i6 



INFORMATION FOR EMIGRANTS, 



Fort. Sully, Dakota. 



Thermometer fell to — 15° in November, 1872; — 30° in December; 

 — 35° in January, 1873; — 25° in February; — 12° in March; 18° in 

 April; and rose to 108° in June; 108° in July; 107° in August; and 

 100° in September. 



MAXIMUM AND MINIMUM TEMPERATURE FOR DECEMBER. 1880, AND JANUARY AND 



FEBRUARY, 1881.* 





December, 1880. 



January, 1881. 



February, 1881. 



States & Terri- 

 tories. 



3 



S 



s 





g 

 g 

 'S 





S 

 s 



'S 



Dakota 



Iowa 



Kansas 



Kentucky . , . . , 



Michigan 



Minnesota 



Montana 



Nebraska 



58° 

 56 



68 

 63 

 50 

 40 

 60 

 65 



-45° 

 —25 



—22 



— 7 

 -23 

 —42 

 —59 

 —26 



54° 



48 

 56 

 63 



43 

 35 

 47 

 64 



-55° 

 —40 

 — 21 

 — 8 

 —26 • 

 —44 

 —32 

 —32 



65° 



57 



65 



67 



54 



34 



65 



57 



-34° 



—24 

 —24 



+ 6 

 —27 



—33 



—29 

 —29 



* Compiled from " Monthly Weather Review " from the United States Signal Service Department. I have not 

 yet received the ofRcial records for the month of March, but the press dispatches from the Northwest are burdened 

 with the tales of suffering from snow and cold, railroad trains blockaded for weeks, families wanting fuel and 

 food, one half the cattle in some States reported killed, and now, as I write (March 31), comes sad news of floods, 

 great destruction of property, ice breaking, damage great, loss of life. And yet the cry is " Go West." 



The foregoing tables and extracts relative to the need of timber 

 shelter are sufficient to show the severity of climate in the region treated 

 of Think of the drawbacks to successful agriculture in a country like 

 Dakota, where the thermometer ranges from — 40° in winter to II2° in 

 the shade in summer ! * or in Kansas, with a range of — 26° in winter to 

 108° in summer; f or in Iowa, where — X 



The severe heat in summer, cold in winter, and droughts in various 

 parts of the season, are sufficient to kill most plants and trees that are 

 less hardy than the hardy oak trees in our forests. 



Grasshoppers. 



The greatest drawback to success in agriculture in the great West, 

 next to the scarcity of timber and 'want of rain, is the devastation of 

 the grasshopper, the Rocky Mountain Locust {Caloptenus spretus). This 

 will be found in the valuable report of the United States Entomological 

 Commission, published by the Department of the Interior. § 



*See Report of Lieut. Sharp, ist Infantry, U. S. Army, 

 t Kansas Agricultural Report, 1874, page 364. 

 J Transactions of Iowa Horticultural Society, 1879, page 301. 

 2 Washington, Government Printing Office, 1878. 



