70 ANNUAL REPORTS OP DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 



The National Weather and Crop Bulletin. — The preparation 

 and issue of this bulletin continue to take the greater part of the 

 time of the force of this division during the crop season. It is 

 published weekly from April to September, inclusive, and monthly 

 during the winter season. A new feature during the past season 

 has been the inclusion of data regarding the planting and harvest- 

 ing of the principal crops, at the request of the Office of Farm Man- 

 agement, as an aid in determining the labor requirements. The re- 

 sults of the correlation of weather and crops have been published 

 in this bulletin from time to time. 



Pacific coast weather and crop service. — A special weather and 

 crop service covering the States of Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Idaho, 

 Washington, Oregon, and California, was inaugurated at the begin- 

 ning of the 1918 crop-growing season, with San Francisco as the 

 district center. A bulletin somewhat similar to the National Weather 

 and Crop Bulletin was issued at the district center each Wednesday 

 from April to September, inclusive, and will be continued monthly 

 during the winter season. 



INSTRUMENTATION, TESTS, AND REPAIRS. 



The closing of European markets for scientific apparatus, ac- 

 companied by the great congestion of manufacturing work in this 

 country, has presented serious difficulties to the Weather Bureau in 

 procuring the necessary high-grade instruments for its work 

 and has imposed upon what was formerly known as the in- 

 strument division of the bureau many additional duties, since it 

 became necessary in certain respects at least to undertake to con- 

 struct here instruments which could not possibly be procured else- 

 where. In fact, we have with limited facilities endeaA-orecl to ex- 

 tend aid to the Army and Navy in constructing meteorological in- 

 struments to meet special needs. Under these conditions it became 

 necessary to reorganize this part of the work of the bureau and to 

 divide the original instrument division into two parts, one devoted 

 to general administrative affairs connected with the receipt and issue 

 of instruments and their exposure at stations, the other to be con- 

 cerned with the testing of new instruments, the construction and re- 

 pair of instruments, and their careful adjustment to meet station 

 requirements. Even at best the difficulty of maintaining necessary 

 supplies to meet all needs has been serious, and more or less delay 

 has necessarily marked the progress of this part of our work. As 

 time goes on and as American manufacturing interests become more 

 able to meet requirements which in many cases formerly were sup- 

 plied from European sources, a general improvement must result. 



