REPORT OF THE CHIEF OF THE WEATHER BUREAU. 



United States Department of Agriculture, 



Weather Bureau, 



"Washington, D. C, September 22, 1915. 



Sm: I have tlie honor to submit a report of the operations of the 

 Weather Bureau during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1915. 

 Respectfully, 



Hon. D. F. Houston, 



Secretary of Agriculture. 



C. F. Marvin, 

 Chief of Bureau. 



The daily work of the Weather Bureau is an important public 

 service, and every branch of commerce, industry, and business 

 activity is continually finding new ways in which the information 

 obtainable from Weather Bureau sources can aid in the more efficient 

 conduct of those affairs. The 200 principal stations of the Bureau, 

 well distributed throughout the country, form intimate points of 

 contact between the central organization and those it aims and de- 

 sires to serve. These stations not only; collect and report telegraph- 

 ically the local meteorological condition, but also serve simulta- 

 neously the equally important purpose of a local center for the dis- 

 semination of every species of weather news. Forecasts, storm, 

 frost, flood, and other warnings and weather bulletins to be of real 

 value must be immediately disseminated. The Weather Bureau is 

 well organized to accomphsh this result, and its work and efforts are 

 impaired on some occasions only bv the failure or complete inter- 

 ruption of the customary means of communication — that is, prin- 

 cipally, the telegraph and telephone service. 



Almost the first effect of great floods and destructive storms is to 

 cut off communication by the customary wire service. Wireless 

 methods of communication are subject to but little, if any, interrup- 

 tion by destructive weather conditions, and on such occasions are 

 often the only means of communication that remain. A powerful argu- 

 ment is found in these considerations for the estabhshment of wire- 

 less stations in many regions of the country, especially those that 

 have repeatedly suffered from disastrous floods and storms and the 

 serious loss of communication with the outside world. 



The funds appropriated by Congress for the work of the Bureau 

 have remained practically the same for several years, in fact, have 

 suffered shght reductions. The service has, however, been extended 

 in many directions by increasing the distribution of frost warnings, 

 extending the river and flood service, the introduction of fire-wind 

 forecasts for the better prevention of forest fires, the enlargement and 

 publication in better form of weather and crop bulletins, and the 



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