SOCIETY OF CENTRAL ILLINOIS. 311 



Meteorology has been studied almost as long as the physical sci- 

 ences have had a hold upon the attention of civilized man. l»ut until 

 the past few years we have secured from the results of this study 

 but little of practical value for application in farm work especially 

 dependent upon vegetable physiology, or as a guide in the extension 

 of special or new cultures. The observation made and the data re- 

 corded were not even of a kind, or in quantity, to aid in the develop- 

 ment of the relations we have in mind, but fortunately we have an 

 admirable beginning in this direction in the work organized by the 

 State Weather Service that should receive all the encouragement 

 and aid that intelligent and earnest farmers and fruit-growers can 

 give. The records now being made are of a character that may, we 

 believe, be utilized, if farmers and fruit growers on their part will 

 preserve for comparison careful record of the quantity and quality 

 of each crop dejtendent especially uj)on the meteorological condi- 

 tions that are made the object of special observation. What these 

 are will appear later on. 



But the fact remains that in this country at least, the work 

 done thus far has not been of a character to afford specific notions 

 of the real relations upon which the well-being of the vine, its 

 health and productiveness, and the best qualities of its fruit depend. 

 All appear to consider that sections of warm seasons are most favor- 

 able, and all place special stress upon the heat radiated from the sun 

 and reflected from the earth as being particularly beneficial in its 

 action and results. All seem to insist upon the relation of climate 

 to what are known as good and bad wine years, but until within the 

 past decade even the best authorities have been practically unable 

 even to approach a satisfactory conclusion with regard to it, or offer 

 any valid reasons for the variations in the quality of the fruit, and 

 consequently the wine })roduced from year to year. By chemical 

 analysis it was easily shown that the fruit of the good years con- 

 tained more sugar and less of acid than that of poor years. By the 

 study of the relations of the elements of plant nutrition to the vine, 

 it was easy to determine l)y what syston of fertilizing it is possible 

 to stimulate the production of the saccharine properties of the fruit, 

 but even with the data thus furnished and the means thus at hand 

 for combatting the unfortuiuite influences of the bad years they 

 could nut be overcome. Meteorologists and vegetable physiologists 

 alike have been at loss in this connection, and the little that we 

 even now know has been the result of work of very recent years, and 

 can do little more than stimulate endeavor in the further search. 



We have been told repeatedly of the relations of heat to the dif- 

 ferent stages occurring in the development of the vine and its fruit, 

 that the buds will ]»urst in the Spring only when an average daily 

 temi)erature of 55° Fahrenheit prevails; that the number of days 

 that will intervene between the opening of the buds and the appear- 

 ance of the bloom will depend upon the average daily temperature 



