AGRICULTURE. 479 



RAINFALL. 



In considering the agricultural possibilities of Northwestern Texas it is 

 highly important to give particular attention to the question of rainfall. 

 The soil may be all that could be desired in a country and the rainfall be so 

 small that it would be utterly impossible to raise any of the ordinary crops. 

 I have therefore availed myself of all possible resources to get information 

 on this subject. 



A few years ago the United States government collected all the data possi- 

 ble upon this subject and published the results. 



It is thought that twenty inches of rainfall per year is necessary to the pro- 

 duction of ordinary crops. That crops could be raised with less than twenty 

 inches of water if the rain comes at the times most needed and within the 

 time of the growing crops. 



The western boundary- of the twenty-inch rainfall in Texas was placed by 

 the United States Government Report at about the one hundred and first 

 meridian, or a line commencing at the mouth of Devil's River and crossing 

 the Texas and Pacific Railway at Big Springs, and thence along the foot of the 

 Staked Plains, and crossing the State line at the mouth of Paladora Creek, in 

 Hansford County. This line would only be approximately correct, and I am 

 sure it is in no place far enough west. As this Report is not intended to 

 cover any part of the district west of that line, I have only collated such facts 

 as relate to that portion of the State covered by the Carboniferous and Per- 

 mian formations as is given in another part of this Report. 



The following tables have been prepared from the data collected from va- 

 rious sources. Table II shows the mean amount of rainfall for the time 

 given, the small figures in the upper part of the spaces showing the time for 

 which the observations were made. It will be observed that at only two sta- 

 tions does the mean precipitation of rainfall go below twenty inches per an- 

 num, the amount thought necessary for successful agricultural purposes ; and 

 these stations are only for two years, a length of time too short to get a cor- 

 rect average. 



