14 



FORESTATION, SAND HILLS NEBRASKA AND KANSAS. 



vicinity of Garden City about 65 per cent. While for short periods 

 the humidity may be low, the variation by months is slight. January 

 and February have the highest relative humidity. 



WIND. 



Both regions are decidedly windy, but the Kansas region has a 

 mean wind velocity 8 per cent greater than the Nebraska region. 

 While the south winds of summer are fairly desiccating, it has been 

 shown at Halsey that the summer winds have very little damaging 

 effect, unless the soil is extremely dry. The early spring winds from 

 the northwest are damaging to both field and nursery, because they 

 move the sand and dry out the plants. The winter winds, while not 

 so high, dry out the plants because of the lack of protective snow 

 covering. Trees which are well established do not suffer as much as 

 those newly planted; fall planting, therefore, is almost certain to 

 result in heavy losses or complete failure. 



Table 4 shows the velocity and direction of the wind at Valentine, 

 Nebr., and Dodge, Kans., the stations where such records are obtain- 

 able near the sand-hill planting areas. 



TABLE 4. Direction and velocity of wind, by months. 



1 Data from Weather Bureau Bulletin "Q.' ; 



2 Data from local offices Weather Bureau, Lincoln and Topeka. 



THE IMPORTANT CLIMATIC FEATURES. 



The three most important features of the climates of both sand- 

 hill regions are: (1) The lack of winter precipitation in the form of 

 snow, to form a protective covering for young trees; (2) the great 

 variations in precipitation from month to month, partly counter- 

 balanced by the good water-storing properties of the hills; and (3) 

 the winds of late winter and early spring. While the temperature 

 extremes are not great, the Kansas region doubtless suffers most by 

 reason of its constantly higher temperatures. Especially in summer 



