GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 279 



the conditions of the experiments were such as the ordinary farmer 

 may easily imitate. 



One object was to test the possibility of growing trees and other plants 

 on the plains depending on the rain-fall alone. It was deemed import- 

 ant to show that the settler in the open waste may adorn his home with 

 trees ; may grow fruits and timber ; may raise grains and other vegetable 

 food for his family and his live stock without resort to expensive pro- 

 cesses of artificial watering. So far as we may judge from a single 

 season, the object has been accomplished j and it is not doubted that 

 future years will sustain the promise of the i^ast season. 



SETTLEI^IENTS ON THE PLAINS. 



Within the past two years settlers, in families and colonies, have 

 spread westward, along the line of the Kansas Pacific Eailway, and 

 also on streams north and south of the road, nearly to the one hun- 

 dredth meridian. The purpose is generally to grow and deal in cattle 

 and other live stock, and this purpose will be greatly aided by the 

 capability of the country to produce grains and other products of gen- 

 eral agriculture. The first settlers keep near the streams, as a general 

 rule, for the convenience of water ready at hand and the limited sup- 

 ply of timber. If we look backward twenty-five years and reflect on 

 the westward extension of settlements during that time, we must see 

 that the causes which have pushed the " frontier" nearly three hundred 

 miles west from the mouth of the Kansas Eiver are yet in active opera- 

 tion, aided by i)otent agencies not then in existence. Then the locomo- 

 tive was unknown west of the Mississippi ; noio there are in Iowa, Mis- 

 souri, Nebraska, and Kansas thousands of miles of railroad. TJien the 

 entire population of the United States was onlj^ about twenty-one mil- 

 lions ; now it is over forty millions. It is safe to say that the forces 

 operating to throw population westward, taking into consideration 

 facilities of transportation, are three times as powerful as they were 

 twenty-five years ago. The result will be a gradual spread of people 

 over the great plains, arranging their pursuits and modifying their 

 habits to suit the capabilities of the country and the necessities of their 

 respective localities. 



EFFECT ON CLIMATE. 



It is a bold assumption to say that the spread of settlements over the 

 plains is -to materially affect the climate. Yet it is not unreasonable 

 to expect some degree of amelioration. Every house, every fence, every 

 tree which civilized communities may in the future establish in those 

 vast, open areas, will aid, in some measure, to check the sweep of the 

 winds. Every acre broken by the plow will retain a greater amount 

 of moisture after rains, and for a longer time, than the unbroken prairie. 

 The genial rains of spring and summer will evaporate with less rapidity, 

 and there will be a greater degree of humidity in the atmosphere, 

 heavier dews, and possibly more frequent showers. Even if the annual 

 average of rain-fall shall not be increased, the chances are that it will 

 be more evenly distributed. If we may judge by the experience of 

 other parts of the world, where the destruction of forests has operated 

 to dry up fountains, we may reasonably expect that the breaking up of 

 the surface by the plow, the covering of the earth with taller herbage, 

 and the growth of trees, will all tend to the development of springs 

 where now unknown, and to render streams perennial which are now 

 intermittent. Thus the gradual si)read of inhabitants over the plains 

 will tend to enlarge their capabilities and to render them more 

 habitable. 



