48 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



THE RELATIONS OF THE WORK OF THE 

 WEATHER BUREAU TO AGRICULTURE. 



By W. A. Shaw, Observer, U. S. Weather Bureau, North- 

 field, Vt. 



It has been said that "We dwell on the surface of the land ; we 

 sail across the surface of the sea; but we live at the bottom of 

 the atmosphere. Its changes pass over our heads ; its continued 

 fluctuations control our labors. Whether our occupation is 

 indoors or out, on land or at sea, we are all more or less influ- 

 enced by changes from the clear sunshine of blue skies to the 

 dark shadows under clouds ; from the dusty weather of drought to 

 the rains of passing storms ; from the enervating southerly winds 

 to the bracing currents from the north. 



Few persons fail to raise some question now and then concern- 

 ing the causes and processes of these changes ; some inquire 

 more earnestly, desiring to inform themselves carefully on the 

 subject. No school study suggests more frequent questions from 

 scholars or allows more educative replies from teachers than 

 meteorology, the science of the atmosphere." 



Since man's labor and pleasure are so much affected by weather 

 and climate, it is passing strange that no systematic effort was 

 made to discover the laws of atmospheric phenomena until within 

 150 years; indeed, it may be said that the modern science of 

 meteorology has been developed within the past 100 years. 

 Therefore I say that it seems strange that man in his strenuous 

 efforts in the development of other branches of science should 

 have so long neglected the study of the atmosphere. 



Meteorology may be defined as that branch of natural philos- 

 ophy which deals with weather and climate ; it includes the study 

 of the physical properties of the atmosphere, a description of the 

 instruments employed in that study and the application of the 

 laws and principles discovered. Notwithstanding the fact that 

 we are able to trace the discovery of some of the first principles 

 of meteorology back two thousand years, that which now con- 



