VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 53 



animal of the olden time. Instead of a few homely and in- 

 convenient implements for use in the laborious duties of the 

 dairy, perfected appliances, skillfully devised to accomplish 

 their object and lighten labor, are provided all along- the way. 

 Long - rows of shining tin pans no longer adorn rural door- 

 yards. The factory system of co-operative or concentrated 

 manufacture has so far taken the place of home dairying, that 

 in entire States the cheese vat or press is as rare as the hand 

 loom, and in many counties it is as hard to find a churn as a 

 spinning wheel. 



WEATHER BUREAU. 



Of great service to agriculture has been the work of the 

 United States Weather Bureau. Its first and most important 

 work is to give to the farmer trustworthy information of com- 

 ing weather changes with such promptness that it may be 

 utilized in planning operations for the period to which the 

 prediction applies. To do this successfully and economically 

 has been one of the most difficult problems with which the 

 Bureau has had to contend. In the earlier years of the Bu- 

 reau's existence it had, as now, accurate foreknowledge of 

 coming weather changes, but the means for rapid dissemina- 

 tion of that information, of such immense value to the public, 

 were unsatisfactory and very inadequate. In recent years 

 through the rapid extension of telephone systems, increased 

 telegraph facilities and vastly improved postal service, the 

 Bureau has been enabled to place its weather forecasts befo: " 

 the public so promptly that all cities and important towns, 

 and a vast number of the smaller towns and villages are now 

 given prompt weather service. So greatly has the system of 

 distribution been extended throughout the country that at 

 this time there are issued and distributed approximately 

 100,000 weather bulletins daily, a large majority of which 

 go into the smaller towns and villages for the benefit of the 

 agricultural classes. 



Besides this daily distribution the Bureau is enabled by 

 its River and Flood service, in times of heavy rains when 

 dangerous stages of water are likely to occur, to inform the 

 sections endangered; and by its timely warnings of threaten- 

 ed overflows, it not infrequently in a single instance saves to 

 the public more than the total annual cost of its maintenance 

 for a period of years. 



A scarcely less important work than that of issuing fore- 

 casts is the Climate and Crop service in which more than three 

 thousand voluntary observers take daily observations of tem- 

 perature and record measurements of rainfall, using instru- 

 ments of the Government standard. The observations are col- 



