Rain Man

"America's farmers," said a United Press dispatch from Washington last week, "need not worry about another serious drought until 1975." Reason: Dr. Charles Greeley Abbot.

Dr. Abbot, a grey, kind-looking man with a conspicuous mustache, is the secretary (i.e., head) of the Smithsonian Institution, a distinguished authority on the sun, a longtime observer of variations in solar radiation. Dr. Abbot believes that on solar radiation depend temperature and precipitation on earth. He has found in the solar variations a number of periodicities which fit into a 23-year cycle and an even more important cycle of 46 years. Matching the cycles with actual weather records has provided, he declares, partial confirmation. Testifying last week on the Smithsonian's budget needs before a House appropriations subcommittee, he gave it as his opinion that the U. S. is emerging from a drought period which began about 1930.

"We are, I believe, on the very verge of recovery from the drought of the last 46-year period," said Dr. Abbot. "We have no expectation of another one of such great consequence until 1975, although . . . there will be a minor one during the decade 1950-60."

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