66 ANNUAL REPORTS OP DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The Wagon Wheel Gap Experiment Station has also been con- 

 tinued. This station is maintained in cooperation with the Forest 

 Service of the department as in former years. Since the first phase 

 of the experiment is drawing to a close, arrangements have been 

 made looking to a discussion of the meteorological data that have 

 been accumulated in the last seven years. 



PRINTING AND PUBLICATIONS. 



The utmost economy w^as practiced throughout the year in the 

 issue of publications and in the purchase of the necessarj^ supplies 

 of paper, ink, and other printing materials. Nevertheless, the usual 

 series of periodical and nonperiodical publications have been ad- 

 justed to war conditions and issued much as usual, including some 

 new publications which have more or less definite relations to war 

 work. 



A careful revision of mailing lists justified dropping the names of 

 a number of recipients of periodical publications whose interest 

 in the same ceased to be active for one reason or another. 



Large and frequent demands were made for such Weather Bureau 

 pamphlets, reprints, etc., as are of value in military instruction and 

 practice, especially in aviation, and these were promptly and liber- 

 ally filled to the,extent of our resources. The requests were made not 

 only officially by bureau chiefs, commanding officers, and instructors, 

 but also in large numbers by individual officers and enlisted men sta- 

 tioned at the various camps throughout the country. 



Since the beginning of the war the distribution of publications 

 to foreign addresses by mail and international exchange has grad- 

 ually been reduced to a comparatively small number of copies. At 

 present the service is discontinued to all the central powers and 

 their allies, and to countries wholly or in part occupied by them. 

 A limited reserve of the more important publications is maintained 

 in our stock for supplying authorized foreign demands after the ces- 

 sation of the war. 



All the material for the Monthly Weather Eeview was prepared 

 and submitted on schedule time, and the data for the Annual Re- 

 port of the Chief of Bureau, 1916-17, were collected, compiled, and 

 the volume issued at the time prescribed by law. Considerable data 

 regarding the occurrence of tornadoes and hail storms were col- 

 lected, and the text, indicating some of the details of these storms, 

 together with appropriate charts showing their distribution through- 

 out the country, form valuable additions to the report. 



The monthly and annual summaries of the State climatological 

 services were prepared along the usual lines, and with a few excep- 

 tions were issued on schedule time. The printing of a climatic 

 summary for Alaska, similar to those for the States, began with 

 January, 1917, and most of the issues for that year have been printed. 

 It is probable this work will soon be brought up to date. 



No material changes were made in the snow and ice bulletins 

 issued last winter at the central office, or for the mountain States of 

 the West, except that a few additional reports have been provided 

 for in some of the higher mountains where observers have not here- 

 tofore been available. 



