The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1873-06-17
DrOughts.

AS the season Of droughts has arrived,
and it is clear to all that they are more
frequent and more disastrous, in this re-
gion than formerly, it may not be unin.
teresting to our farmers and other readers,
to peruse the scientific explanation of the
causes from which they come in the west.
1t is taken from advance sheets of Bea.
dies new book on 1.-THE Undeveloped
West" and is perhaps only adapted to
that region. Different causes arc begin
ming to tell upon our climate, and accord.
ing to Marsh, who seems to be good
authority, we are in danger of very grea:
calamities to our soil and climate, by the
cutting Oft of the woods and timber.
Whether the specific causes referred to
by Beadle affect us materially. we are
unable to say, but it is not, certainly a
sufficient explanation Of the change which
is gradually coming over New England,
drying up her streams, making the fertile
field barren and literally driving the farm
ing interest into close quarters. But
whether applicable or not, We give it for
- Ia . as ibliOHS.
Drought Is the "s! prs1yy@iliIHaFF Ses esetr'SSf'iia;
misunderstanding westward from the
river till one has crossed to the Pacific
slope. The causes Of this westward in
c%reasing aridity are found in the greater
elevation, the trend Of the mountains and
the direction OF the prevailing winds.
Look upon the map OF the eastern hemis-
phere, and observe the alterations Of
desert and fertility between the parallels
OF ~ aud 30 north, and note that the
desert steadily increases as we 90 west.
ward. The causes briefly stated are
these The clouds, surcharged with moist.
ure from the Pacific, are carried by the
prevailing winds over China and Anam,
with abundant showers they are wruDg
dry, So to speak, in passing the high
Himalayas, and float over southern Per.
sia and Aighanistan without discharge.
They gather again a little moisture from
the Persian Gulf, and hence there is rain
q little way inland in Arabia q little
more water is obtained from the Red Sea.
and light showers sometimes fall in
Egypt, whence they sweep over the whole
length oil the Sahara without a fertiliz.
ing shower. Thence across the Atlantic,
loaded with moisture, the clouds yield
immense rains upon the next intervening
continent producing the dense jungles and
iuxuriant vegetation of tropical America.
In Ike manner the summer winds from
the Pacific send in upon California heavy
mists, which are caught and condensed
by the Coast Range and the Sierra Neva-
do. The great interior valley of California
has rain in winter only when the moist.
urc is waited from the south, and east of
that range. The Great Basin is nearly all
a complete desert, the rim of the enclos.
ing mountains admitting only the clouds
OF the highest range aud least moisture
from the south. Between that and Kan.
sas still i%nterposes the %loftiest range of
the Rocky Mountains, more completely
shutting off the summer clouds and leav-
ing all that elevated region, for three
hundred miles east Of the mountains, to
depend upon the uncertain chance of win.
ter SHOWS, upon southeast winds and the
percolstion Of moisture from higher ba.
Sins aud mountain hollows. Progressing
thence eastward. we come more and more
within the range of winds from the Gulf,
and more iutO Il region Of moisture.
Hence all Western Kansas, Nebraska,
and Dakota must suffer from frequent
drOughis, aud the region as far east as
Western Iowa and Minnesota occasional
ly from the same cause.