Rainmaker

Peru's coast is a brown billowing desert,* broken here & there by tiny green valleys which poorly support half the country's population. The towering Andes effectively bar the transportation of foodstuffs from the fertile eastern region. Because of the chronic food shortage, the Ministry of Agriculture is the hottest seat in the Peruvian cabinet. In January, the Apristas gladly turned the post over to a chubby, genial landowner named Pedro Venture, later denounced him for failing to provide food for the people. Replied Venture: "I cannot offer you miracles."

More recently, Venture decided that maybe he might, after all, offer a miracle. He had read news dispatches about artificial rainmaking in the U.S., resolved to have a go at it. He equipped a Peruvian air force plane with a rubber water tank, personally flew off to sprinkle a fat cumulus cloud over the Andean foothills. Rain fell, but it was in an area where it often rains at this time of year. Next day, Pedro was in the air again, with dry ice, found a cloud over the desert. The dry-ice ejector got stuck, and it was no go.

For a while, Venturo was spending almost as much time at Lima's airport as at the Agriculture Ministry. For his next try, Pedro was negotiating last week with a commercial airline for a larger plane which could carry water and dry ice, as well as photographers and newspapermen. Although the desert had not yet bloomed, Peruvians had faith in Rainmaker Venturo. Said one Limeno: "The public shouldn't get disappointed--remember Salvarsan is called '606' because the discoverer failed the first 605 times."

* Almost no rain falls on the coast. Air masses moving in from the Pacific are cooled crossing the cold Peru (Humboldt) Current, therefore pick up relatively little moisture. Easterly winds strike the Andes, precipitate their moisture on the eastern slopes, leave the coast dry.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.