REPORT OF THE CHIEF OF 'rtlE WEATHER BUREAU. 



United States Department of Agriculture, 



Weather Bureau, 

 Washington^ September 10^ 1923. 

 Hon. Henry C. Wallace, 



Secretary of Agriculture. 



Sir : I have the honor to submit herewith a report of the opera- 

 tions of the Weather Bureau during the fiscal year ended June 30, 

 1923. 



Respectfully, 



C. F. Marvin, 



Chief of Bureau. 



A new significance is attached nowadays to the weather factor in 

 all human conduct and operations. For centuries a topic often con- 

 venient to fill lulls in conversation and for other purposes, the pres- 

 ent and prospective weather for a continent, almost for the whole 

 world, is now spread before the public twice a day in all the news- 

 papers, weather maps, and a multitude of bulletins and advices. 

 The United States leads the world in the utility, practicability, and 

 extent of this public service, and even the smallest progressive nation 

 recognizes that an organized public weather service is now quite as 

 much a necessity as, say, a postal service or a police force. This is 

 a growth and development of the past 50 years. In the United States 

 the general public takes the work of its Weather Bureau more or 

 less as a matter of course. In early years its forecasts and prognos- 

 tications were not taken very seriously, and its popular sobriquet 

 of " Old Probabilities " was suggestive of the humorous estimate in 

 which its work was generally held. That was when the bureau was 

 a very young institution, literally in its childhood. A historian tell- 

 ing the life story of the bureau can easily discern its progress into 

 sober youth and manhood. With this came a period when the public 

 viewed its pretentions and accomplishments (or failures) with some 

 seriousness. However, with small sympathy for the bureau's fore- 

 casters, and less understanding of the difficulties of their tasks, 

 storms of complaints for failures prevailed throughout the land. 

 These are written in the columns of the public press throughout the 

 closing years of the last century. 



Kecognizing its limitations, undismayed by the onslaught of its 

 critics, confident of the wonderful possibilities of its useful public 

 service and its ability to make it worth while to the Nation — to make 

 its work pay back to the Nation in economic benefit many hundreds 

 of dollars for one expended on the maintenance of the work — the 

 bureau, through its technical staff of loyal and patriotic public serv- 



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