WEATHER MAKING, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 267 



make him unconsciously color his report. His conclusions were adverse 

 to the rain makers. 



Eeferring in general to the experiments in Texas, one fact has been 

 generally overlooked. The rainfall in western Texas is always small, 

 but it is subject to its maxima and minima, 4ike other regions. Now, 

 there is a rainfall season in July and August in Arizona and New 

 Mexico, and this reaches western Texas. Thirty per cent of the annual 

 rainfall descends in these two months along the eastern border of New 

 Mexico and in the western angle of Texas. At El Paso this percentage 

 is 40. This maximum passes gradually eastward and is found in the 

 southeastern part n Sej)tember. The experiments in the western part 

 of Texas in 1891 were in September, fairly in the time of this maxi- 

 mum. There is another maximum of rainfall in Texas in November. 

 This is in the northeastern part of the State. The second series of 

 rainfall exjieriments in Texas was in November, 1892, at San Antonio. 

 The maximum here occurs in September, but there is in November an 

 average (for twenty-four years) of 2.5 inches, or one-twelfth of the 

 annual 30.6 inches. There is a high relative probability of rain nat- 

 urally in September in the region of the experiments in 1891, and there 

 is an even chance of it in the region of 1892. To test the theory of 

 rain making in Texas the months might have been better chosen; yet 

 it is but fair to say that the rainfall in western Texas is very fluctu- 

 ating, as it comes generally in local storms. 



Fifth meiliod. — There is another method of rain making which is still 

 a mystery, but which deserves mention because it has been submitted 

 to actual test. I have not been given i)6rmission to use names in this 

 case, and will only guarantee that the letter which I quote came from 

 a high official of a railway company and is worthy of the credence 

 which an official business letter of this sort should carry with it. This 

 gentleman, under date of August 22, 1893, wrote to me as follows: 



"Dear Sir: Your letter, August 10, - - - has been referred to 

 me. In reply thereto, we have no published reports concerning rain- 

 making experiments such as mentioned by you. While these experi- 

 ments have been made by a couple of employees of this company, we 

 can say but little about them ourselves. These i)arties claimed to be 

 able to cause rainfall by artificial means, and we have furnished them 

 with materials, together with transportation facilities, more or less all 

 the time since the early part of May, they having experimented in some 

 eighteen or twenty different locations, and in each case we have had 

 more or less rainfall. In nearly every instance we can but feel there is 

 something in their claim. We have had from one-half to 3 or 3J inch 

 falls of rain, covering a section of country from 25 t<» 90 miles in length 

 and 10 to 30 miles wide, all owing to the direction of the wind, and in 

 some cases at times when there was no moisture in sight or known until 

 they began operations, and then only throughout the section over which 

 their own rainfall extended. 



"I presume the operators themselves have kept a record of their 

 work, and results of same, at each of the different points where they 

 have been located, and should you desire I will have them make a state- 



