306 CL1MA TIC CHANGES IN THE PRAIRIE REGION. 



of the whole interior prairie area, and far beyond the hundredth meridian, too, 

 but because it is not sufficient in measure to protect the young shoots from 

 destruction by fire; far east of the ninety-eighth meridian, and far west of it too, 

 it is the universal rule where the annual fires are stopped tree growth soon begins, 

 and to-day extensive groves can be seen remote from water courses, that have 

 thus spontaneously sprung up as it were. 



Far beyond there is a region, however, where, as observed previously, the 

 annual fires do not affect the question of the encroachment of the timber on the 

 prairie, contiguous to the streams to which it is rigidly confined ; but even there, 

 as civilization pushes forward, such ameliorating changes occur, and forest plan- 

 tations thrive so flourishingly, as apparently to stultify all previously conceived 

 theories. 



The increase in the volume and persistency of streams on the prairies, is a 

 fact vouched for by the experience and observations of thousands who live in the 

 region beyond the Missouri, and that this phenomenon is directly attributable to 

 the civilizing influences at work in -the cultivation of timber, the disturbance of 

 the soil, and other allied energies of frontier settlement, must be conceded with 

 all the precedents of history before us. My own observations on the plains, west 

 of the ninety-eighth meridian, during an almost continuous residence of twelve 

 years, in which time the settlements have pushed forward, and large agricultural 

 districts been opened up on the so called desert, confirm the assertion that the 

 volume of water in the streams has perceptibly increased. Small tributaries to 

 the principal rivers, whose sources are springs which flowed formerly only period- 

 ically, have become constant, and the beds through which the water found its 

 passage at certain seasons — the remainder of the year being absolutely dry— now 

 maintain a continuous current Depressions in the prairie at the foot of inconsid- 

 erable bluffs, which in the spring alone contained water (called water holes by 

 stockmen), but which in the early summer became dry, are now permanent pools 

 with a spring-like energy. Hon. Jacob Stotler, editor of the Emporia News, who 

 has resided in that portion of Kansas for twenty-one years, informs me that the 

 "Cottonwood" before and up to 1857-8, "could be crossed on the riffles dry- 

 shod anywhere." Since that time, he says, and with the settlement of the 

 country, the volume of water has increased yearly, and from that date he does 

 not remember, at its driest stage, for any time during the last ten years that there 

 has been less than eight or twelve inches of water in the shallowest places. Mr. 

 Stotler also called my attention to a grist mill established on that stream many 

 years ago, that frequently had to stop in consequence of the scarcity of water, 

 but for the past decade, notwithstanding an increased demand upon the power, 

 has experienced no difficulty in that particular, never since having been com- 

 pelled to suspend from that cause. 



In discussing the agricultural possibilities of the Great Plains, Rev. J. A. 

 Anderson, of the Manhattan college, argues thus: "When a man harvests 

 twenty bushels of wheat to the acre, that fact is quite as satisfactory to him as 

 any analysis of the soil, or any record of the rain-gauge. And if through a 



