694 KANSAS CITi REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
amount of rain. This increase is slowly pushing westward the boundaries of the 
region of successful agriculture, but the increase cannot be beyond a certain 
moderate limit and cannot be expected to bring the western third of the State 
within these boundaries. The vapor by the condensation of which our Kansas 
rains are produced, comes chiefly from the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The 
position of the body of water and the' direction of the prevailing winds are such 
that but a small portion of the vapor can be brought to western Kansas. 
A peculiar feature of the rainfall of Kansas consists in the fact that only 
about one-tenth of the annual precipitation occurs in the winter months. In the 
eastern States the amount of rain, including melted snow, is nearly as large in 
winter as in each of the other seasons. In Kansas, which has less rain in the 
winter than any State in the Union except Minnesota and Nebraska, the appar- 
ent deficiency is abundantly made good by a more copious supply of rain in 
spring, summer and autumn than is received by the great majority of the other 
States. 
The distribution of rain through the months of the year is highly conducive 
to agricultural prosperity. Beginning with February, in which the average pre- 
cipitation is reduced to its minimum, there is a constant increase in each month 
until June and July, when the rainfall reaches its maximum and begins to decline, 
each succeeding month showing a decrease in the average amount until the min- 
imum is again reached in February. It is very rarely the case that the monthly 
rainfall during the growing season departs from the normal to such an extent as 
to seriously injure the staple crops. The only approach to a general drouth dur- 
ing the sixteen years of our observations was in 1874, when for several months 
in succession the rainfall fell considerably below the average amounts. 
Kansas can truthfully claim to enjoy a larger amount of sunshine than the 
eastern States. The records show that the average cloudiness at Lawrence is a 
little more than 44 per cent. In the New England States the average is 53 per 
cent, in the southern States 47 per cent. In California the per cent is only 31, 
while in Great Britain it reaches 71, or nearly three-fourths of the sky. 
The average direction of the winds in eastern Kansas is from the southwest. 
The average velocity of the wind at Lawrence is a little more than fifteen and a 
half miles an hour. This is sufficiently high to assist materially the proper venti- 
lation of our houses and our clothing, but does not justify the common expression 
in other parts of the country that the Kansan lives in a continual gale. For the 
sake of comparison it may be mentioned that the average hourly velocity of the 
wind 'in Philadelphia is eleven, at Toronto nine miles; and at Liverpool thirteen 
miles. The greatest velocity recorded at Lawrence was at the rate of eighty 
miles per hour, from 3:34 to 3:45 A. M., April i8th, 1880. The average annual 
distance travelled by the wind at Lawrence is a little more than 138,000 miles. 
March and April are the two windiest months, the velocity rising to nearly twenty 
miles an hour. July and August are the two calmest months, the rate subsiding 
to less than twelve miles an hour. 
The amount of moisture contained in the air is an important element of a 
