DISCURSIVE. 119 



Here is demonstrated the fact, that the dependencies of plants are not so 

 much upon precipitation per seas upon the convective humidity of the atmos- 

 phere. The wild and improperly cultivated soil of our prairies is usually 

 compacted by excessive heat and heavy rains, when they do fall; hence the 

 precipitation is soon lost by "running away." As before shown, surface 

 stirring of the soil fits it for moisture absorption and capillary action. But 

 this will not save us from drouths and crop failures, unless there is enough 

 moisture to supply the needs of our plants, either by root or leaf imbibation, 

 or, better, by both. 



Meteorologically speaking, northern Russia does doubtless have an ad- 

 vantage over us of the Northwest. Her forests there are vaster than ours. 

 Aside from great interior lakes and undrained swamps, she has the humid 

 influences of the Baltic and White Seas, and the cooling winds of the Arctic 

 Ocean, converting the vapors into mists and dews. 



But it is possible in human enterprise to make our Northwest equal to, 

 if not surpass northern Russia in water facilities. Lake Superior is our 

 Baltic Sea. Our chain of great lakes in northern Minnesota, and our 

 swamp lands, are, with economic appliances, ample for all our needs. The 

 salutary influences of the Arctic Ocean are equally ours to command. We 

 still have the remnant of a forest. If our Minnesota would "rise and 

 shine," the raided forest must be repaired. This done and done imme- 

 diately, or lose forever the successful point and next the canalization of 

 the state, bringing a goodly portion of Lake Superior "this way" for irri- 

 gational and navigational purposes, and the canalization of the great 

 plains from the Missouri to the Mississippi, aiding their forestation; when 

 this is done, as our very necessity, we shall have evolved moisture ample 

 for the needs of our agriculture and fruit raising, not then surpassed by 

 Russia or any part of the globe in the north temperate zone. 



WOOD CONSUMPTION FOR MINING. 



"It is safe to say that the estimate of a total annual consumption for 

 mining purposes in the United States is 150,000,000 cubic feet of wood. In 

 comparison with the general consumption of wood in the United States, 

 which must amount annually to over 20,000,000,000 cubic feet, these 

 figures do not allow us to point out the mining industry as a leading 

 factor of the exhaustion of our timber supplies. Yet in some regions the 

 question of the supply of mining timber has already attained sufficient 

 importance to call for its consideration. In the Pennsylvania coal region 

 the near-by supply is rapidly diminishing, making longer haulage neces- 

 sary. In fact, the companies and operators reporting to the Forestry 

 Division draw their supplies mostly thirty to forty miles, and some of them 

 eighty miles, to their fields of operation. Even from the famous timber 

 region of northern Michigan, this state of affairs is reported. In Utah, the 

 scanty home supply would have been used up long ago but for some im- 

 portation of California timber, upon which also the Nevada mines now 

 rely almost entirely. The Montana mines are using enormous quantities, 

 much more than can be furnished for any length of time by the limited 



