Show I. I r t I f I i P Ii ro di IC flAO I 1 Q U l 1 W r lri J ft iJ A h U il dB I r H Ift fJ u d w i 1 j W i 11 n r re e Sciences Science's New and a Interesting Discovery y That t fl i the Growth R Rings n na of f a a ao jy a Ancient A Trees Tr-ees' Show S 1 A c 1 Conditions h t f Ex r i Climatic i for fori J o. o r Centuries ies Past and r r n IF I 4 N Many Years Year s to o Come J I I II I I II I II I v The butt t o of f a a. to towering California Sequoia which v when hen en felled show showed what the tho weather had been b for f or several centuries r past i f i ji v Ste l e J 7 M o e i 11 S. S v ti tending from the center thereof to the bark It forms fu sa a piece e triangular M U I in design and of a length t representing half haJ the di diameter d- d Counting Countin the growth rings of a Northern Pine e A tr r 2 j it f z e r y w ameter of the tree In the I a tree which had recorded two and a third laboratory the sample is is isI centuries of weather eather w when it was cut down J first shaved s with i a safety aft I a NEW and revolutionary method ANEW A of weather forecasting has been discovered by Dr A. A E. E Douglass professor of astronomy at the University University University sity of Arizona and one of the most I reliable scientists in America Weather Veather men of the future he says will wiH spend less time scanning the skies for portents and give gi more attention to the trees of the forests Not little stunted short lived trees but such for for- forest forest forest est giants as the yellow pines tha tho California redwoods or sequoias Dr Douglass believes that ultimately it will be possible intelligently i by I gently read reading reading reading ing the rings on these great trees and applying a knowledge of weather cy cy- cycles cycles cycles cles to the result to predict the weather for years ears in advance with gratifying accuracy His discovery was made after years of observation and experimentation and it t. t is taken very seriously indeed by by- his fellow scientists Out of his present knowledge the Doctor says he can predict the weather weatherby by b seasons for about ten years ye years rs' rs in ad ad- vance And he admits he is only on the threshold of knowledge of the subject Douglass used yellow pines and sequoias se se- sequoias sequoias chiefly in making his experiments experiments experiments ments because they often live Jive to be five hundred years ears old and sequoias in particular have been bc n known to live Jive thousands of years A tree depends for its growth upon its supply of moisture In a year when there is plenty of rain it grows faster than in a dry year rear and the new ring that it develops marking twelve months of growth Is correspondingly thicker Thus when an old tree is felled a sec sec- section section section tion through its trunk will show rings ring's of varying aring representing wet years and dry years and years of aver aver- average average average age rainfall Very simple so far Further consid consid- consideration consideration consideration ff If the rings on thousands of trees has convinced Dr Douglass that wet dry and average years occur and recur according to a system of a law In other words he has discovered that weather changes occur in cycles And such cycles have a distinct relation to solar activity The way to read the trees is first to study their alphabet of cycles says BaS Douglass Dl The story a tree tells teUs is simple Sun spot periods are rainy periods A crosswise slice of any an an- ancient ancient ancient tree gives an accurate record of sun spot maxima for centuries past In Inthe Inthe Inthe the present year ear there is a n sun spot maximum One notes that it has been a avery avery avery very rainy year e r the rainfall having caused disastrous floods particularly in inthe inthe inthe the lower valley alley of the Mississippi 1 Sun spots signify increased solar ac ac- activity activity ac- ac activity which affects our climate and vegetation Thus the tree rings mark not only climatic changes but also vari van variations variations of the suns sun's heat The growth cycles being understood to correspond to weather cycles it t becomes possible by studying the tree records to work out the law that appears to govern rainfall in in other words to io determine the intervals inter in ter als that may be expected to elapse between one rainy period and the next Dr Douglass warns other experimenters experimenters experimenters menters that the degree of wetness or dryness indicated by the rings is necessarily necessarily relative Some regions are nor nor- fi x razor in a short brass handle where whereby s 2 3 t s' s r t a t gb k t E by b the rings rin s are made toren to show up clearly To rena ren- ren a h Y- Y J. J aF r sa s t der them j till still more dis distinct the stick is moist moistened ened with kerosene rubbed on with a bit of cotton It may then be examined to advantage g q under a magnifying ma riff m glass lass lassa of ofa or it may be photographed a a. cross section b l k s r a 3 s s a M After completing his of the giant v experiments with the se sequoias year old Dr Douglass made Sequoia in in the 55 similar experiments with American Museum the giant conifers of the of Natural History 9 United States Conifers New York City 1 were used as totem poles by the Haida Indians of that region and some of r e the poles oles still standing arc very old Douglass took one one of the most of y y t these totem poles oles and s d y s d A As As i s' s i bored into it taking out i sL NY Ia oa d a. a o A s t S s the core He lie has taken d w aY J fa r n similar cores from wooden t beams found in ancient nt 1 I I j i and deserted Arizona pu J z i In every case the t k record written in the 1 7 r a lva f f Ancient Alaskan totem wood vs has been the same t. t poles like those studied In every case there has Yf by Dr Douglass in m been an accurate record Y r t r q w a F his very ve interesting of the weather of past r 2 b N A r. y At a weather bf reading S ages ages and when taken in n r. r s air Y A x r A M 1 s1 n k J s 1 experiments cs con conjunction j unction with a knowl au i i A b y 4 a A t i edge of the weather u corker h g cycle theory a reliable MM 3 F Vr forecast for the future s r x L r r wa While hile Dr Douglass expects that t stu students s dents of the early earl history of the earth Petrified trees in in the fossil forests of Arizona m which scientists have will use use his discovery in m making making new found growth rings rings which they think tells them what the weather researches his own idea is that it is isy was a million and more years ago d y s c valuable chiefly to those whose duty or ora a t hobby it is is to study the laws that gov gov- mally much more humid than others Experiments should as a rule all aU be made in one climatic zone He himself has found it convenient and profitable to tomake tomake tomake make many of his experiments in a par par- particularly particularly particularly dry sector Arizona and others in California where the th rainfall is con con- considerably considerably considerably heavier The science of meteorology is com com- comparatively comparatively new Dr Douglass says and the records are inadequate But the tree records go back year by year and century by century They will he says make it possible not only to predict the future but to determine weather eather condi condi- conditions conditions conditions of the past much further back than has been possible heretofore The giant sequoias or redwoods of California are the oldest as well as IlS the largest living Jiving things on this old earth today and many of his tests were made on them They represent a prehistoric family of trees that once grew widely all aU over the globe Some of the red red- redwoods redwoods redwoods woods now rearing their foliage above the forest on the Pacific Slope were flourishing saplings when the Greeks were besieging Troy At the American Museum of Natural History in New York they exhibit a sec sec- section section tion of the trunk of a sequoia shown by its rings to have been fourteen hundred years old when it was WIlS felled still a sturdy tree just getting into the the- Indian summer of its existence That particular lar tree cut down in 1891 came up out ou of the ground about A. A D. D when the Roman Empire had just come to an end When it was a seedling Mahomet was born and almost universal war prevailed throughout Europe overrun by Goths and Vandals It was three hundred years old when Charlemagne was born It was nearly nearh six centuries centuries- old when the Crusades began It was nearly Jearly one thousand years old when Columbus landed on the eastern shore of America Forty generations of men lived Jived and died while it lived Jived on and flourished That mighty redwood was WIls known as the Mark Twain tree A photograph of the section of it in the American Mu Mu- Museum Museum Museum seum is reproduced on this page There are sequoias still standing in inthe inthe Inthe the Californian forests that are more than twenty five feet teet in diameter and andare andare andare are supposed to be more than twice as old as the one one named for Mark Twain Professor Douglass was able to deter deter- determine determine determine mine that one of them which had just been felled when he reached the scene was a seedling about the year 1162 B D. D D.C. D.C. C. C Another dated back to 1202 B. B C. C and yet another to 1317 years ears before Christ was born The records of the yellow pines of the Western extend beyond the earliest telescopic observations of ot sun spots They go back more than years ears and perfectly match the records of ol the sequoias From the latter and the Arizona pines may be constructed con a complete record of sun spot maxima and weather conditions year by year 1 ro F r S a Y A S SLogging Logging scene in the Redwood forests of California showing the tho butt of a tree that was old when Christ was born since Columbus landed in America And then when you ou come to speak of fossilized trees you speak in terms of ot millions million of years for they carry the infallible record back that far back al almost al- al almost almost most to the dawning of time according to the scientists In n the so-called so petri petri- petrified fied fled forests of Arizona there are thou thou- thousands thousands thousands sands of ot great trees which have been transformed into stone Submerged ed in water for long periods their slowly de de- decaying de- de decaying vegetable tissues were replaced particle for particle by silica sili-ca and today translated into Ii ate and chalcedony their original orl inal structures are so perfectly preserved that their rings growth are arc easily discernible dis to o the intelligent and informed observer For the careful and intimate study of sequoias yellow ellow pines and other trees Dr Douglass has had to resort to th the expedient of taking what he calls radial samples of the trees to his laboratory in Tucson Arizona Such a sample is a n V-shaped V slice cut from a cross section of a tree and ex- ex Copyright 1327 by Johnson Features Sac Inc ern rainfall His experimentation satisfied him that the sun spot cycle is is eleven and tenths four-tenths years ears There arc variations but in a general way wa the sun spot cycle corresponds to the weather records buried in the trunks of giant trees The tree rings show in the plainest way a rhythm of growth gr which has direct relation to the supply of moisture While he has made experiments in Nor Nor- Norway Norway Norway way Sweden and Germany as well wen as asin asin asin in the western part of the United States Dr Douglass Dou lass got some of his best re results re- re results results examining radial samples of trees that grow in such dry areas as Arizona and the redwood country of California Some may assume that such records as he and those who follow in his foot foot- footsteps footsteps steps may be able to compile for the th-e forecasting of weather will be valuable t. t r only as bearing bearin on local weather condi condl- conditions Hons in a restricted area That what Is I r true of the belt where the sequoias ac grow for instance will not be true of i t the the Arizona Arizon yellow pine country or rt wastelands wast lands But Dut they t ey are arc wrong ac ac- according 5 t cording cor wg to the scientist The fhe records s of the Arizona pines miles mites from the sequoia belt cor cor- correspond correspond correspond respond exactly to those of the giant trees of California Calit he be told his class the theother theother I other day And to the records record found j jIn in n trees felled in Europe as well wen All AU 7 weather is controlled by the sun and 0 D C r r- rears years ears of heavy rainfall are wet years all oU allover f i l' l over the world I J a tl L |