Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1895-03-21

By n bach In rssosa Farmer.

~ $500 "AAu
the characteristics of the writer. You
know that he is perfectly independents
IN every and all directions You know
that lie has neither fear nor favor for
anything or any one, and that he is
always ready to express his convic-
lions anywhere and everywhere. He
aas no great respect for the opinion of
any oDe, bet bows his head in humility
and admiration before facts, knowl-
edge. And after saying this, he will
aot be charged with fiattery when he
says that the last issue of the DAKOTA
FARMER was one of the best ones, il
aot the best one, which you have ever
ssued. 1t is brim full of good and use
tul articles, information which no far
ner eau afford to lose. 1t tries 70 en-
body the experiences and the practical
knowledge of experienced and practical
men in the lines which every farmer
ought to be informed on. sm going
to give you q medley this time, a com
posite congloneration.
On a train recently, I found that
there were three cars Of sheep, two
from n party and n from another.
When i found that a certain farmer
with whom / am well acquainted
shipped two carloads of sheep out. il
gave me kind of a shock. Il was under
the impression that he foolishly dis
posed of his stock and vas going out of
business-) But learned to my I'M
bounded satisfaction that the two cars
shipped were weathers, both old and
young. and that he still had 700 sheep
on his farm. ! know the circumstances
n that case and it is worth giving. A
gentleman brought in so sheep from
Wisconsin, think lSST-they ran at
large and made much trouble in the
vicinity. Finally the owner got tired
Of the fuss and wanted to dispose of
them The man who just shipped the
two cars. had a span of mules and
traded them for the sheep. The result
| nave announced. i do not know how
many cars he had shipped before, but
he has now o sheep as reported, and
is in good financial condition. This
one fact goes far ahead of all the opin-
ions; ali The croaking about this coun-
try that can be uttered.
The writer has been to some pains to
study the climatic and meteorologic
condition of this country. He has come
to the conclusion that we will ALWAYS
be troubled with more or less drought,
AID we might as well look this fact
squarely in the face. To the west of
Us are the Rocky Mountains rising their
heads thousands of feet above
us To the west of these is the Pacific
Jcean. The winds from that great
cody of water carry moisture. In the
passage east these vapor laden breezes
encounter the Rocky Mountains.
Where there is moisture in the air. con-
~densation, caused by colder stratas,
produces precipitation. When the
winds strike the mountains they have
rom necessity to raise higher. and in
doing So they get into colder stratas,
condensation follows, and thus they
discharge their vapory contents then
and there. Besides this, there is some
thing of a mechanical effect brought to
bear on the clouds. AS they strike the
mountains they feel their resistance.
The pressure of the wind from behind
is felt, and there is in a measure just
the same effect on the clouds as their
might be on a sponge when filed with
moisture and pressure is brought to
bear on it. This may be disputed by
some technical people. but let the read
ers consider it scientifically and see if
il is not reasonable. The result is that
in the mountainous localities. there is
A deposit of about A inches of moisture
per annum, while, when the clouds
nave passed over them, they are desti-
Gute of the moisture which they
brought, and pass oyer our heads as
dry as can be. There is another, what
| might call storm belt, but that gener-
ally passes by us. Many storms origi-
nate in the Gulf of Mexico, and these
are vapor laden ~ the greatest extent.
The movement of an era of low pres
sure Is from the Southwest to the
Northeast. There are two motions to
a storm. The one is where the area of
low pressure, Dr. the storm center,
moves as a whole from the Southwest
to the Northeast. The other is the
pressure from different directions all
around this storm center where the
wind rushes in towards the low pres
sure into the center of the storm, try
ing TO equalize the pressure, just on
the same principle that water will rush
in towards a lower pressure and try
to equalize itself. B~enjaman Franklin
a the first TO note this fact. His
brother living at Boston, Oh. Z. living
in Philadelphiaj vas TO visit Philadel-
phia, but a great Northeast storm came
up, and this, Benjaman thought, would
prevent the visit. But to his surprise
his brother came on, and on comparing
notes they found 10 their astonishment
that the storm, instead of coming from
Boston to Philadelphia, had gone in
the opposite direction. This was the
first starting point in the discovery
that there were two motions to storms.
The Northeast wind was rushing to-
wards b low pressure center. Being
colder, and having to encounter the
onward movement of the storm at a
whole, land that storr~ may be from so
to hundreds of miles N diamater) the
same happened as when the vapor
laden clouds encounter tho Geld and
pressure of the higher regions of the
rocky mountains. The North wind is
cold and condenses the moisture, and
there is somewhat of a pressure pro-
duced by the two movements But
these storms originate too far south of
Us to strike us, as a rule. The western
edge, if they come a far North at all,
are SO far South and East that the most
we can'expect is TO get a little of the
Southwest edge. These storEa follow