OCR Text |
Show Dry Prospects. One hundred years of continuous rainfall records havo recently been completed In New Bedford, Mass., and servo to dlspiovo thoroughly tho common com-mon belief that tho climate Is not so good as It used to be Only halt as many dry periods occurred In tho last fifty years as In tho first llfty years; so that tho records really are a warning warn-ing for that section at least, to expect more dry periods In tho next generation. genera-tion. Tho recent decades hnve been fortunate abovo tho average, and consequently con-sequently tho next fow decades aro qulto likely to pay tho bill. Tho records wero started In 1814 by Samuel Rodman, nnd continued by him until his" death, In 1870. His son then kept thorn until his doath. In 1905. For moro than nlnoty-ono years tho rainfall rain-fall was carefully recorded for exactly tho samo Bpot In tho Bnmo yard. Tho chief englneor of tho state health department de-partment has now completed tho hundred hun-dred yearB of figures by obtaining tho lato records from nnother observer In Now Bedford, taken a fow miles from tho Rodman place. Tho averago annual rainfall waa 40.45 Inches; but In the first llfty yenra there wero four very marked dry po-rlods po-rlods of two or thrco years each. In tho last fifty years thero wero only two such dry periods. Saturday Evo-nlng Evo-nlng FosL |