320 



CLLMA TE AND ITS RELA TION TO LIFE. 



Labrador and other high Arctic and Antarctic lati- 

 tudes ; while below, and within the limits of a single 

 glance, the climate passed through all the varying 

 phases of the temperate and semi-tropical regions. 

 To a trained observer like him these presented a 

 thousand curious and suggestive aspects, which, by 

 cemparison with each other, led to the confirmation 

 of certain theories and the refutation of others. 

 How far distant may the time be, when with a given 

 latitude or altitude, a given mean temperature and 

 rainfall, the Department may say with an approach 

 of certainity, of fruits and flowers, of vegetables, 

 fibres, cereals, grasses, trees and animals, "This va- 

 riety will, and this other will not thrive with you ?" 



The Department does this to an extent already, 

 but its utterances too often lack the element of au- 

 thoritative knowledge, based upon specific experi- 

 mentation. The nucleus for the organization is 

 ready in the Department, consisting of the divisions 

 of Botany, Entomology, Ornithology and Mammal- 

 ogy, Pomology, Horticulture and the Seed Division. 

 It is proposed to add the Weather Bureau, and from 

 present appearances it will probably be placed under 

 the jurisdiction of the Department. Moreover, the 

 experiment stations throughout the country are act- 

 ing in more or less harmony with, and report to the 

 Department ; and the plan of co-ordinating the work 

 of all these divisions and bureaus to a single central 

 purpose has the platform for discussion and adop- 

 tion ; the plan of determining as far as possible the 

 relations of climatology to life in all its manifesta- 

 tions. 



It is proposed that all the agents of the Depart- 

 ment shall investigate not merely wKli reference to 

 their own specific work in the Department, but shall 

 have the eye of observation ever open and the mind 

 ever ready to see and to note these relations. In 

 this study, every available source of information 

 \\ ill be sought to be used. The Department is in 

 intimate correspondence with a close scientific stu- 

 dent in Queensland, Australia, who will report the 

 climatic characteristics of that country, and will 

 furnish the grasses and forage plants that appar- 

 ently will be^of service to the United States. Ar- 



rangements are being made for the collection of the 

 flora of Alaska, and the Department has under con- 

 sideration the sending of an expedition, sometime 

 in the near future, that shall traverse Russia from 

 its western to its eastern border. It has an agent 

 collecting botanical specimens in South America. 

 Agents of the Department are traversing this coun- 

 try from Mexico to our northern border, collecting 

 the specimens that shall lead to a more thorough 

 knowledge of the distribution of plants, mammals 

 and birds. Agents of the Pomological Division last 

 summer made a trip, beginning at Texas, thence 

 through New Mexico. Arizona, California, Oregon 

 and Washington to the northern border, and thence 

 home, generally studying the habit-s and making col- 

 lections of the wild grape. The head of the Division 

 of Forestry made a similar trip, beginning in Colo- 

 rado and thence west to the state of Washington, 

 and thence to California and home by way of Ari- 

 zona and New Mexico, for the purpose of studying 

 the distribution of plants. The chief of the Botan- 

 ical Division took a similar trip into western Kan- 

 sas and through tlie same territories for the purpose 

 of studying the character and distribution of the 

 native forage plants. At present the facts thus 

 gathered, except for their specific work, are not co- 

 ordinated or brought together as a principle of law ; 

 but the purpose of the Department is to so organize 

 the whole work as to enable it, with more certainty, 

 to inform the world of the possibilities of the several 

 localities in the country and the plants and animals 

 that are adapted to them. If this plan shall com- 

 mend itself to the practical and scientific men of the 

 country, it is hoped that it will receive such encour- 

 agement as shall inspire the Department to go on, 

 and that abundant means will be given to consum- 

 mate it. It is hoped that these facts thus accumu- 

 lated, may in time be reduced and brought into line, 

 and that there shall come to the front some man 

 who, with the spirit of prophesy, shall define the 

 law which governs the relations of climate to life. 

 We absolutely need an exhaustive work on the cli- 

 matology of the United States. 



Edwin Willits. 



