WEATHER BUREAU. . 57 



ficial methods of orchard heating and the more or less successful 

 protection of extensive areas from frost injuries by smudging and 

 other means, a great demand has been created for frost forecasts and 

 warnings. Similarly, for many years the Weather Bureau has main- 

 tained during the crop-growing season a special service of weather 

 reports and the prompt issue of bulletins relating to conditions 

 throughout the great grain, cotton, and agricultural and stock re- 

 gions of the country generally. A number of studies have also been 

 conducted, especially of late years, to discover and formulate the 

 relations between weather and crops and the character and amount 

 of the influence of weather on production. 



With economies of administration in all lines of our work and 

 without specific increase of funds it became possible during the past 

 year to reorganize and bring together all this work into a new divi- 

 sion, designated " Division of Agricultural Meteorology." While a 

 number of new lines of work will be undertaken in this new division, 

 the bulk of its work at the present time comprises former activities 

 now brought together, coordinated, and improved. 



It seems opportune to outline briefly the scope and purposes of 

 agricultural meteorology as now organized in the Weather Bureau. 



DIVISION OF AGRICULTURAL METEOROLOGY. 



This new division was organized February 21, 1916, under the 

 supervision of Prof. J. Warren Smith, for the purpose of conducting 

 studies of every character of the relation of weather to crops and the 

 collection of statistical data required in such studies, including the 

 direction and supervision of cooperative relations with the State 

 experiment stations and other contributing organizations. The divi- 

 sion is to conduct investigations of the effect of weather and climate 

 upon the growth and yield of crops and will control the distribution 

 of frost warnings and forecasts to special agricultural interests, con- 

 duct studies for the protection of crops and orchards from frosts, 

 and, in general, supervise the activities of the Weather Bureau which 

 relate to agriculture and which are comprised in a number of special 

 services briefly mentioned and described in the following: 



CORN AND WHEAT REGION SERVICE. 



This service covers the 16 principal grain States, and its organi- 

 zation includes 1 region center and 13 district centers, with 168 special 

 stations from which telegrams are received daily. Daily bulletins 

 showing the temperature and rainfall at these stations are published 

 at 18 different points, with a total daily issue of 2,775 copies. This 

 service was reorganized during the spring of 1916 by the establish- 

 ment of a region center at Chicago, making the districts conform 

 to State lines so far as possible, the establishment of new district 

 centers in Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota, and the exten- 

 sion of observational stations into the new grain regions of the 

 Northwest, as well as into some of the uncovered grain districts in 

 the Central States. This was accomplished by the establishment of 

 14 new corn and wheat stations. Data cpvering the rainfall at each 

 of the 168 stations and temperature at 5 stations in each State are 

 telegraphed to the region center at Chicago each morning, and, after 



