SUNSHIxVE AND CLOUDINESS IN NEBRASKA. 45 



bee is after honey, he is probably after the pollen. But I have observed 

 it very closely and have made up my mind that this little sweat-bee is 

 the fellow that does the work of fertilization. 



Question 2 — Do you not think if the berries were properly fertilized 

 they would be perfect if they were not visited by the bees? 



Answer — I would rather have the bees around, I think it better. 

 I think the failure in our apples is sometimes caused by its being too 

 cold for the bees to fly. 



SUNSHINE AND CLOUDINESS IN NEBRASKA. 



G. D. SWEZEY. 



The amount and the intensity of sunshine in any locality is an ele- 

 ment of the weather which possesses large practical importance from 

 the agricultural and horticultural point of view, since not only the 

 growth, but especially the maturing of the crops, as well as the har- 

 vesting of them, is largely dependent upon it. Nebraska, as will ap- 

 pear from the following statements, is favored in this respect. While 

 the greater part of our rainfall occurs in the growing season, and es- 

 pecially in the earlier part of the season when crops are developing 

 most rapidly as regards gross weight, the latter part of the growing 

 season on the other hand is characterized by a steady decrease in the 

 amount of cloudiness, a large |)ercentage of sunshine, and a high de- 

 gree in the intensity of sunshine as well as in its actual duration. 



This large percentage and high intensity of sunshine follows as a 

 natural corollary to the fact of the inland position and clear, dry at- 

 mosphere of Nebraska. 



The instrument by which the hours of sunshine are determined is 

 ^n electrical sunshine recorder, placed on the roof and operating elec- 

 trically one of the three pens of the triple register. 

 It consists of an outer tube of glass for protection, 

 containing another glass tube expanded at the ends 

 into air chambers, A and B, and partly filled with 

 a column of mercury, which separates the air in 

 the two chambers. The lower chamber or bulb is 

 coated with lampblack, which when the sun is 

 shining absorbs the sun's rays and heats the air in 



