3i8 



CLIMA TE AND ITS RELA TION TO LIFE. 



sterling have failed to exterminate. They thrive 

 there far better than in their supposed habitat. It 

 is said that there are no snakes in Ireland. If so, 

 is there any reason (barring the edict of St. Patrick) 

 why they should not live there ? These few illus- 

 trations out of many are cited to show the delusive 

 character of facts when isolated from a considera- 

 tion of conditions. When all the conditions in these 

 cases, as well as others of a like nature, are known, 

 there is found to be ample reason for the non-pro- 

 duction, without impeaching the general law that 

 plants and animals will not exist in an unfavorable 

 climate. 



Why are there no trees on our vast western prair- 

 ies east of the arid belt ? Some insist that tree 

 planting on them will never be a success, for the 

 reason that Nature would have placed them there 

 if adapted to their growth. Others again contend 

 that fires have for ages swept over them and kept 

 the forest in check ; others that the soil is too loose 

 and not of a character fitted for tree life. The fires 

 are largely diminishing, and the soil, especially in 

 the eastern part, is from cultivation becoming com- 

 pacted, and yet there is no essential natural change 

 in the forest area. Others maintain (the most prob- 

 able cause) thiat the heavy winds are destructive to 

 all vegetation except the lowly kind that can bend 

 to the storm or lie beneath its mighty path. If the 

 latter is the chief cause, it but further exemplifies 

 the law of adaptation. The United States could 

 well afford to pay a large sum to be assured of the 

 true cause. Is the cause permanent or incidental ? 

 There is some evidence of a change, in that as the 

 area of effort to grow trees increases, the better is 

 the growth assured. Man may in time change the 

 conditions, but the years will be heavy before a suf- 

 ficient wind-break can be placed in the horizon of 

 the blizzard. That is, " perhaps," for I do not know. 



If observation alone cannot determine the adapt- 

 ability of vegetation to locality, experiment can. 

 But experience is a dear school. In a large meas- 

 ure it is empirical — governed by chance. When ex- 

 periment is guided by an accurate knowledge of the 

 constitution of the subject and a conception of the 

 conditions necessary for success, coupled with a full 

 understanding of the soil and climate to be tried, 

 the outcome may be predicted. Disregard of all 

 these conditions has wasted the substance of many 

 an experimenter and brought down many high hopes. 



Most of the-disagreements of the world come from 

 half statements, or from a half conception of full 

 statements. So most of our failures come from a 

 partial misunderstanding of requirements of suc- 



cess. If we knew all the facts in regard to the con- 

 stitution of a plant, and well understood the soil and 

 climate,*we might order its transportation and prop- 

 agation with as much certainty as the astronomer 

 can predict the orbit of a planet. The most learned 

 can be misled, as well as the most ignorant, by the 

 want of reliable data. In 1856, the learned Joseph 

 Henry, for many years the secretary of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, whose repute was justly world- 

 wide, wrote, " However large our domain really is, 

 and however inexhaustible it may have been repre- 

 sented to be, a sober deduction from the facts which 

 liave acciunulatcd dwing the last'few years will show 

 that we are nearer the confine of the healthy expan- 

 sion of our agricultural operations over new ground 

 than those who have not paid definite attention to 

 the subject could readily imagine. We think it 

 would be found a wiser policy to develop more fully 

 the agricultural resources of the states and terri- 

 tories bordering on the Mississippi than to attempt 

 the further invasion of the sterile waste that lies 

 beyond." 



It is still an open question with many whether it 

 would not have been a wiser policy to restrict our 

 agriculture to the region east of the line indicated 

 by Professor Henry, but the millions who have in- 

 vaded that " sterile waste " have paid but idle heed 

 to his advice, and their abundant agricultural pro- 

 ducts, both vegetable and animal, have played havoc 

 with the older states and their agricultural resources. 

 It will not be many decades before the center of 

 population will approximate the line which to him 

 was the western limit of economic agricultural pos- 

 sibility. He was right in his conclusions based upon 

 the facts then known to him, but at that time little 

 was known of the " Great West." No one imagined 

 that there were valleys in and beyond that "sterile 

 waste " which would in the future rival Egypt, and 

 whole states that then were supposed to be worth- 

 less except for the precious metals, which a gener- 

 ation later have a« agricultural production that far 

 out-ranks that of the mines. Who then supposed 

 that the valley of Peace River, in the province of 

 Athabaska, British Cohimbia, ten degrees north 

 and fifteen degrees west of St. Paul, the supposed 

 utmost verge of profitable cultivation, would pro- 

 duce a spring wheat that challenges in yield and 

 quality the best wheat grown elsewhere in the 

 world ! Who conceived it possible that the inter- 

 vening thousand miles would become a wheat field 

 that would unsettle the markets in Liverpool ? The 

 climate of that whole region was a sealed book, 

 save to the officers of the Hudson Bay Company, 



