Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1879-12-11
TABLE OF MEAN TEMPERATURES.


TABLE OF MEAN TEMPERATURES.
Win Battle
Toronto. St. Paul nipeg. ford.
August. ...... 66 IS 1900 81 81 67 10
| September. 5S.16 60.06 52.lS II 10
October ......45 "a 1903 1854 a.52
! November. 5000 3S.03 30 81 2S66
December 2578 1903 1871 7.4S
January $3.50 1903 % 10 Gas
February w 2274 1902 -1232 10 25
| March 49,. % GO 1901 14.14 1854
April .........4O72 1904 1910 1870
| Nav -. ....5l.14 5S07 5313 $3.50
June. .........6l,e5 67O9 63 20 6O35
July ..67.49 1905 G8.l9 6395
Yearly means .44.O4 1851 Sc 81 st. As
A statement of mean temperature
during the agricultural season, from
April 10 August inclusive, exhibits the
following proportions Toronto, 81 de-
grees 90 minutes; St. Paul, 65 degrees,
5 minutes; Winnipeg, IS degrees, 10
minutes; Battleford, IS degrees, SO min
utes. Thus it will be seen that the eli
mate, in Its relation TO agriculture, is
warmer in Manitoba and over territory
seven hundred miles northwest, than in
the most central districts of Ontario;
while st. Paul, in latitude 45 degrees, is
z degrees 20 minutes warmer than the
vicinity of Toronto in latitude A
degrees.
[ hope soon to be III possession Of
similar statistics at Fort McMurray on
the Athabasca river, and Fort Vermil-
lion, on Peace river, respectively 1000
and 200 miles due northwest of Win
nepeg, and have full confidence that
the climate at these points will not be
materially different from Battleford
The altitude of the Athabasca and
Peace river districts is less, and the
trend of the Pacific wind through the
Rocky mountains is more marked than
at Battleford. 1t was on the banks of
Peace river, we'll up in latitude so de-
grees. that Sir Alexander Mckenzie re-
cords on the 10th of May the grass SO
we'll grown that Buffalo, attended by
their young, were cropping the uplands.
But find my best Illustration is that
the climate is not materially different
west of Lake Athabasca, in latitude 60
degrees, than we experience west of
Lake Superior. in latitude 46 degrees,
in some personal observations of the
northwestern extension of wheat cult
walton. In 1871, Mr.. Archibald, the
well-known proprietor of the Dundas
mills in southern Minnesota, visited
Manitoba. He remarked that the
spring wheat in his vicinity was deteri-
oating-soFtening and he sought q
change of seed to restore their fiinty
texture. He timed his visit to Winnie
peg with the harvest, and found the
quality of grain he desired, but the
yield astonished him. "Look," said he,
with head of wheat in his hand, "we
have had an excellent harvest in Min
nesota, but I never saw more than two
welcomed grains in each group or
cluster, forming row. but here the rule
is three grains in each cluster. That's
the difference between twenty and thir-
ty bushels per acre" More recently,
Prof. Macoun, the botanist of the Cana
dian Pacific railway survey, has shown
me two heads of wheat, one from Prince
Albert, a settlement near the forks oil
: the Saskatchewan, latitude SIS degrees,
longitude 106 degrees, and another
from Fort Vermillion, on Peace river,
latitude SO degrees, longitude 116 de-
grees, and from each cluster of the two
| separated five welcomed grains, with
a corresponding length of the head
Here was the perfection of the wheat
plant, attained according to the we'll
known physical law, near the most
northern limit of its successful growth
Permit another illustration on the
: testimony of Prof Macoun. When at 6
, Hudson Bay post of the region in ques.
tion-either Fort McMurray, in latitude
81 degrees, or Fort Vermillion, in lati
tude SO degrees, and about the longi
tude of Great Salt Lake, an employee
of the post invited him to inspect a
+ strange plant in his garden, grown from
a few seeds never before seen in that
locality. He found cucumber vines
planted in April in the open ground
? and with fruit ripened on the 10th Of
August.
| will venture to illustrate the climatic
, influences which control the problem
under consideration, by some citations
from Minnesota; Its Place among the
1 States, by J. A. Wheelock, Commission
er of statistics" which, though pub
lished in 1860, is all the more al
! authority for the confirmation of twenty
, years. The general law Of limitation tC
the profitable cultivation of wheat Is
, thus luminously stated:
: "The wheat producing district of the
= United States is confined to about ter
degrees of latitude and six degrees o.
longitude terminating on the west al
:, the 98tk parallel. But the zone o.
its profitable culture occupies a com.
> parative narrow belt along the COO
! borders Of the district defined for inland
4 positions by the mean temperature Of
: fifty-fve degrees on the north and
, seventy-one degrees on south, for the
> two months of July and August. This
defnation excludes all the country ly,
: ing south of latitude forty degrees, ex
cept western Virginia, and north of that
= it exclude the southern district of Penn
i sylvania Ohio, Illinois and Iowa, while
it includes the northern parts of these
states, Canada. New York, western
Virginia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Min
d nesota, and the Red river and Sas
7. katcheWan valleys. In general terms
n it may be stated that the belt of maxi
5 mum wheat production lies Immediately
s north of the districts where the maxi
!, mum Of Indian corn is attained"
:. The argument for Northwest British
: America, as for the state of Minnesota
cannot be more accurately epitomizeC
). than by the following summary 0
i Commissioner Wheelock:
J. 81. That physical and economical
}. causes restrict the limits of wheat cul