Evening star., 1939-07-25
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Field, Laboratory
And Study
By Thomas r. Henri.

~ IROnGS II. HENRY.
The small town is growing smaller.
This is evidenced from a report pre-
sented to the American Association for
| the Advancement Of Science on a sur
vey Of the towns and villages of Michi-
| gan, Wisconsin and Minnesota by DR..
]. F. Thaden of the Michigan State
| College
During the decade 192O-1930, DR..
Thaden reported, So per cent of the small
towns in Minnesota, AZ per cent in Wis
consin and 33 per cent in Michigan suf-
| fered a net loss in population. In the
United States as a whole Al per cent
| of the rural communities lost. AS a
rule, Dr. Thaden found, the smaller the
town the greater the loss.
The record for Michigan, he said, was
obscured by the growth of the suburban
villages near Detroit In the strictly
rural sections the losses were as great
as in either of the other States. Within
a radius of 40 miles of Detroit all but
one Of go incorporated towns and villages
gained in population.
There seems to be close relationship,
DR.. Thaden said, between soil produc-
tivity and stability of the villages. In
Michigan in the 43 counties with less
than 20 per cent of first-class agricul-
tural land, SO per cent of the villages
declined in population during the decade,
as compared with % per cent in the
other 40 counties.
The proportion of declining villages
through the three States he said, varied
closely with population density. The
more sparsely inhabited the countryside
the less was the incentive to remain in
Its central marketing or shipping town.
The stability Of the villages, he found,
was closely related to the date Of settle
ment. A much smaller proportion we're
dying In the older counties than in the
new. This, he said, was apparently be-
cause the better lands were settled first.
In the 81 counties of Michigan organized
before 1s40 only 10 per cent of the viii
lagos suffered net losses in population,
compared with 54 per cent in the counties
organized after 1840
1t it almost inevitable, DR.. Thaden
said, that the small town will continue
to grow smaller for the next decade or
two because of adjustments now under
way to changing farming conditions,
modes Of transportation, family life and
other factors. Only those within the
zones OF cities can expect to increase
in size, even with aggressive chambers
Of commerce, unless they have excep-
tional luck.
The last pasture of the gigantic titano-
saurus, 20-ton monster of 10000 900
years ago, is being excavated by Smith
sonian Institution paleontologists this
summer.
The great reptiles, rs feet long and
more than IL feet high, browsed on the
succulent vegetations of great swamps
where parts of the Rocky Mountains
now stand, in the upper Cretaceous
period of geological time just before the
dawn of the time when mammals, the
remote ancestors of man, became the
dominant creatures on earth.
The excavations are being directed by
DR.. c. L. Gain in the North Horn
area of the. Manti National Forest in
Central Utah. There one finds 5000
feet of sedimentary rock which serves
as bridge between the last days of the
dinosaurs and the emergence of warm
blooded creatures. During the past two
summers considerable fossiled skeletal
material of the titanosaurs has been
collected and Dr. Gain hopes to obtain
enough more this summer to recon-
struct a whole skeleton.
Hitherto these great plant eating din
osaurs had been known in North Amer
lea only from two bones found in 1921
by United States Geological Survey
geologist in New Mexico. Remains of
the family previously had been found in
India, South America, Indo-China,
Southern France and Madagascar. Their
actual presence on this continent re-
discoveries.
These titanosaurs were neither the
largest nor most fearsome of the great
reptiles. They probably were rather
stupid, inoffensive creatures, having
enough to do all day long to find
enough vegetation to eat. They are
noteworthy, however, as the last of
the giants. They were coming into
time in earth's history when the environ
ment became impossible for the race.
There is no hint in the Utah forma-
tions as to what happened, says DR..
Charles H. Gilmore of the United States
National Museum, who obtained the first
remains. No break can be found be-
tween the upper Cretaceous and the
Paleocene when the fossils of very primi-
tive mammals become abundant in the
rocks. One explanation, DR.. Gilmore
says, is that in these periods came one
of the great uplifts of the Rocky Noun
tain area. The swamps were destroyed
and towering peaks arose in place of
them in the course of a few million
years. The great reptiles were swamp
creatures, unable to adjust themselves
to an environment becoming increasingly
dry and mountainous.
The beds also contained fossilized
bones of the fearsome horned dinosaurs
and of the "duck-bills," which were
among the latest to survive. The titano-
saurs were most notable not only be-
cause they were so far out of the region