The recent floods afford a striking instance of the variable character of meteorological conditions in this country. For the last three or four years the northern Mississippi valley has been afflicted. with drought. For the last two years the scarcity of rain has been, so marked as to occasion serious inconvenience and loss. This year, without any warning or suggestion of a change, the heavens were opened and rain fell so heavily and so continuously that the torrents were swollen to rivers, and the rivers carried their floods to the Mississippi, and the Mississippi overflowed its banks and did inestimable damage in many localities. And yet a few years ago these places already named, in common with other parts of the Northwest, were suffering for water. It is going to be the great problem of the future to devise some way to conserve the, great sources of such a stream as the Mississippi and be able to hold it in check in time of flood and to distribute it wisely in time of drought.