REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE. XI 



of the daily forecasts of the Bureau should be made coextensive with 

 the rural free delivery. This could be done on the basis of the Post- 

 Office estimates for July 1, 1903, at a cost of about $100,000. 



Wireless Telegraphy. 



The experiments in space, or wireless, telegraphy were beg'un Jan- 

 uary 1, 1900, under the direction of the Chief of the Weather Bureau, 

 and were continued during* the past year. While much valuable infor- 

 mation has been secured and a fairly satisfactory experimental system 

 has been devised, I am not able to report such progress in the investi- 

 gation as would justify the Department in dispensing with its coast 

 telegraph lines or with the cables that connect certain islands with the 

 mainland. 



Storm Warning Equipment. 



As far as funds would permit, the work of extending the equipment 

 of steel towers and high-power lanterns of improved t3^pe at important 

 storm warning stations was pushed energetically during the 3^ear by 

 the instrument division. In all, 54 towers were distributed to storm 

 warning stations. 



The funds available were too limited to permit of the purchase of 

 high-power lanterns and other accessories required by the towers. 

 Moreover, the first six months of the past year have been necessariW 

 consumed in the manufacture, shipment, and installation of the towers. 

 The matter of lanterns and accessories will therefore have to be sup- 

 plied this year, and while provision for them has already been made, 

 the storm-warning fund will permit of no considerable extension of 

 the work, and we must of necessity confine ourselves to finishing up 

 the work left over from last year. There are now 109 storm- warning 

 and 9 special stations at which the steel towers have been installed. 

 Of these, 48 need lanterns, and they will be issued as soon as delivered 

 by the contractors. 



Under the special appropriation by Congress for the purchase of 

 sites and the erection of buildings for the use of the Weather Bureau 

 at certain stations, buildings were erected at the following places, at a 

 total cost of $23,932.53, namely: Atlantic City, N. J.; Hatteras, N. C; 

 Fort Canby (North Head), Wash.; Port Crescent, Wash.; Tatoosh 

 Island, Wash., and Point Reyes, Cal. Under this appropriation, also, 

 l)uildings were repaired and improved and supplies provided, at a cost 

 of $17,279.03, at the following places: Bismarck, N. Dak. ; Jupiter, Fla. ; 

 Kittyhawk, N. C, and Cape Henry, Virginia. The buildings at Port 

 Crescent, Wash., and Jupiter, Fla., are still in course of construction, 

 but will be completed within a few months. In view of the approval 

 of this policy and of the economy to the Government of owning its own 

 buildings, I recommended an additional appropriation of $50,000, which 



