The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-10-01
MOISTURE" VS.. HOT WINDS
To the Editor of the Eagle.


all this interior country, we are con
fronted with question still more grav
and more difficult of solution, in ''Tht
Aridity of the Plain Belt" Can the no
winds be stayed or so modified that thes.
rich lands can be made to bear a COLDER
harvest? This is the question that rises
like some gigantic mountain over all thii
country. Every man, every woman, ev
cry child, and the entire world, has q
deep interest in the problem. For il
must be evident, that if the people of the
United States can, in any way, so mod
ify the unSaturated air that rushes north
ward from the north rim of the sub-trop
zeal belt, in the midsummer. for few
days, then the most. if not all of the des-
ert lands of our globe will sooner or later
be made fruitful.
1t would be unwise to affirm that there
are no difficulties in this question, and
those of us who write should do so only
to aid and not to criticise the opinions of
Others. Perhaps in the end the
remedy viii be so simple that
all will feel surprised that we did not
reach the goal sooner. But till the end
is reached the laws of our physical globe
need be carefully studied. Especially
such laws as related to the air. the
clouds, the wind currents, and the laws
and the modifying power of the con-
densing currents of greater or less yio-
lence, that act unseen under that most
subtle but well known law of ''expan-
sion by heat and contraction by cold"
There cannot be a doubt but that the
surface of our globe will ever remain
more or less effected by the operation of
forces more or less remote, and doubt
! less the relation and position which the
planets sustain to each other and to our
| humble globe, compared with some of
| them, will at times be remote cause
| influencing ''plant life on our earth. 5"
! But the student will find this field of
| remote causes" much narrowed down,
when he comes to investigate the COM
| position of the air itself, and its inherent
| capacity to store away in its invisible
/ cells the tinny vapor, which it must have,
or it will move under law to find a
supply.
What we vulgarly call shot winds
! is simply 'unsaturated air in motion"
| Supply the air with a proper
vOlumn of vapor to saturate it
and the wind and its heat is stayed!
| This fact is most clearly demonstrated in
the heavy shower" over an extended
area. Let the wind be ever so strong
and fitful from the south and in a few
minutes after the shower the wind is felt
only as cool breeze. Its violence Is
stayed. Why? For the simple reason
| that the rain, quickly converted into va
por, has taken possession of the air cells
and has thus satisfied the unsatUrated
air, and that body of air refuses to longer
move rapidly in space to secure an equi-
librium. And before it will again move
rapidly a greater or less period must
elapse-one sufficient to give time for a
depletion of this vapor. This, be it long
or short, must intervene, and then the
air in this same locality will again move
on in harmony with the general current.
That moisture in some form is the real
antidote to ''hot Winds" may be seen
and shown in many ways. Over all this
interior belt, if showers are frequent, or
if heavy rains happen to fall on the south
rim of the north temperate in the last
days of June and in the fore part of the
month of July, then crop life becomes
exuberant on these rich cretaceOus lands.
The air thus supplied with vapor moves
not in wild, thirsty march nOrthward
to secure an equilibrium, and in this
march to gather its moisture from plant
life.
The year 1889 must ever remain con-
elusive argument demonstrating the fact,
that moisture is the antidote to hot
winds. During the latter part of April
through May, June, July and part of
the month of August of 1899, the pre-
vailing wind was from the southeast.
This air was laden with vapor from the
Gulf of Mexico and the rivers. creeks.
and lakes or marsh lands on the north
side of the gulf. The results was that
the air was saturated TO its capacity, and
the air thus charged with an abundant
supply of local moisture, as it moved
northwest was very frequently met by
the cold condensing currents from the
north and mountain regions, and hence
over very much of this arid belt we had
heavy showers. These showers gave us
the crop of 1899. and at the same time
did much, locally, to supply the air with
vapor to again fall in rain in a short time.
But what are the facts as to 1890:
In early spring and throughout the
entire summer the wind remained steady
south, coming not from the Gulf of
Mexico and her moist lands, but over and
from the dry, treeless plains of Old
Mexico, Western Texas, New Mexico,
staked plains and the dry lands of the
Indian country. This air, not properly
supplied with vapor and detected east
ward by the motion of the earth, swept
north to secure its wanted equalization,
l,, Ofh
absorbing their moisture! Crop life is
not DESTROYED by the heat of the air, but
by the moisture of the plant passing TO
the air to aid in its saturation.
The inference is irresistible, that moist
ure gave us the crop of 1889. The lack
of moisture in the air destroyed or partly
depleted the crop of 1890.
Again, it must be evident that while !
there is ample moisture on the north side
of the subtropical belt to make Florida, |
Georgia, Ala amaa and Louisiana fruitful, |
by reason of the presence of the Gulf Of |
Mexico, still for the need of a seasonable |
amount of surface water on the lands TO |
the west and northwest of that gulf crop |
life is and will be uncertain till in some |
way the surface moisture is increased. |
At least wherever the south and south |
west winds prevail in midsummer.
An article does not afford the space 70 |
explain why such aresult. A single fact |
may aid. as science tells US that a cubic |
foot of air at 20 degrees (FahrenheiD re-
quires but 80 grains of vapor troy /
weight TO saturate it. But let the tenn |
perature be increased to 100 degrees and |
then il will pick up 1873 grains before |
il is saturated. II this be true then we |
can readily see how, when the earth |
reaches its midsummer position it be 4