Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-10-01
RAIN MAKER SEEKS
|. HUNTING WEATHER
Dr.. G. A. !. M. Sykes Blasting
to Wet Fox Trails as Aid
to Hounds.
BY WILLIAM II. SHIPPEN,
STAFF Correspondent of The Star.

WARRENTOE, Va, October In
spite Of the countrywide reverberations
which DR.. G. A. l. M. Sykes is Great
ing with his dynamite, the elderly head
of the Weather Control Bureau of New
York is not after very big rain after
adjust enough for fox hunting pur-
poses will nicely satisfy the doctor and
his four assistants.
That accomplished, the doctor is
assured, and it will be raining dollars
as well as raindrops on the heads of
his band of pioneers, whose detonations
have been shaking Fauquier County for
a week now, and even starting echoes
in the hills Of adjoining communities.
The Weather Control Bureau took
charge of the weather here after it be-
came apparent that the coverts, the
wooded slopes and jumps of the sport
loving landowners were much too dry,
too hot and dusty for the hounds to
sniff out the foxes and hold the trail.
Fox Hunters Stay Away.
Most of the fox hunters, the bureaus
spokesman said, have refused to leave
New York or the seaside until some
thing is done about the weather where
After a conference in New York with
certain of the sportsmen, the bureau
sent its expedition here, armed with
cases of dynamite, electromagnetic
circuits, broadcasting and receiving APP
paratus and the determination to manu-
facture good fox-hunting weather If
it takes three weeks to do it.
Meanwhile an air of desolation fingers
about the quarters of the Orange
County Hunt Club at The Plains, a
village some 13 miles south of here
Usually at this time OF year the cub
bling" season is in full swing, huntsmen
are beating the coverts with the young
hounds, teaching them to use their
heads and not go yelping at the tail
of the pack, making all the noise and
none of the progress-cub like.
But as it is the green hounds are
learning nothing. Even their seasoned
elders are scratching fleas in their
kennels, or yelping dismally at the
moon-all because of the weather.
Didn't Rain on Races.
Then the bureau stepped in, having
already made one contribution to sport
by assuming responsibility for the
| weather at the Belmont racing meet
| last month. While on that occasion
the rain-makers put their apparatus in
/ TeFeISc anu stayed OH QONllpOuT--l
never rained once during the meet
| they nevertheless felt that the greater
service lay in creating rain.
| On arriving at the Plains, they SCI
/ up a T00-fooL antenna both a broad
cast and reception unit, it was said.
/ The plant, however. receives anc
sends out impulses which in no way
come under jurisdiction of the Fedora
Radio CommiSSion--a sort OF harmless
sound wave which has less influence
on radio sets in the vicinity than OF
| immediate weather conditions.
Within a l2-mile radius of the an
| tenna five co-ordinating units were sc
up. The consulting engineer of tn
party, when consulted by newspape
men. was disposed to discuss the elec
trical apparatus and its effect on tn
| weather only in a general way, due, NJ
| doubt, to fear of imitators.
The bureau, freely enough, accepte,
responsibility for almost an inch of rail-
which fell near The Plains Tuesday
week ago, three hours after their ap
paratus was in place. This they SAT-
was followed Wednesday and Saturda