THE FEBRUARY MEETING. 359 



WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON. 



Assembling at two o'clock, Mr. Lyon in the chair, the Society listened to a 

 paper by W. K. Kedzie, Meteorologist, descriptive of the great polar wave or 

 «old storm of December, 1872, stating that the records of Yale College show 

 the winter at New Haven the coldest recorded in 100 years, since the records 

 have been kept there. 



The coldest day in Michigan was December 24:th, when the thermometer 

 marked 32 degrees below zero. 



During the winter, including December, 1872, January and February, 1873, 

 the thermometer at Lansing was thirty times below zero, the winter previously 

 noted, being that of 1872, when it was eighteen times below. The average tem- 

 perature of the winter was seventeen degrees above zero. The snow fall for 

 the winter has been forty-two and one-half inches. 



The great polar storm, or wave of cold, which caused so great destruction of 

 iife and financial loss, commenced December 20th, and reached its highest point 

 on the 24th. At Pembina the thermometer stood at thirty degrees below zero 

 on the 20th, and at Fort Garry, across the British line, forty-two degrees. From 

 that point the wave proceeded southeast, covering St. Paul and Duluth, striking 

 Milwaukee, crossing to Grand Haven, sweeping over the State in an east and 

 west line, and then proceeding northeastwardly, covering New England, the 

 center line passing just north of Mt. Washington, 



The lecture was illustrated by diagrams of signal service showing the pro- 

 gress of the storm as the wave of cold increased till it reached its height, and 

 then subsided to the usual winter's temperature. Some curious incidents were 

 noted, showing that the wave had regular pulsations or lulls in its progress, as, 

 for instance, while at Detroit on the morning of the 24th the thermometer 

 stood at ten, it marked thirty-two below zero at Lansing. The winters of the 

 past ten years were compared as to cold and snowfall, etc., in tabular form, from 

 records kept at the Agricultural College. 



Mr. Kedzie placed before the Society a communication from the chief officer 

 of the signal service, asking suggestions and co-operation to perfect the system 

 now in operation, and to make it more useful to the several interests for whose 

 benefits it is designed. 



These benefits will soon, and to a considerable extent in the present year, be 

 e:xtended to the farmer and husbandman, by warning him of approaching 

 storms, that he may secure his outlying sheaves and his windrows of hay. 



At the suggestion of Mr. Kedzie a committee on this subject was appointed 

 to prepare a memorial to Congress to make the necessary appropriations for 

 increasing the number of stations, etc. W. K. Kedzie, of Lansing ; T. T. Lyon, 

 of Plymouth, and N. Chilson, of Battle Creek, were chosen such committee. 



This committee subsequently submitted a form of memorial to the Signal 

 Service Office, asking the establishment of stations where they may be of advan- 

 tage, and pledging such assistance as the Society may be able to afford. 



The committee adopted the following as the memorial : 

 To Gen. Albert Myer, Chief of U. S. Signal Service: 



The undersigned, a committee appointed by the Michigan State Pomological 

 Society to memorialize your department upon the establishment of signal stations 

 throughout the State of Michigan, would pray: That in your distribution of 

 stations throughout the State, your department would take into consideration 



