Januabx 25, 1906. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



623 



when we come to the Eocky Mountains 

 we find a territory over 1,500 miles long 

 from north to south, and averaging 500 

 miles in width, with very few points 

 less than 4,000 feet above the sea. 



An Arid Region. 



The air is dry, the rainfall meagre and 

 the sunlight brilliant. In short, the whole 

 region is arid, and ordinary farm crops 

 cannot be produced without artificial 

 irrigation. It is almost impossible to 

 convey by words an adequate idea of the 

 drying effect of the air of this region. 

 One must actually have seen and experi- 

 enced the thing to be able to appreciate 

 it. When I say that the annual rainfall 

 of this region averages about ten or 

 twelve inches and that the rainfall here 

 in Massachusetts or in Indiana is four 

 times that, you will not get an adequate 

 conception of the difference. After a 

 rain here your humid air prevents rapid 

 evaporation, while with us nature at once 

 proceeds to rob the soil of that which 

 she has just bestowed, so that an inch 

 of rain is not so effective as here. Dews 

 and fogs are rare, almost unknown, ex- 

 cept on mountain peaks which are storm 

 centers as they are everywhere. To me 

 one of the most striking evidences of the 

 drying effect of the air is the fact that 

 a man exercising in the hot sun of sum- 

 mer will seldom feel his underclothing 

 cling to his body, the evaporation being 

 rapid enough to nearly offset his per- 

 spiration. The temperature records of 

 the weather bureau would make it ap- 

 pear that Denver and Indianapolis have 

 about the same mean temperature both 

 for July and for January, and that the 

 highest and lowest recorded temperature 

 is nearly alike for both places; but owing 

 to the dry air Denver has a great ad- 

 vantage in what is known as the "sensi- 

 ble temperature" both in hot weather 

 and in winter. What I have said regard- 

 ing the climate applies equally well to 

 the whole of the arid region of which the 

 Rocky Mountain country is but a part. 



The natural growth of vegetation 

 throughout this whole region is very 

 scanty except upon the high mountains, 

 and even there one will not find any- 

 thing approaching the riotous growth to 

 be encountered on such mountains as the 

 coast ranges of Oregon and Washington. 

 There are pines, to be sure, and spruce, 

 especially on the northern slopes, but the 

 general 'appearance justifies the name 

 given to the range. The plains or high 

 plateaus are covered with a very scanty 

 growth of grass in little bunches, widely 

 separated, and ior ten months in the 

 year these are brown and have a dead 

 appearance. Owing to tte fact that there 

 is little moisture, the dead grasses do 

 not rot and add to the soil from which 

 they grew, but they wither and desiccate 

 and seem to vanish into nothingness. 



Soils Related to Climate. 



I have gone into this matter at some 

 length because I believe that soils are 

 closely related to climate ; in fact, largely 

 the result of climate, and I have prepared 

 you to understand that in many ways our 

 soils must differ from the soils of the 

 east and of the lake region. Frost and 

 wind are steadily carrying on the work 

 that they have been doing for ages, but 

 the work of all these is mainly mechani- 

 cal and the result must be largely min- 

 eral. The vegetable elements, the fibre 

 and the humus, are sadly lacking. In a 

 great many localities mineral salts are 

 present in such quantity as to render the 

 soil unfit for greenhouse use, and in some 



J. A. Valentine. 



cases it is barren even in the field. We 

 are apt to say that such soils contain 

 ' * alkali, ' ' without any thought or knowl- 

 edge as to the exact nature of tlic harm- 

 ful element. My obser^'ation has been 

 that the rose is more resentful of the 

 presence of these salts than the carna- 

 tion. I am not personally sure of its 

 truth, but it is commonly reported that 

 for lack of suitable soil and water, roses 

 cannot be successfully grown under glass 

 in the vicinity of Salt Lake City. 



As the character of the soil is largely 

 determined by the climate, so too is the 

 character of the water largely determined 

 by the soil of the region through which 

 it runs. In nearly all the arid region 

 except in the strictly mountainous por- 

 tions, the water is alkaline. In some 

 sections it is so bad that neither man 

 nor beast can use it to drink, and vege- 

 tation suffers from contact with it; while 

 in other cases only the test of the chem- 

 ist shows the presence of any deleteri- 

 ous substance. 



Character of Soils. 



Where the soil is decomposed shale, it 

 is generally heavy and known as 

 "adobe," a clay heavy enough from 

 which to make sun-dried bricks. This 

 soil, when dried by the sun after a rain, 

 will open great cracks an inch or more 

 in width and a great many feet in length. 

 It is needless to say that it would not 



produce good results in a carnation 

 bench, but it does yield good crops for 

 the farmer who understands how to cul- 

 tivate and irrigate it. This heavy adobe 

 is at one extreme, and we find all grades 

 of soil differing in texture up to sand 

 and gravel. In some parts of the moun- 

 tains we have enormous deposits of red 

 sandstone, and the soil adjacent will be a 

 bright red sandy loam which yields excel- 

 lent crops in the field, but lacks the 

 necessary substance for use in the bench. 



Within a small area, soils of very differ- 

 ent character can often be found, and not 

 infrequently the topography will indicate 

 different rock formations as the source 

 from which they came, but almost with- 

 out exception there will be the same lack 

 of vegetable matter. This lack is one 

 which can measurably be supplied so far 

 as the chemistry of the soil is concerned, 

 but the texture of the soil cannot be as 

 satisfactorily corrected. During the win- 

 ter the carnations require a thorough 

 watering once or twice a week and I 

 think all growers in our section will 

 agree with me in saying that we have 

 been unable to find a soil that will endure 

 this heavy watering throughout a season 

 in the bench without becoming packed 

 and soggy, unless it is a soil so sandy 

 that it will not produce a good crop. 



It is to be hoped that we may learn 

 something to our advantage from the 

 scientific soil investigations now being 



