THE ARID REGIONS OF THE UNITED STATES 



F. H. NEWELL 



Our honored President in his opening address on "tlie rela- 

 tions of the currents of air and water to animal and vegetal 

 life and to the temperature of countries " gave an admirable 

 description of the interdependence of climatic forces and showed 

 in a concise manner how the topography of a country modifies 

 the character of life, and through this fixes the industrial and social 

 relations of its inhabitants. His address renders it unnecessary 

 to discuss the causes of aridity, or to more than mention the 

 general effects ; so this paper, supplementing what has been 

 said, will dwell more upon the industrial or economic side of 

 the matter, describing in general terms the present utilization of 

 this vast region, much of it consisting of vacant lands. 



To the i^eople of many countries, as well as our own, the geog- 

 raphy of the arid regions of the United States has a peculiar 

 interest, owing to the fact that they include by far the greater 

 part of the public lands, upon which new homes can be freely 

 made either by our citizens or by foreigners intending to become 

 citizens. These regions may be described in a general way as being 

 in the western half of the United States, beyond the great plains, 

 and extending westward nearly to the Pacific coast. On the north 

 and south they are bounded by territorial lines, tlie conditions 

 of aridity prevailing in the north through Canada nearly or quite 

 to the Arctic circle, and south through Mexico until interrupted 

 by the belt of tropical rains. Although characterized by pre- 

 vailing or occasional droughts, these areas are by no means a 

 continuous desert. On the contrary, the deserts, as the term is 

 applied in the old world, are comparativel_7 rare and relatively 

 small in extent. 



The arid regions may be defined as those portions of the United 

 States where the rainfall, in quantity or distribution, is not favor- 

 able for the production of the ordinary cultivated food products, 



(167) 



