DEPARTMENT REPORTS 91 



furnished with cards. Altogether, the Michigan Weather Service now 

 supplies to its various distributing centers, 2,499 postoffices and business 

 houses, and 7,3GG rural mail boxes. 



By co-operation with the postmasters at the termini of many of the 

 rural free delivery routes this office is able to furnish the farmer with 

 a daily forecast. These forecasts are placed in the boxes of the farmers 

 about the same time that the cards reach their destination in the city. 

 The rural distribution of weather forecasts has proved a very popular 

 feature of the rural free delivery system. 



WEEKLY CLIMATE AXD CROP BULLETIN. 



As in previous years this office has continued to publish a weekly 

 bulletin during the planting, growing and harvesting seasons, which 

 describes briefly for the State and each county the weather conditions 

 of the preceding seven days and their effect on the progress of the 

 various staple crops and farm field work. The bulletin continues to 

 be published widely in the metropolitan press and smaller newspai)ers 

 and is a very popular feature of our work. The bulletin is mailed to 

 about 1,200 addresses, most of which are in Michigan, but a considerable 

 portion of which also go outside of the State. This bulletin is furnished 

 free on application to the Lansing office. 



MONTHLY CLIMATE AND CROP BULLETIN. 



A monthly bulletin, containing a statisical meteorological resume 

 for each station, besides a small amount of explanatory- text, has been 

 issued monthly during the year. This bulletin is in conformity to a 

 style suggested by the chief of the United States Weather Bureau, and 

 adopted by other State Weather Services, as well as the Michigan 

 Weather Service. The data is therefore easily comparable with that 

 of other states. The data thus compiled is much referred to by a large, 

 varying and increasing class of interests. Besides the data published in 

 this bulletin, the Lansing office has furnished a very large amount of 

 special meteorological data. 



The record of observations is yearly becoming of more importance, as 

 is evidenced by the largely increased demand for it. The service is 

 becoming better known and its resources are being brought more and 

 more into use by the public. 



In conclusion I can only repeat that while no particularly new work 

 has been taken up, the work in hand has been vigorously forwarded and 

 the net-work of meteorological record has been very satisfactorily ex- 

 tended over another year of time. In addition it may be said that never 

 before in the history of the weather bureau have we been able to place 

 the forecasts and warnings in the hands of so many farmers as we are 

 now doing, ^^'hen it is remembered that the weather bureau was first 

 organized for the sole purpose of warning the marine and agricultural 

 interests of approaching weather conditions and that for many years the 

 marine interests were benefited by the weather bureau many fold 

 more than the agricultural interests and that it is only within the past 

 few vears that the weather bureau forecasts have been available to 

 the farming class at large, it may be said that the original intention 

 of the founders of the weather bureau is just beginning to see its 



