Evening star., 1941-06-05
Of Stars, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory, Field
And Study
By Thomas r. Henry.

0S 4ftOHCNO ~. A1Cf"
A major drought is developing in the
entire region east of the Mississippi.
Underway since December, it has been
greatly intensified by recent high tenn
peratures, is spreading west into the
corn States, and already seriously has
damaged the eastern hay crop which de-
pends on May rains.
DR.. J. B. Kincer, chief OF the china
toloey division of the United States
Weather Bureau, has just compiled sta"
tistics on the per cent OF normal RAIN
fall for the past five months for differ
ent sections of the drought area:
New England Ct; New York, 81; Penn
sylvania, St; Maryland, 73; West Vir-
ginia. So; Virginia, So; North and South
Carolina, 73; Georgia, 60; Alabama, II;
Tennessee. 81: Kentucky, So; Ohio, Sc;
Indiana, Ct; Illinois, 7o.
These are essentially the deficiencies
with which the planting season started.
Between the Mississippi and the Rocky
Mountains, the former dust bowl" area,
rainfall was nearly normal through the
winter and early spring.
Nav has brought a great reduction
in the available soil moisture in many
parts of the East. Maryland has had
only % per cent of normal, South Caro-
lima, is per cent; Georgia, % per cent,
and Alabama, 20 per cent. Hardly any
of the Eastern States have had more
than half their ordinary May rains, al
though there has been slight comeback
in the Ohio Valley.
The most alarming news has come
from Iowa, Missouri and Arkansas when,
at time essential for, corn growth,
precipitation has fallen to about half Of
normal.
All over the drought stricken area, Mr..
Kincer reports. crops have been slow IN
breaking through the soil and have
showed poor growth. Wheat in the
Midwest is badly hit and forest fires
have been numerous and devastating.
Altogether, Weather Bureau experts
say, the outlook for the East is one of
the worst since the spring of 1890
Summer crops burned in the fields and
stock perished for lack of water. Only
plentiful rains in the next few weeks
could rescue the growing crops, and these
are unlikely, although they are possible.
Cool weather has been a blessing to the
farmers, many of whom already have
abandoned hopes of profitable crops.
The reasons for the drought, it is
explained at the Weather Bureau, are
extremely complex, involving the inter-
action of warm and cold fronts" in the
upper atmosphere. While no predictions
are possible, it is pointed out that the
longer a drought builds up the longer 1t
is likely to last, and the more likely to
spread.
There was poor snow cover all win
ter with the result that very little mois-
ture was stored in the soil Much Of
this already has been absorbed by the
crops and the hot sun is pulling the rest
Of 1t out of the soil.
The drought has not yet effected seri-
ously however, the major areas engaged
In producing crops for Britain. The
pastures are not yet in very bad shape,
although they are bound to become so
In a few weeks unless there is some
relief.
Mummies of strange priestcraft of
old men with grotesquely distorted
heads, wrapped in elaborately embroid-
cred and dyed woolen robes, were studied
in Peru this spring by DR.. T. D. Stewart,
Smithsonian Institution anthropologist.
This collection was obtained a few
years ago by DR.. Julio c. Tello, anthro-
pologist of the University of San Marcos,
under the sands of the desolate Paracas
Peninsula on the Southern Peruvian
Coast.
The strange mummies with their
beautiful wrappings are the outstanding
feature OF this culture. one Of the old
est known in Peru. The wooden robes in
which they are wrapped still are in a
fair state of preservation after many
centuries of burial and show skill in
the arts of weaving and decorating that
hardly has been exceeded in the New
World. Elaborate decorative effects were
employed with geometrical designs and
highly conventionalized pictures of men
and animals in almost every color of the
rainbow. Many of the designs on the
robes look like products of ultramodern
artists, DR.. Stewart said.
The bodies first were partly dismem-
bered, possibly mummified by smok-
ing process, and then wrapped in these
robes. They were all found either in
artificial caverns or in subterranean
mausoleums.
The mummies from the mausoleums
are all of elderly males. This leads
Prof Tello to believe that they con-
stituted special class, probably a
priesthood. The robes may have been
the ones they wore in life. They also
wore turbans with gold tassels and gold
necklaces and bracelets.
Most curious was the distortion Of
their heads. Apparently when they were
children tight bands were drawn around
their skulls. This resulted in very high,
sloping foreheads and very tall, narrow
heads.
Nearly 500 mummies have been found.
DR.. Tello, who is making an extensive
study of them, has placed on exhibit in
his museum in Lima some of the finest
of the textiles.
The age of the Paracas remains un-
known but these people must have pre-
ceedod bv NV uepera tiore thoSe relo