CLIMATE. SOIL. AND VEGETATION. South Da kota, occupying almost the very centre of the continent, has, of course, a continental climate with great extremes of temperature. The mean annual temperature is 44.3 F. The mean for January is 15° and for July 72.2°, while the ab solute extremes may rise to more than 115° above or fall to more than 40° below zero. But the heat of summer and the cold of winter are much more endurable than the more moderate temperatures of the Eastern States, owing to the dryness of the atmosphere. which renders the climate bracing and pleasant. The winter is often tempered by the dry and warm Chinooks, but occasionally, though fortunately not often, the State is visited by blizzards—severe north ern gales laden with fine floating snow. The snowfall is less than that of New York or New England. The average annual rainfall for the State is 20 inches, being 30 to 40 inches in the eastern third. 20 to 30 inches in the centre, and 15 to 20 inches in the west, where it is insufficient for agriculture. The other parts
of the State also suffer occasionally from drought. The soil in the greater part of the State is of excellent quality, and when sufficiently watered is rendered highly productive. In the cast there is a subsoil of glacial till covered with a dark alluvial loam rich in nitrogen and again cov ered with many inches of black vegetable mold. A large part of the west has also a fine alluvial soil. but large areas here are stony and barren. The bottomlands of the Missouri and the terraced floors of its valley are very fertile. The State is as a whole a treeless prairie country. Forests are found only in the Black Hills above an alti tude of 4000 feet, where there is a good growth of pine. Here and there along the river valleys there are more o• less extensive groves of cotton wood, ash, elm, and maple.