The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1895-02-01

n Knox county. Between this line
and the line of twenty eight inches Of
rainfall that canb be located at Superior
IN Nuckolls county, thence running
northeasterly and terminating at Gov
lngton, Neb.. or Sioux City, Iowa the
farmer can have for the years of aver
return for his seed. time labor and
capital invested.
East OF the line of the twenty-eight
inch nit the farmer can ieel assured
OF crops ior the great majority OF years,
although years of severe drouth may.
and always will, occur and reduce the
yield per acre to a very light amount.
Between the lines o. twenty-eight and
twenty-four inches of rainfall 1T is not
only advisable, but will pay to irrigate,
as no complete reliance can be placed
upon the varying annual rainfall.
The farmer, gardener or horticulture
lst should by all means irrigate a tract
large enough to insure himself against
a totalloss, but it team be safely asserted
that with the two last named classes
irrigation will pay in any port on of
Nebraska.
The rainfall ;of state. showsle
treme variation. The mean annual
amount that is precipitated at Rulo, in
the southeastern corner in Richardson
county, is very nearly three times as
great as that precip tated annually on
the extreme west line, at Bushnell, in
Kimball county. There the mean an
nual rainfall lis about twelve inches,
while at Rulo the amount is
about thirty-six inches with
the advantage of lighter evapora-
ton per annum for the last named
point. This also varies greatly, as the
evaporation is nearly double at Kimball
in Kimball county, hat of. Falls
City, in Richardson county.
The means adopted to ascertain the
amount of the evaporation at the T.. S.
signal stat on is the placing of a foat-
ing pan of water, provided with a grad
uating scale, in a tank containing
water. By tn method the water in
the pan is maintained at the same tenn
While commenting on the question it
may be we'll to state that evaporation
varies greatly at different points. At
Yuma, Arizona. the annual evaporation
is between nine and ten feet. while at
pointf along the vicinity of the north
ern shore of Lake Supe: icr it is but
little over thirty-siS inches per annum.
Again. the evaporation is necessarily
less in winter than in summer. July
n August are the months when evap'
grafton is greatest. The {. S. rainfall
charts show some peculiarit:es in re-
lation to our rainfall. The lines of
! the heaviest IA nfallfollow lowest alt :
tudes. The Republican valley records
show that it receives a mnch greater
rainfall than that of the tlatte or Mo
brara. while for a small territory in
the immediate vicinity of Lincoln. a
lighter rainfall is recorded than at
points either east or west Of that c ty.
This may be accounted for, however.
by the greater accuracy of reports
coming from the L. $. S gnal Office and
also, that giving the general average
for a number Of years. the amonn S
less than has been returned by the in
expert local observers who send in the
reports from the d fferent towns in the
state. AS an illustration of the differ
+. ence. u. S. offices commenced taking
the precipitation and variation n ten
pe%rature at old Fort Kearney, in Kear
ney county, in 1s4o. They continued
to forward reports up to 1862. The
! annual rainfall is given at 25.44 inches
5 while at Minden, about twenty mile:
south, the observat ons as returned
from 1882 to 1859 show an annual fal
of 1925 inches, owing to the Inaccurate
= manner in which the returns have
been made, and the errors whicl
naturally follow the Introduce on o
/ new methods, and the want Of eXper
fence OF volunteer ,Ocal observers, IL
} connection with the interrupt ons tina
have been of frequent occurrence. FO1
instance, at some stations report
5 would tie sent in for several months
| then there would be an omission o
certain months. The same would
occur with the omission, in some cases
of a number Of years.
There are now, however, local sta
L tions in nearly every town of any siz
in the state, and in the course OF tn,
next twenty years some exact data cal
be secured. The first point at which
the variations of temperature and rain
9 fall were taken in our state was oil
l Fort Calhoun, in 1870, and were cor
tinued until 1926. No further observa
tons were taken until 1S49 at old For
e Kearney, and these were discontinue
1 at the last named point in 1862. Th
observations as given seen to confirn
!, the cycle theory of wet and dry year:
f or favorable and ~unfavorable terms 0
seasons, for we find that at old For
Kearney, for the years lo59-6O-6l, ther
g were three years in succession whel
the annual rainfall remained below tn
average. The annual precipitation a
recorded shows that about that tim
the deposit was less in other places
The points where observations wer
= taken. commencing with Fort kearne
) and including other stations in the i'm