40 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



They point to the less amount of rainfall west of that line, and ask 

 how a region that receives so little can be utilized for agricultural 

 purposes. Two replies can be made. 



The fallacy of this conclusion can be seen at once if we compare 

 the rainfall in western Nebraska with that which obtains in some 

 of the most favored spots of the old world. The following table 

 I have taken from Guoyot: 



Table of Bainfall. 



British Islands, 



Western France, 



Eastern " 



Sweden, 



Central and North Germany, 



Hungary, 



Eastern Russia, Kasson, 



Northeast Portugal , 



Madrid 



Depth in Inches 



32 

 25 

 22 

 21 

 20 

 17 

 14 

 11 

 10 



Paris itself, according to the researches of Arago, has only an 

 average annual rainfall of twenty inches. (Cosmos, vol. I, p. 331.)* 



Now it is true that there are many rainy days in western France 

 (152) and in central and north Germany (150) yet if we count in 

 the nights when it rains and the days and nights when it snows, 

 there is not so much difference as at first imagined between the wet 

 days of Nebraska and middle and western Europe. Regions in 

 Europe with less rainfall than even western Nebraska, are made 

 successful in agriculture. Less toil than is expended to make the 

 dry portions of Europe a garden would make western Nebraska 

 agriculturally rich. Even, therefore, judged by European stand- 

 ards, western Nebraska is already sufficiently watered for the needs 

 of certain kinds of agriculture. 



Not only is western Nebraska far removed from desert condi- 

 tions, but every part of North America. No sections of its low 

 or table lands have the aridity that Humboldt and Ehrenberg found 

 [Cosmos] between the valleys of the Irtish and the Oby. There with 

 temperature of 74 7' the dew point was at 24 . The air therefore 

 contained only .10 of aqueous vapor. The structure of North 

 America makes genuine desert conditions impossible. There are 

 dry and arid sections but the aridity nowhere produces a genu- 

 ine desert comparable to the Sahara. 



* See also for early rainfall in Central Europe, Gasparins' Researches. 



