62 



Garden and Forest. 



[April 4, 18 



• — its Chestnut, Yellow-wood and Wild Cherry, its Catalpas, 

 its Persimmon and Silver-bell Tree, its Flowering Dog- 

 wood and Fringe Tree, its Liquidambar, Hackberry and 

 Sumachs — among these is surely material enough to sat- 

 isfy the planter of deciduous trees, however great may be 

 his love of variety. And among coniferous trees there 

 is none more picturesque in youth or more stately in 

 maturity than our northern White Pine, none more grace- 

 ful anddignitied than our Hemlock. 



Eastern Asia has given us the Ailanthus, the Pawlonia, 

 the Flowering Apples, the Yulan Magnolias, the Gingko and 

 the Mulberry, which are already perfectly at home here; and 

 the similarity in climate and vegetation between that part of 

 the world and our own, leads us to believe that many other 

 Asiatic trees will permanently thrive with us. In addition to 

 those mentioned, many young Japanese trees — especially 

 Conifers — now help to beautify our gardens. But it must not 

 be forgotten that we know no more about the behavior of 

 these trees, as they approach maturity here, than we did of 

 the Norway Spruce, the Scotch Pine and the English Oak 

 when they were supposed to be the most valuable orna- 

 mental trees for planting in this country. And this is true 

 also of the Rocky Mountain Conifers, now so largely 

 planted at the East, and of all the exotic trees which have 

 been introduced into California. Therefore, planters who 

 are wise will confine themselves to native trees until ar- 

 boreta and other experimental stations can definitely 

 teach us which foreign trees can be safely admitted into 

 American plantations. 



Rainfall on the Great Plains. 



THE future of the Great Plains, as the vast elevated re- 

 gion between the 98th parallel of latitude and the 

 eastern base of the Rocky Mountains is generally called, 

 is a matter of much importance to the American people. 

 The question whether this region is to remain always a 

 quasi-desert, the barren feeding-ground of a few half- 

 starved cattle, or is to become the home of a large and 

 prosperous agricultural population, involves serious politi- 

 cal and commercial interests. 



The rainfall is light and very unequally distributed. 

 Moisture is insufficient to insure the growth of trees except 

 along ihe immediate banks of the infrequent streams. 

 Agriculture is precarious. The scarcity of rain is due to 

 the remoteness of the region from any great body of 

 water. It is effectually cut off from the Pacific by numer- 

 ous lofty moimtain ranges, and its only water supply comes 

 from clouds charged with moisture from the Gulf of Mexico 

 — moisture which they have pretty thoroughly lost before 

 they reach the interior of the continent. Here are condi- 

 tions which no action of man can influence. It is, how- 

 ever, the apparent belief of many persons — especially 

 those more or less directly interested in the develop- 

 ment and prosperity of the States and Territories in 

 question — that the rainfall has materially increased since 

 the advent of white settlers, and that this change is 

 due to the trees which they have planted and to the 

 breaking of the soil. That is to say, it is believed that 

 small and for the most part widely scattered groves 

 and belts of young trees — for the largest single plantation 

 of trees in all the West does not exceed 650 acres in 

 extent — and the ploughing up of a little land here and 

 there, have been sufficient in a quarter of a century to 

 alter continental climatic conditions. 



The fact that several men of political and commercial 

 position have recently undertaken to discuss the general 

 question of the settlement of the Plains, has brought it 

 again to public notice. It is an undoubted fact that in the 

 past few years settlers have obtained a foothold consid- 

 erably nearer to the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains 

 than it was once supposed that crops could be raised with- 

 out artificial irrigation. Mr. Henry Gannett of the United 

 States Geological Survey in an authoritative article printed 



in a recent issue of Science, shows, however, pretty con- 

 clusively that it is not an increase of rainfall that has modi- 

 fied agricultural conditions on the Great Plains, even if any 

 such modification has really taken place. He has ex- 

 amined the rainfall records kept at twenty-six stations in 

 Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming and Dakota, for 

 periods ranging fromsix yearsto twenty-eight; the longest 

 being that kept at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The stations 

 are widely scattered from east to west in both the settled 

 and the unsettled portions of this region. Mr. Gannett di- 

 vides the results of these observations into two equal terms 

 of years and adds the )'early rainfalls of each term sepa- 

 rately. If settlement has increased the rainfall, the record 

 for the years embraced in his second term should show the 

 fact. The aggregate rainfall at all the stations during the 

 period when the records were kept was in the first term of 

 years 4,408 inches, and in the second term 4,468 inches, 

 showing that there had been an apparent increase of 60 

 inches in the total rainfall, at all the stations, in a total of 

 310 years; or that 0.4 of an inch more rain fell in each 

 year of the second than in each year of the first term — an 

 increase which could not have made any perceptible dif- 

 ference in the agriculture of the region. 



There is, however, no doubt, as Mr. Gannett suggests, 

 that cultivation adds to the value of the rainfall. The sur- 

 face of the Plains is naturally bare, compact, and but 

 slightly protected by a covering of grasses. Water flows 

 freely fiom such a surface and a large portion of the rain- 

 fall finds its way into the streams without permeating the 

 soil. When the ground is broken up by the plough much 

 more moisture is retained. The quantity thus retained in- 

 creases from year to year, and the sub-soil becomes in time 

 a reservoir from which the surface-soil draws moisture in 

 times of drought. This is probably the true explanation of 

 the fact that crops have matured on the Plains with a sum- 

 mer rainfall of only ten inches. But it must not be forgot- 

 ten that the settlement of the Plains has been attended with 

 great expense and with terrible suffering and loss of life ; 

 that in a region of such scanty and precarious rainfall 

 any decrease in the amount during a single year must be 

 attended with serious losses ; that three or four succeeding 

 years of drought must mean utter ruin to the farmer ; and 

 that the records long kept in other parts of the country 

 show that such small variations are sure to occur with fre- 

 quency. 



The Study of Botany by Hoi'ticiilturists. 



ON three occasions after tlie late Professor Gray had 

 given up the duties of college instruction, he was 

 induced by the nrembers of a Summer Course in Botany 

 to deliver a few informal lectures. One of these, which 

 can never be forgotten by the class in attendance, began 

 in these words : 



" You know the old and homely adage that ' one-half of 

 " the world does not know how the other half lives.' I 

 "may say that far more than one-half, even of intelligent 

 "people, do not know how they live themselves; they 

 "have only the dimmest and most vague notion of those 

 " arrangements in Nature, based on the vegetable creation, 

 "upon which their very living depends. And even if 

 "aware, in a general way, that plants nourish and support 

 " all animals, they do not know how it is done, nor have 

 "they the least idea of the beautiful harmonies that 

 ' ' run through all plants, connecting one with another 

 "into a system, a symmetrical whole, a vegetable king- 

 ' ' dom. '" 



Happily this censure is becoming less deserved than 

 when these words were uttered. In our community there 

 is an increasing interest in plants and in the laws which 

 govern their growth and development. Much of this in- 

 terest is due to the attractive manner in which Dr. Gra3^'s 

 educational works have placed before the American public 

 the general principles of vegetable structure and life. And 

 it is encouraging to observe that this interest appears to be 



