STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 189 



6.50 inches in 1879. At 8 p. m. the barometer read .SO. OS inches and risintf; temperature. 51 

 degrees; rehitive luimidity, 85 per cent; wind was southeast and blowing at the rale of 4 miles 

 per hour; light rain tailing. The rainfall at other points on the coast 3-estorday was as fol- 

 lows: Tatoosh Island, none ; Olympia, none; Fort Canby, none; Portland, none; Roseburg, 

 none; Cape Mendocino, down to-day; Red Bluff, .46; Sacramento, .83; Los Angeles, none. 



THE WELCOME RAIN. 



[Call, San Francisco, Jan. ;il.] 



The rain storm of the past few days has, fortun.ately, been general throughout the State. It 

 came at a time when most needed, and has been sulticientiy al)undant to satisfy the miners and 

 farmers; and lowering skies, with I'requcnt — in fact, almost continuous — siiowers, indicate that 

 the end is not yet. All the fears entertaine<l of a drought are now dispelled. Unless there is' 

 some unexiiecied intervention of bad luck, the chances for a Iruitful harvest are as promising 

 as could be desired. 



There is another point in the annual rain tables, which I respect- 

 fully submit might be revised advantageously; and that is the so 

 called means for the season, as well as the means for each month. 

 The fact that we have periodical comparatively dry seasons, and two 

 distinct cycles of rain years, pointing to two means of 115.84 inches 

 and 132.18 inches respectively, for each five and six year cycle, might 

 first point to a mean of those periods for one year, and then as the 

 drier seasons form no part of the wet aggregates, excessive rainfall, in 

 any montli, should be deducted, if we want to show a mean of what 

 may be expected in any month, or year, exclusive of sucli extremes 

 either way. More than one table might be desirable for this purpose. 



By way of illustration I may first ask your attention to Mr. Bar- 

 wick's annual table as now presented. A very little inspection will 

 show that we have repeatedly had from 8 inches and upwards in one 

 rainy month, which has caused high water and done damage to the 

 low lands. We have had, in fact, seventeen such storms since 1849, 

 ranging from 8 to 15 inches. Let us call them 18, with a mean of 

 10 inches each, 180 inches. The total rainfall is footed at 665 inches; 

 deducting the 180 inches, leaves us 485 inches. Then deducting the 

 eighteen months from thirty-four years, leaves us thirty-two years 

 and six months as our divisor for the 485 inches, giving about 15 

 inches for our mean, exclusive of excessive rains, which show^s at 

 once that 19.52 inches, which includes all the excessive storms, is too 

 high a mean for seasons exempt from such storms. Then, again, we 

 may observe that seventeen or eighteen out of thirty-four or thirty- 

 five years is very close upon a storm of 8 to 15 inches in every other 

 year. I admit that it would be more correct to add up the rainfall of 

 each storm, and see how near eighteen such storms reach 180 inches. 

 But I offer the remark rather as a suggestion, of some desirable mod- 

 ifications, to express our means for any month or year, closer than 

 they are now expressed in the absence of excessive rains; while under 

 the same column a kind of reserve fund should be shown for the 

 percentage of storm expectation. It could be so fixed as to give us 

 very close results, and would meet the practical wants of agricultur- 

 ists. True, the storms scattered through the table show for them- 

 selves, but the means, as made up, are still misleading. 



If my suggestion is adopted about making the annual table up 

 into cycles of five and six years, however, with the dry season thereof 

 in the sixth and seventh year separated, it would doubtless lead to 

 modifications of the whole table. 



There was one point in the Record-Union's article of September 5, 

 1881, and repeated January 26, 1884, I have not adverted to. They 



