Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1934-03-22
What Happening to Rainfall1

The ciimatologists in the service of the United
States government have been studying the matter of
rainfall in the national aspect They have made some
startling discoveries. One of them poses a grave
question for all this section of the country.
For the purpose of their study the cimatologists
divided the country into northern. central and south
ern zones. Then they turned to the weather bureau
records of fourty years. Here is what they found.
In the northern zone in country extending from a
point just east of the Rocky mountains on a varying
line extending to the New Jersey coast. rainfall has
been steadily decreasing, for forty years.
In the central zone, beginning at a point west OF
Kansas and extending to the Atlantic coast, rainfall
has preserved the same average level. while there
have been peaks and troughs.
In the southern zone. along the gulf coast of
Texas and on a line to Florida, rainfall has been In
creasing. The increase there. because 1t brings flood
conditions, is as much of a problem as the decrease
In the northern zone. which singularly enough reaches
Its peak in western Minnesota.
II the climatologists are right, water and Its con-
geryation. not land or its utilization. is the biggest
problem before all this country. Their studies are not
vet complete. What their final conclusions will be and
what the means to correct this reimbursement re
mains to be determined.
The public will be interested not SO much in the
fact these conditions exist, as why they exist, There
is no very satisfactory explanation.
OUSIUuS ii IuLlib5 vi 1o a"t~S
lands and their cultivation have depleted natural re-
serves of moisture. 1t will take a considerable time
to restore this disturbed balance, even II It were de-
cided to try to do SO. 1t took Nature millions OF years
to establish the balance mere ruthless, short-sighted
man has totally disrupted In less than a century.
But il the downward trend of rainfall in the
northern zone continues, it is not hard to measure
results. Large desert or semiarid regions will natur-
ally be created.
One thing is certain, Recent research has fixed
water conservation as a bigger problem In the north
west than land conservation or utilization. Without
water conservation, land conservation will be useless.
Yet cen in this area there is tremendous waste
of water. That waste must be stopped. Here is a
problem challenging the initiative and the ingenuity
OF the conservationists. 1t is in many aspects the
biggest problem before all the northwest today. In
human terms decreased rainfall means increase in the
We shall learn to conserve and store water in
the semiarid regions of the country. We shall learn
to adapt agricultural practice to changing conditions.
We shall abandon land now farmed and turn to land
now regarded as Of little worth, This because land
near constant water courses will best lend itself to
the new agricultural practice that must come, IL the
decrease in rainfall is not halted
1t is not SO much an unpleasant prospect, this
whole picture, as a fact to be resourcefully faced.
There is now a most gratifying aad reassuring turning
better development era than we have ever known