St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-11-27
An Interesting Article by
Maj. Jones, Of the Ma
tional Army,
Who Is the Engineer in
Charge Of the Big Res
ervoir System.
The Conservation Of Water
Considered From Prac-
teal Points.
Our Great Supply and How It
Is Secured and Con-
tanned.

Water is the life-blood of all vital
functions on the earth. With it goes
life. Without it. death. In the proc
eSseS of nature very little of it is wasted,
OF even changed into other chemical
forms. Absorbed in living organisms,
1t is surrounded when they die. Escap-
ing beneath the surface of the earth, it
is sooner or later liberated at lower
levels, or becomes vaporiZed to steam
upon the hot interior rocks. This steam
finds vent from hot springs and geySerS,
and comes back to earth again as rain or
fog. In the wonderful economy of nat
ure water is stored ia great ocean reser-
VorS and Distributed as an invisible
VapOr by means of moving currents of
the atmosphere which envelopes the
earth. Condensed by change of tenn
perature to liquid form again it falls to
earth as rain, where it performs the es-
sential functions of life, leaving the
surplus to escape by an irresistible law
to the ocean reservoirs, from whence it
came. This is the eternal cyclic har-
mOny of earth, the environment of man
and all earth'S living forms. Surround
ed by these wonderful forces and phe-
nOmena, man is but an atom at their
mercy.
Being at the summit of created living
things, ii is but natural that he should
require for his purposes more water
than any of them. And so he essays
puny methods of storage and diStribu-
tlOn i'll order in measure, to control
and regulate little of the water that
&c rniI all I,it l., Ill,
seems TO him so uneJually and unfairly
distributed. With the
Pride of an Ant-HiH
he looks around and says: 81 am max
Ing climate He points to Babylon
and Tyre and the waste places of Meso-
potamia and says: Il did it. i changed
the climate, and the rose garden IS a
desert" He points to the great plains
of the North American continent: II
have changed the climate. The Great
American desert blossoms as the rose"
Among the numerous delusionS of his
pride there is none greater than the
belief that he is changing climate-that
marvellous conglomeration of fluid, gas.
heat and electricity. 1t is function of
several elements that he knows little
about and of an unknown number of
Others of which he knows nothing. Up
to date his science has utterly failed to
harness the weather in an algebraic
formula.
We know that within the period dur
ing which rainfall has been measured
the quantity preciDitated per mouth or
year in any locality has varied continu-
ously. But there is no law of the vara-
ton in sight. The quantity extremes of
rainfall occur at utterly irregular inter-
walls. and there is no reason for believ-
ing that we have record of either the
greatest Or least quantity in any
one year. The same may be said OF
heat and every other element which
goes to make up climate. Let me illus
trate: Within the state of Minnesota
Is a climatic feature. A meridional
zone forms the boundary between great
areas of prairie and forest. The former
stretches away to the west ana forms a
part of the great continental plain.
Everywhere in this great plain of Min
nesota and Dakota the lakes and
streams have in recent years been dry
ing up. The rainfall of 1890 produced,
in most cases, no flow in the streams.
The seasons of 1891 and 1892. however,
have been attended with considerable
rainfall, and it is possible that the drOuth
period of the preceding ten years has
passed. But bad as it was, there is evil
dence that at some former periods there
existed drOughtS of far greater severity
in this region. There is a lake near
Devils Lake. n. D., where in 1890 the
old overland trail leading west termi-
mated abruptly one side of the lake and
was taken up again in the continuation
OF It's direction OH the opposite side.