Shiner gazette. [volume] (Shiner, Tex.) 1893-current, 1895-04-04
FARM AND GARDEN.
MATTERS OF INTEREST TO
AGRlCULTURISTS.
Some Up to Date Hints About CuitIvn-
tlon of the Soil and Yields Thereof
horticulture, vitIculture and Flori-
culture,


cusson of late and one, too, of very
great Importance.
That there has been change
wrought in the country extending from
the base of the Rocky mountains to the
Alleghenies east, and from the Lakes
north to near the Gulf of Mexico south
in the distribution of the rainfall is an
observant fact, and no one who has
given the subject any consideration for
the past ten and twenty years but
knows a change exists, which in many
respects has been for the better and in
others quite the contrary, on the whole,
however, believe that the advantages
gained far exceed the disadvantages in
Cured by the change.
Atmospherical disturbances seem to
occur about the same as they did
twenty years or more ago as they course
across the country from the west to the
east, but they are not laden with the
moisture they formerly would be, con-
sequently the precipitation of rain falls
Is materially lessened in belt of coun-
try traversed by latitude lines 81 to AZ
inclusive. AS the amount of rain ex-
tending across the country depends
largely upon the degrees of tempera-
ture held in the atmosphere and the
vapor arising from water-logged areas,
or foundations of rivers, lakes, etc, by
rapid accumulations of great bodies of
mist which are more or less influenced
by certain conditions for or against
rapid absorption and precipitation for
areas of country to east of that place.
A quarter Of a century ago the source
of the Ohio, Missouri and Mississippi
rivers was a vast wilderness, covered
VII "a 4 ,tsth - 1nf
usually held the snow falls OF winter
until spring and as it melted more
slowly the water was held back ac-
cordingly to find way down the rivers
and into the great Mississippi basin un-
der the influence of a heated tempcra-
ture that absorbed through vapor large
quantities which was carried by the
force of air currents across the country
to the north of east until cooled by
contact with a lower temperature that
like a recoil precipitated the accumu
lated mists over a region interspersed
with ponds, lakes and rivers, which for
days and weeks was discharging again
their surplus by routes water-logged
with drift in woodland and logs that
kept the air moist by day and the night
wet with dew, SO that if drouth oc-
Cured at all east of the Father of
Waters" it was late in the season and of
short duration.
Now that is all changed, the result
of retaining tens of thousands of
acres by ditching and tile draining, and
the removing of the timber from the
surface land, laying bare to the sun
and winds, so that with the approach of
spring and higher temperature the wa
ter departs more rapidly and the rain
fall less frequently and of shorter dura-
ton, and results in a drier state of
weather conditions and prolonged
drouths.
Three years ago made trip west
in company with an old seer who was
among the first to open placer mining
way up at the head of Black Hawk
canyon, Colorado, and he pointed out
TO me the spot where they opened up,
and on the 4th day of July, 1853, began
making boards out of nice pine logs
with a rip saw for sluice boxes, by roll
ing them out on skids, one end resting
against the hillside and the other end
resting in forks proped to trees stand
ing further down the slope. The timber
covered the great divide" hillside and
gulches for hundreds of miles, but now
] am informed that tree was not to be
that would make creditable log, and
scarcely a shrub or stump could be
seen anywhere in the vicinity of those
little mining towns, having all disap-
peared for use in the mines and
for fuel, leaving the surface bare and
unpenetrable to rain and melting SHOWS
that soon disappeared down the gulches
and out into the streams leaving the
foothills.
At the time my friend was located
there it was in the summer and water
flowed in the ravlne, but when l was
there, and understand most of the time
now, perfectly dry.
Have 4 friend who roamed the plains
and foothills as cowboy for ten years,
but the last ten has been settled on n
farm near the Platte river in Western
Nebraska, who says that stream, with
his first acquaintance of it, main
tanned a current all the year, and in
spring time great volumes of water
flowed through its channel, but in re-
cent years does not carry any such
quantities at any time, but is dry in
numerous places good portion of the
time.
Another friend writes me that irriga-
ton canals and bitches in Colorado are
extending their lines that draw their
supplies from streams leaving the
mountains so as to deprive the Platte
and other tributaries to the Missouri,
which no doubt has telling effect on
the country eastward from the infiu-
ence caused by larger streams OF water
flowing through 1t, and greater evapora-
ton and subsequent precipitation over
large portion of the central states
years.
My observation is that recurring at
mospherical disturbances are not laden
with the cumulous clouds to the extent
they were few years ago and settled"
rain is thing of the past by an over
shadowing of the earth for days of inky
darkness and fallen mists.
All in all think it is an imperative
duty now that farmers, gardeners and