u.>ed with considerable latitude by medieval writers. 

 Its most usual significations are the following : ( 1 ) 

 A canopy over an altar, shrine, font, throne, stall, 

 chair, statue, or the like ; the term being applied 

 to the canopy without regard to the materials of 

 which it was composed, which might be cloth, 

 wood, stone, metal, or other substance; (2) the 

 chief seat at the high table in a hall, with the 

 canopy covering it; (3) the high table itself; 

 ( 4 ) the raised portion of the floor, or estrade, on 

 which the high table stood, and which divided the 

 upper from the lower portion of the hall; (5) a 

 cloth of state for covering a throne or table. 



Daisy (Bellis), a g^enus of tubulirloral com- 

 posites (family Asteroidete) characterised by its 

 conical receptacle and absence of pappus. The seven 

 or eight- species are paliearctic, save B. integrifolia 

 of Tennessee and Arkansas. The familiar species, 

 B. perennift, needs no description, nor can any one 

 have failed to notice its habit of closing at night. 

 Double varieties, crimson, pink, white, or striped, 

 are common in gardens, and are frequently of such 

 exuberantly vegetative habit as to produce smaller 

 heads in the axils of the involucrat bracts of the 

 main capitulum, whence the popular name of Hen- 

 niiil-ckirkc.ios. A handsome variegated variety is 

 called aucubcsfolia. The characteristic beauty and 

 almost perennial profusion of blossom have made 

 tliis commonest or flowers the prime favourite alike 

 of childish and poetic garlands, and invested its 

 many names (Eng. Day's eye, Scot. Gou-un, Fr. 

 Marguerite, &c. ) with such an unequalled wealth 

 of associations that it must here suffice only to 

 name Chaucer and Burns as foremost laureates of 

 a ceaseless tribute of admiring song. The Ox-eye 

 Daisy is a Chrysanthemum (q.v.). 



Dak, or DAWK, the mail-post of India; also, 

 travelling by Palanquin (q.v.). See BUNGALOW. 



Dakota. NORTH and SOUTH, two states of the 

 American Union embracing the former territory of 

 Dakota, and having respectively | cop,,,,,,, 1889i i M7( Md 

 areas of 70,795 and 77,650 square i* ID u u. s. by j. B. 

 miles. The territory from which Llpp ' DO 

 they were formed was bounded N. by Assiniboia 

 and Manitoba (Canada) ; E. by Minnesota and 

 146 



Iowa ; S. by Nebraska ; and W. by Montana and 

 Wyoming. Four-fifths of the surface is an undu- 

 lating plain. A belt of high plateau, the f'oteau 

 du Missouri, traverses the tract from north-west 

 to south-east ; and a similar but smaller ridge or 

 divide lies east of the James River valley. The 

 great river Missouri Hows south-eastward across 

 the Dakotas ; and the country west of that stream 

 is more broken and better timbered than the rent. 

 In South Dakota lie the Black Hills, a rugged 

 and mountainous region (3200 sq. m. ), and well 

 wooded. Their highest point, Harney Peak, is 8200 

 feet high. The Turtle Mountains in the north are 

 crossed by the Canadian boundary, south of which 

 their area is but 800 sq. m., and their highest ele- 

 vation 2300 feet. The geological features of the 

 Dakotas are full of variety and interest. A very 

 large proportion of the surface is covered by 

 glacial and alluvial drift, and much of the country 

 bears evidence of having leen more than once 

 submerged. During the Silurian age a shallow 

 sea or saline lake must have rolled over it ; while 

 there is evidence that at about the end of the 

 glacial period it was either the bed of a great 

 lake, or at least was very largely covered with 

 lacustrine waters. At present the lakes are all 

 relatively small, except Devil's Lake, or Minni- 

 waukon,' in the north, which, like many others 

 of this region, has no outlet. Its waters are 

 therefore saline, but it is inhabited by fishes of 

 various fresh-water species. About one-third of 

 the area of the tract, chiefly towards the north- 

 west, is believed to be underlaid with beds of work- 

 able lignite, well adapted to use as a domestic fuel ; 

 and the spontaneous tiring of the lignite beds has 

 probably been a large factor in the development of 

 the so-called 'bad lands,' which are covered with 

 rocks of most fantastic shapes. Natural fuel -gas 

 has l>een obtained by boring at several points. 

 Among the building-stones are quart/ite, jasper, 

 and granite in the south-east, and sandstone, 

 marble, and granite in the south-west. Fictile clays, 

 gypsum, cement, chalk, mica, and other useful 

 minerals are found in many places. Medicinal and 

 thermal springs are found in the south-west, where 

 the Black Hills afford much gold and silver, as well 

 as tin, antimony, lead, mica, copper, and other 

 minerals. The tin-mines are the only ones of any 

 extent ever worked in America ; and some of the 

 gold-mines are among the most extensive in the 

 world. In the ten years 1877-87 the gold and 

 silver production of the Black Hills amounted to 

 $33,770.000. 



The climate of the Dakotas present* some remark- 

 able features. The winters are cold, but so dry 

 and sunny that the cold is usually borne without 

 great suffering, except during the blizzards (see 

 BLIZZARD) which are occasionally experienced. 

 The summer days are warm and often windy, but 

 the nights are ordinarily calm and cool. The 

 climate is everywhere remarkably healthful : mal- 

 arial diseases are nearly unknown. The rainfall 

 is relatively low, but the copious saline element* 

 in the soil, with the generally level surface and 

 the coolness of the climate, tend to the retention 

 of moisture ; hence the rainfall is usually ample 

 for the production of all the ordinary crops. The 

 planting of forests has been greatly encouraged by 

 local and national legislation. The Missouri River 

 is the principal stream ; it is usually navigable for 

 eight months in the year. The other important 

 rivers are the James, noted for the fertility of it* 

 valley ; the navigable Red River, famous for it* 

 rich alluvial basin ; the Big Sioux, Vermilion, 

 White, Cheyenne, Bad, Moreau, Grand, Cannon 

 Ball, Heart, 'Little Missouri, Maple, and the Mouse 

 or Souris. The north-east section of North Dakota 

 is tributary to Hudson Bay through the Red River ; 



