The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-05-23
DOES RACE MAKE CLIMATH
Does the Anglo-SaEon Change the CH-
mate Where He Locates?
TSDacial C,orresnon6ence

! NEW YORK, May 1.-Twenty-three
| years ago | visited Fort Riley, Kan.
when the military reports referred to it
as on the western border Of the thickly
habitable region, and talked with officers
and traders Of Ellsworth, little beyond,
as ION the edge Of the Great American
Desert" La the valleys there was soft
grass and a sort of sod. Northward and
northeastward-and [ especially recall
Pawnee county, Neb.-the country " as
covered by the ''hard grass of the
plains" that is, sort of punched and
seeded grass which formed no sod. Go
ing westward on the Platte l found very
little sod beyond Loup Fork. The won
derful change in all that meridian
know, for have seen it.
have heard more curious things, for
which cannot personally vouch. Many
witnesses say that for many years the
border between the soft grass of the Mis-
souri, valley and the regular plains grass
Travelled regularly westward at the rate
OF two or three miles per year. During
all those years and many more all west
eTn New Mexico and northern Arizona
were certainly growing dryer, for
found many recently extinct lakes and
abandoned fields in which the Navajoes
had raised good crops Of corn thirty
years before. At the Same time the val
leys about Beaver, Utah, were gaining
moisture SO rapidly that broad stretches
remained green nearly all summer and
at Salt Lake City there was at least one
heavy rain each month in the summer of
1874. Now what could have caused this
change except the presence and work of
the Caucasian? I can imagine no other
reason which fits all the facts.
In Australia the changes have been
stupendous. Vast tracts on which the
summer heat was almost intolerable have
become comparatively temperate. The
air Is still hot, but there is a softness in
1t which makes it far more agreeable; the
nights are more refreshing, the breezes
more cooling, and in the vicinity Of cul-
tiVated tracts even the desert air is less
prostrating. Old settlers in California
insist know not how truly.-that thun-
der Is now often heard in localities where
1t was unknown at the time of the dig
gings," and few pioneers testify to per
5onally noting the fright of Indians there
when they first heard thunder. The old
est reports of explorers speak of the
Cherry creek country as rainleSs in sum-
mer; but l have seen rain storms in Den
Yer which would be rated as violent
and protracted" even in the Ohio valley. !
a recent writer on Egypt asserts that
rain has fallen OfJener since the English
took possession. On the other hand. the
ruins of Roman aqueducts and fount- !
tains and evidences of cultivated fields |
have been discovered so far down in the |
Sahara as TO prove that the limit of cul- |
tivation was once far south of the pres
ent limit, and we know in reason that |
when Northern Africa had eighty Chris |
tan blshoprlcs 1t must have held at least
zen times as many people as now. The !
Aryan or Caucasian race ruled it then.
There are many reasons for believing |
that the habits Of this Tace and their |
Of culture improve the climate.
On the other hand IL is 10 be noted
that seasons Of the old fashioned kind
come at intervals TO western Kansas and
Nebraska and TO Utah and Colorado: and
It Is important TO know whether this is
always to be so, or whether long contin-
ued cultivation viii not finally make the
rainfall permanent. Nebraska
presents this curious anomaly: consider
ably more than half the grain produced in
the state is from the section west of what
was only twenty-five years ago marked
IL the limit Of possible farming without
Il Is also question if irri-
eating all the valleys lying in proper
ocations therefor VIII not make all the
adjacent uplands culdvable by increas-
ng the rainfall j. Il. BEADLE