Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-04-01

climate work together, the Archbishop's
garden was very inferior. Yet it was
usual with tourists to speak of this gar
den as quite unequaled in 1.-THE states"
and only to be compared with the gar
dens of some oriental monarch.
From Geo. =. Whitcher.
EDITOR REHABILITATION wintering in
Nebraska some two and half months,
arrived at home Feb. 81, and as far
as experience goes, can say that part
of the state had an extremely hard
January. Some old Nebraskans said
it was the worst they ever saw. The
cold streak was not very wide but ex-
tended in southeasterly direction
from the upper Missouri Valley to the
Gulf. We heard in Nebraska that peo-
pie froze to death in New Orleans.
People can learn much by expert
ence if they profit by it. The average
of outdoor feeders did not put a pound
of flesh on their cattle in.the month of
January. Some say, "Tll never feed
any more cattle unless | have close
battened Sheds" as it seems that the
Nebraska wind can fill building with
snow through very small aperture.
saw what would be considered good
sheds in Wisconsin filled full of snow
through cracks to the windward side
so that they h ad to shovel the snow to
get the cattle out. How is this for a
mild winter to some Wisconsin folks?
| have seen just such drifts on the old
Galena road twenty years ago, when
we hauled dressed hogs and grain there
to market. So have you, back there
on the Wisconsin prairies. Yes. it is
true we have seen some heavy SHOWS
in Wisconsin, some drifted roads, some
deep piles of snow, but the winds here
can't begin to get right down on the
toot, howl and boom. as they do there
1t can't drive as much snow through
the key hole of door as it will there.
The little angular particles of frost as
they come ripping against ones hard
cheek yield the palm to a Missouri
Valley blizzard every time. Some say
| it was the worst storm in seventeen
years. Some said, 'pshaw. we had as
bad a one five years ago. Some say,
''Pll be better prepared for this another
winter" and some say "Oh! we'll new
er have another such" And so it goes;
in six months they forget all about it,
, unless they appreciate fully the impera-
tive necessity of better system of she'd
ding for our climate. An Old Dane
who was digging his hogs out from
under the snow told me: I'm Denmark
we have as close houses for our stock
as the people have, and we keep them
in shelter, if we choose, from October
to May; but we have no such storms
tn Denmark. But as far rs my OBJ
servation extended in Nebraska. there
was no great mortality among cattle.
Some few hogs smothered, but there
are plenty left.
But in this connection | desire to
touch on one point. | see some of my
friends in Western Nebraska and in
Dakota boast of their light fall of snow,
and some western Nebraskans told me
"We had only two inches of snow in
Keith County" Well, it proves this
point, the old hundrodth meridian ar
gument, that they have very little rain
fall; that their country is subject to
dronths. | have heard this argument
for four years, first at TT. Worth in Tex
as: That the rainfall would follow the
railroad track and telegraph wires;
that the jar and thunder of the loco
motive, the railroad train, the smoke
of burning coal, the blowing of the
lands, would surely create revolu-
ton in atmospheric currents and be
conducive of more regular rainfall;
that timber culture would eventually,
if adopted generally on the arid plains
OF the West, induce a more even and
generous rainfall; and while it must
be admitted that for the last four years
we have had p more humid atmos-
phere, it has been clearer of long and
continued drouths-at the same time
the opponents of this argument claim
that we are surely passing through the
usual cycle of wet seasons, and that
the Southwest will again be subject to
drouths
While there are these varieties of
opinion, there is one fact we can't
gainsay: The planting of timber in
duces rainfall. One writer, in referring
to this, speaks of the island of Madeira,
which he says. previous to being denu-
ded of its forests. used to be overhung
and surrounded with fogs, and was
very productive. It's wines were sold
in nearly every market in the world.
and even as popular as the Rhine wines
or the Heidsic champagnes-yet when
they cleared off its forests entirely.
they killed the goose that produced the
golden egg. This forestry argument
is admitted now by nearly every one.
and even here in our own Wisconsin.
we would do we'll to initiate some of orr
Western states in setting out trees along
the roads, say rod apart, By taking
box alder or soft maple very good
shade could be started in the course of
ten years. And even though we should
not live to enjoy their comfort in the
hot months it would be the grandest
monument we could leave to coming
generations. Yet am one of those