The record-union., 1897-11-18
Relative to the Climatic Conditions Of
Moisture and Temperature.
A Drought Of Months in the Far
West Less Injurious Than One
of the Same Number of Weeks
in the East, Owing to the Won
derful Power OF the Soil to Re-
tain Water and Supply It to
Crops During the Growing Sea-
son.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 1.-THE Di-
vision of Soils of the Agricultural De-
partment, which was established
couple of years ago, is conducting some
of the most interesting experiments Of
the Department. Professor Milton
Whitney, who is in charge of the divis-
ion, is engaged at present in the lnves-
tigation of the climatic conditions of
moisture and temperature in their re-
lation to the local distribution of crops.
The investigation of the Western
soils, made with the aid of the Wealth
er Bureau, which covers Lower Cali
fornia the San Joaquin Valley and
the great Palouse district comprising
the wheat growing districts of Califor-
MIA, Washington and Montana, the
Yellowstone Valley the Red River Val
ley and also the Mojave and Nevada
deserts, have developed some most as
founding facts, and some which the
Department of Agriculture is not yet
able to explain.
Professor Whitney says that the his
tory of these soils will make the most
remarkable chapter in the history of
the worlds agriculture. Although these
soils, excepting the Red River and des-
fifth to one-half the rainfall received
by the territory east of the Mississippi
River chat is, from seven to twenty
inches), they do seldom, if ever, suf-
fer drought. Moreover, practically all
the rainfall they do receive comes in
the fall and winter seasons. Only a
slight fraction falls during the summer
months, when the crops are growing.
Yet the crops do not suffer.
An investigation of these far West
ern soils have shown that they are
largely made up of the disintegration of
the original basaltic rock, and that
there is little difference between the
soils and sub-soils, difference very
marked in the East They have re-
narkable power of absorption of mois-
ture, and do not really lose it by evap-
grafton, although the humidity of the
atmosphere during the growing season
is much lower than in the East. Thus
the crops, by subsisting on the winter
rains, can stand long periods of
drought.
II the San Joaquin Valley, the great
grape growing region of California, the
annual rainfall is but seven inches, and
from May to September only about six
tenths of an inch falls, yet the vines
flourish throughout the season. 1t is
true they are irrigated by canals, but
the moisture is absorbed and trans
mitted by the soils. There is no sur
face application of water.
In Southern California the winter
rainfall is about sixteen inches, the
summer rainfall less than one inch, and
without irrigation tobacco and other
crops grow luxuriantly. At Chino, in
this district sugar beets. which require
a great amount of moisture, grow fa-
mously The surface soil dries out in
summer, which seems to protect the
soil beneath.
In the districts about Merced, Walla
Walla, Bozeman and Pullman, termed
the Palouse district, the annual rain
fall varies from ten to twenty inches.
in which from one. to ten inches fall
during the season of the growing crops,
yet owing to the wonderful power of the
soil to retain water and supply it to
the crops, a drought of months is less
injurious there than one of the same
number of weeks in the East, where the
annual rainfall is about forty inches.
In the Mojave and Nevada deserts
the annual rainfall averages about five
inches, but beneath the alkali crusts the
soil is always moist, fact which the
scientists have as yet been unable to
explain In fact, little is known of
the power of the soils to hold water. AS
artesian wells show water in all these
districts from forty to 200 feet below
the surface, it is considered possible
that there is a slow and continuous
movement of water upward from the
artesian sources, which are beyond the
influence of local climate. This is es-
pecially believed to be true of the des-
ert districts, where the moisture of the
soil cannot be explained on the theory
that the soil could retain its moisture
from the insignificant rainfall.
BY placing electrodes in the soil in all
these places, at various depths from a
few inches to twenty-five feet, 1T is
believed that in the future the direc-
ton and intensity of what might be
termed the water waves Of the earth
can be accurately determined.