54 agriculture; of maine. 



from the distribution effected through the press associations and 

 daily newspapers. The rural free mail delivery system recently 

 inaugurated and which is being rapidly extended will afford a 

 means of bringing within the benefits of this system a large 

 number of farming communities heretofore impracticable to 

 reach with the daily forecasts. 



The question is frequently asked whether this large outlay of 

 money for the support of the Weather Bureau is warranted. Let 

 us answer this question by giving some facts relative to the 

 number of people and industries that are daily in communication 

 with the Bureau. In our Atlantic and Gulf ports alone there 

 are floating over $30,000,000 worth of craft on any day of the 

 year ; and at every port whether on the Atlantic, on the Pacific, 

 or on the Lakes, there is either a full meteorological observatory 

 or else a storm warning displayman who attends to the lighting 

 of the danger lights on the storm warning tower at night, and 

 to the display of danger flags by day, and to the distributing of 

 storm warning messages to vessel masters. This system is so 

 perfect that the Chief of the Weather Bureau or the forecaster 

 on duty at the central office can dictate a storm warning and 

 feel certain that inside of one hour a copy of the warning will 

 be in the hands of every vessel master in every port of material 

 size in the United States, provided it is his desire that a complete 

 distribution of the warning be made. As a matter of fact the 

 storm warnings usually go only to a limited portion of the coast 

 at one time. While the daily predictions of rain or snow, by 

 which as previously stated, the public measures the value of the 

 weather service, are subject to a considerable element of error, 

 the marine warnings of the service have been so well made that 

 in over six years no protracted storm has reached any point of 

 the United States without the danger warning being displayed 

 well in advance. As a result of these warnings the loss of life 

 and property has been reduced to a minimum, being doubtless 

 not more than twenty-five per cent of that it would have been 

 without this extensive system which comes daily and almost 

 hourly into communication with mariners. The public does 

 not appreciate this part of the service, since, as a rule, these 

 warnings do not appear in the newspapers because it is not 

 desirable to publish them so far in advance as to unnecessarily 

 hold shipping in port. We only aim to place warnings twelve 



