The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1909-01-15
THE SEASON OF SNOW.


In some parts of the Pacific Northwest snow
began to fall in earnest about the first of De-
cember, but in many places it delayed its coming
until the holiday season and then 1t came SO
that beautiful sleighing was enjoyed by many
while an abundance has fallen in the mountain
districts.
An exchange says that Originally nature
expected to furnish both sunshine and rain, but
success may be achieved by man if nature fur
nishes the sunshine only. Rain is an uncertain
quantity in wide, far-western world and can
not always be relied upon but owing to our lofty
mountain ranges irrigation becomes the hand
maid of man to set up gloria mundi all around
us and bring happiness to our homes.
If all the condensed moisture of the atmos-
phere were to fall rain and none of it as
snow, hundreds of thousands of square miles of
the earths surface now yielding bountiful crops
would be little better than a desert. The ire
mendous economic gain for the world at large
which results from the difference between snow
and rain is seldom realized by the inhabitants
of fertile and we'll Watered loWlands.
1t is in the extensive regions where irriga-
ton is prime necessity in agriculture that the
special uses of snow come strongly into view
All through the winter the snow is falling upon
the mountains and packing itself firmly in the
ravines Thus in natures great icehouse a sup
ply of moisture is stored up for the following
summer.
All through the warm months the hardened
snow banks are melting gradually. In trickling
streams they steadily feed the streams which
are utilized for irrigation as they flow through the
valleys If this moisture fell as rain 1t would al
most Immediately wash down through the rivers,
which would hardly be fed at all in the summer
when the crops most need water
Then too, in all parts of the country the
notion prevails that the snow is of great value
as fertilizer Scientists, however, are inclined
to attach less Importance to it's service in soil
nutrtion-for regions that have no snow
are exceedingly fertile-than to it's worth as
blanket during the months of high winds. 1t
prevents the finely pulverized richness of the top
soil from blowing away. This, though scarcely
perceived would often be great loss.
Back in New England there is an organization
which has undertaken the hopeless task of turn
ing the tide of emigration from West to East.
The society," some of whose members have prob
ably been as far west as Williamstown, Mass,
or possibly to Peekskill or Poughkeepsie, N. Y,
appear to take themselves seriously, and gravely
assert that "the agricultural papers report that
there is considerable interest among Western
farmers and others to come East and look into
the agricultural opportunities in this section
The idea that Western farmer might return to
the narrow confines of cross-fenced fortyacre
farm of exhausted fertility in the East, is one
that may look all right to the simple folk back
among the Berkshire Hills and along the banks
of the Connecticut, but we will hazard the pre-
dction that Western farm papers are not exhib-
iting any overwhelming interest IN the matter.