5S AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



quickly be increased in number to several hundred thousand if 

 occasion required. In one month of four weeks there are dis- 

 tributed 1 68 different state crop bulletins, four national crop 

 bulletins, and forty-two monthly eight-page state climate and 

 crop bulletins. 



The utilities of the service are well illustrated by the benefits 

 that the fruit interests of California derive from the rain warn- 

 ings, which, on account of the peculiar topography of that region,, 

 are made with a high degree of accuracy but a few hours before 

 the coming of rain, yet far enough in advance to enable the 

 owners of vineyards, most of which are connected by telephones, 

 to gather and stack their trays, and thus save the drying raisins 

 from destruction. Along the Rocky Mountain plateau and the 

 eastern slope our stations are so numerous and our system of 

 distribution so perfect that the sweep of every cold wave is 

 heralded to every ranch that has telegraphic communication. In 

 the cranberry marshes of Wisconsin the flood gates are regu- 

 lated by the frost warnings of the Weather Bureau, and where 

 formerly a profitable crop was secured only once in several years, 

 it is now a rare exception that damage occurs. As we go farther 

 south and east into the Gulf and South Atlantic states, our frost 

 warnings are made with a greater degree of accuracy than in 

 any other part of the country. We find the growers of sugar 

 cane in Louisiana, the truck growers from Norfolk south to 

 Jacksonville, and the orange growers of Florida timing their 

 operations by the frost warnings of the Bureau. From the esti- 

 mates of these people, it is indicated that the amount annually 

 saved to them is far greater than that expended for the support 

 of the entire Department. 



No less valuable is the flood-warning service which is in oper- 

 ation along our large river courses. So much advance has been 

 made forecasting flood stages that it is now possible to foretell 

 three to five days in advance the height of navigable rivers at 

 a given point to within a few inches. The danger line at every 

 city has been accurately determined and charted, so that when 

 a flood is likely to exceed the danger line residents of low dis- 

 tricts and merchants having goods stored in cellars are notified 

 to move their property out of the reach of the rising waters. An 

 illustration of the efficiency of this system was shown during 

 the great flood of 1897. Throughout nearly the whole area that 



