XIV REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE. 



matters relating to game protection and introduction and executes the 

 Lacey Act. It gives permits for the importation of birds and super- 

 vises their movement in interstate commerce. This service will be 

 extended to Hawaii in the coming year. More liberal appropriations 

 are required to carry on the valuable work of the Biological Survey. 



Statistics. — The Division of Statistics has 250,000 reporters located 

 throughout the United States, who furnish facts monthly regarding 

 the crops. Its work consists in the preparation of reports relative to 

 the principal products, the condition and prospects of the crop dur- 

 ing the growing season, and the quantit}^ quality, and disposition of the 

 product harvested. There is urgent necessity for extending this work 

 to other products, such as live stock, fruits, sugar, rice, etc. Agents 

 are already organized to collect the facts, and only the addition of a 

 sufficient number of compilers to collate and analyze these facts is nec- 

 essary to the extension of the work. Negotiations with foreign gov- 

 ernments, looking to the telegraphic interchange of crop reports, have 

 been undertaken. The statistician has had marked success in estimat- 

 ing the cotton and other crops during the last few years. 



WEATHER BUREAU. 

 NEW OCEAN FORECASTS AND INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION. 



An important extension of the forecast work of the Weather Bureau 

 has been made during the year. By an arrangement with the secre- 

 tary of the meteorological office at London, England, the transmission 

 by cable from London to Washington of meteorological reports from 

 certain points in the British Isles and on the Continent of Europe, and 

 from Ponta Delgada, Azores, was begun December 18, 1900. These 

 reports, with observations from Nassau, Bermuda, and Turks Island, 

 have been regularly published on the daily weather maps issued at 

 Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, together 

 with forecasts of the force and direction of the wind and the state of 

 the weather for the first three days out of steamers bound east from 

 American ports. 



The Atlantic forecasts, which are based on the American, Atlantic, 

 and European telegraphic reports, were begun January 7, 1901, and 

 on June 1, 1901, they were made a part of the regular general night 

 forecasts issued at Washington. In a number of instances, when 

 storms of marked strength were passing eastward off the American 

 coast, forecasts were issued of the character of the weather which 

 would probably be experienced by steamers leaving European ports 

 westward bound, and by an arrangement with Lloyd's, of London, 

 these advices have been cabled to England. 



In addition to the daily forecasts of wind and weather and special 

 storm warnings, predictions of fog have been issued when conditions 

 favorable for fog development have been indicated in the steamer 

 tracks west of the fiftieth meridian. Reports from trans- Atlantic 



