106 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



before," for the frost does not descend, nor the wind blow, nor the rain 

 fall, without a premonition announced hours, often even days, in advance 

 of their coming. This is well understood by the keen sons of trade, and 

 they enlisted the aid of the General Government by inducing it to 

 establish the Signal Service Bureau for observing atmospheric phenomena 

 over the entire continent and the adjacent islands ; and when danger is 

 approaching, to hoist signals along the shores and coasts of the sea and 

 lakes as a premonition that a storm is imminent. Millions of propert)' 

 and thousands of valuable lives are by this means annually saved from 

 shipwreck and disaster by the timely warnings of the Signal Bureau. 



The cultivator of the soil, the prime creator of the world's wealth, 

 has no such friendly assistance, warning him of impending danger, in 

 heeding which he can fortify himself against loss. 



Facilities for his information are ready, and those who control them 

 are willing and anxious that he should have their benefit ; but the ques- 

 tion to be solved is how are they to be made available ? The mariner 

 reading his barometer, seeing the mercurial column descending, steers 

 for the nearest headland, and sees the signal hoisted, telling him from 

 what quarter the danger is approaching, or to be apprehended, and he 

 prepares to meet it by taking in sail, or tacks his ship, and avoids the 

 storm by running out of its track. 



The farmer has yet to learn both the value of the barometer to his 

 calling, and how to read intelligently its indications. In this the mari- 

 ner has the advantage, and surpasses him ; for the barometer has become 

 indispensable to his profession as a mentor without whose company he 

 would not dare to venture upon seas infested with cyclones. Sailors can- 

 not at all times run within sight of shore to learn from the hoisted signal 

 what is the matter; therefore, when in the open sea, they must depend 

 upon their own resources for interpreting the reading of their instrument 

 and attending phenomena, and there are few among them who cannot do 

 this intelligently. As it is with the navigator, so it is with the farmer. 

 As no system of signals can be devised and hoisted to serve any class of 

 men at all times and at all places, so they necessarily must be more or 

 less thrown upon their own resources, and work out their salvation with 

 fear and trembling. 



While we will never again be able to dispense with the services of 

 the Signal Corps, we can not and must not depend upon it to do all our 

 thinking; and to that end we must qualify ourselves to be independent 

 of them as far as deductions are to be made and conclusions to be arrived 

 at. Before the good times come to the farmer, when he need have no 

 anxiety about the weather, he must be educated in the general principles 

 of meteorological science. 



The observations of the Signal Corps, and the indications of our own 

 instruments, can at best only furnish us the elements of the problem to be 

 solved. A preparatory training in the facts and elements of meteorology 

 should be given to the rising generation, not only in our common schools 

 but in our colleges. 



