Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1900-11-17

,eress,nE Departments OF she
4 Service.
Had the telegraph been in existence
jefferson and Madison would doubtless
have conceived the idea OF a national
weather service. as they discovered by
comparing observations that barometric
n thermometric changes usually oc-
Cured at Monticello four or five hours
before they did at williamsburg.
Contrary to the statements which 1
believe have been made by some his
torians, the Fourth OF July, 1916, was q
cool day; for the great author OF the
declaration of independence did not fail
to read his thermometer in Philadelphia
on that day. An examination of his pa
pers in the state department., made by
an official of the weather bureau, proved
that he took several readings. viz: s a.
M, SO degrees; 9 a. M 72h degrees; / p.
M, IS degrees: 8 p. M. 1919 degrees.
These early observers did not escape the
unfailing vagary that even at this
late period haunts the mind by day and
Induces feverish dreams by night in
nearly every person who has not made a
study of meteorological data; for In
|17S1 Jefferson said:
"A change in climate Is taking place
very sensibly. Both heats and colds are
becoming much more moderate within
the memory Of wen the m~iddle-aged.
Shows are less frequent and less deep.
They do not often lie below the mount
ain more than one, two or three days,
and very rarely a week. The SHOWS are
remembered to have been formerly FREE
quent, deep and OF long continuance.
The elderly inform me that the earth
used to be covered with snow about
three months in every year"
But Jefferson and MS neighbors were
mistaken. Never during the period Of
authentic history has the snow covered
the ground in Virginia for periods av-
eraging three months per year for three
years in succession. The old inhabitants
of Jefferson's time were like those of to-
day-they remembered only the abnor-
malities OF the climate of twenty-five or
fifty years before and in accompanying the
unusual conditions of long ago with the
average of the present they were de-
ceived. 1 have known Intelligent and
truthful men publicly to declare that
they knew, from personal recollection,
that the climate Of their particular
places Of residence had changed since
they we're boys-that they had reliable
landmarks to show that the streams
were drying up. that the precipitation
was growing less. and that the winters
were becoming Observation-Disclosures
the fact that carefully taken observa-
|tions Of temperature and rainfall for
each day for the previous hundred years
showed no alteration Of climate at such
places. OF course, wide variations,
sometimes extending owe periods OF
several years. had occurred: but a de-
felt ut onestimeswas made up by an ex-
cess at another. To be sure, changes
must have taken place during geologic
periods: but these have been so slow
that it is doubtful whether man
an his civilized state has aoccu-
pied the earth long enough to
discover an appreciate GUAM
fifty. Quite acurate records Of the open
ing Of navigation in the rivers of Eu-
|rope and Of the time OF vintages for 500
years show no change in the average
data of the first ten years as compared
with the average of the last ten: and the
date palm. the vine and the fig tree
flourish ar luxuriantly today in Pales-
tine as they did in the days Of Moses.
Dried plants have been taken from the
mummy cases of the Pharaohs exactly
similar to those now growing in the soil
once trod by those ancient monarchs.
The matter of change of climate is
very important to our sub-arid west, to
the states whose normal rainfall is just
enough to produce a profitable crop.
Some years ago, when the tide Of immi-
grafton was strong, there We're several
years of rather more than average
rainfall in regions that heretofore had
had little rainfall for profitable agricul-
|ture. These two conditions were acct
|dentally coincident: but the fact proba-
bly, gave rise to the theory that civiliza-
|tion brings an increase in precipitation.
1t was thought that the breaking of the
virgin soil. making 1t more permeable,
and thereby conserving the scant de-
post CT moisture; the planting Of trees
and the propagation Of vegetation, by
restricting the run on and by drawing
up the moisture from below the surface
of the ground thru roots: the enormous
quantities of aqueous vapor injected In
to the air by the combustion incident to
a teeming population-had all combined
to increase the rainfall and to render
the subarid plains more responsive to
the efforts Of the h~usbandman. No one
with even a spark of that fellow feeling
which makes us wondrous kind" can
fail to regret that this theory is not
founded upon fact. Blu moments
thought will indicate to the physicist
that the volume of superintendent air is
20 great. and Its capacity for moisture
80 enormous. that the additional vapor
|of water %eYaporated as above described,
great tho 1t be. is Intellectual to change
appreciably the amount OF rainfall
which nature beforehand had ordained
should be precipitated.
The size of continental areas. the to-
biography of the land surface, the prox-
unity Of large bodies Of water, and the
direction of the prevailing winds, are all
factors in determining the precipitation
|of a region: and 1t Is probable that the
feeble efforts Of man will never be able
materially to modify the result.
If the Rocky mountains were eroded
down to the height OF the Appalachian
chain, the vapor-laden winds from the
Pacific would blow inland, and probably
cause copious rainfall as far east as
Colorado, western Kansas and western
Nebraska. But these are changes which
can be accomplished only in long geo.
logic periods
During the first half OF the nineteenth
century--nearly 100 years after Frank
l1intu snorfhooe ~ -, IN al n oYN@ 81 lie