195 



fully cultivated in lier mountains and upper valleys. The health of the people of 

 Alabama can compare favorably with any other country on the globe. Violent epi- 

 demics are very rarely found within her borders, and whenever, after long years, yel- 

 low fever or cholera finds lodgment on hor soil it is due entirely to immigration and 

 the disease soon spends itself in the locality where it first finds foot-bold. The ther- 

 mometer seldom goes above 100°, and only now and then in years does it range a 

 degree or ho below zero. It is considered to bo extremely cold when the temperature 

 reaches 10°, aud intensely hot when the thermometer records 100° in the shade. Not 

 more than two or three days in the year give such high temperature, and only a few 

 localities in the State. The atmosphere is moist enough to produce a cooling sensa- 

 tion on the skin when the breeze passes across the heated person as it sweeps in from 

 the west and northwest. The average rain-fall for the entire State is only 52.12 

 inches, and at no place does the normal precipitation run above 65 inches. * * • 

 The least annual rain-fall is 41.75 inches, and the greatest is 64.96 inches. It is thus 

 seen that the atmosphere is neither too dry nor too moist for the most luxuriant pro- 

 duction of vegetation and for the best condition for the health of the inhabitants of 

 the State. 



The highest normal average temperature is 82.2"^ in July and the lowest is 43.1° in 

 January, giving a range of 39. 1°. The winters are seldom very cold and the summers 

 are not excessively warm. The last frost in spring occurs on April 15, and the first 

 frost in the autumn comes on November 15, so that the farmer is blessed with seven 

 months in which no cold occurs sufificieutly severe to even nip the most tender bufl, 

 except at rare intervals, already indicated in the previous page of this bulletin. It 

 is a fact well known that because of this long season for grojving and maturing 

 plants sometimes several crops are gathered on the same body of land in the same 

 year. 



The cold weather does not begin until December, and only one month in the winter 

 is really disagreeably cold, viz., January. The winter is usually mild, and snow sel- 

 dom falls heavy enough to cover the ground more than 2 or 3 inches. 



Soil temperatures. — There are three groups of instruments so arranged as to give the 

 temperature of moist soil, and as near as possible, an average dry, sandy soil. The 

 first set consists of nine thermometers, viz.: 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 24, 36, 48, and 60 inches re- 

 spectively, that are buried on the banks of a running stream of water, in bottom, 

 sandy land. The other two sets — one consisting of the same number of thermome- 

 ters as above, and the other the same number with three additional, viz.: 72, 84, 

 and 96 inches — are buried on the top of a hill in sandy soil that is often stirred 

 during the crop season. 



The observations of soil temperatures have not been taken long enough to produce 

 normal results, but it is interesting to note some features in the accompanying tables. 



(1) In January the average temperature of the soil in the bottom-land within 2 feet 

 of the surface is about 1 degree higher than it is on the hill. The two places in 

 February produce practically the same results within a depth of 2 feet. In March 

 the bottom is slightly cooler. In April, May, June, and July the results are practi- 

 cally the same. In August and September the bottom is again nearly 1 degree 

 warmer, while in November and December the hill soil is slightly warmer than the 

 bottom soil. 



(2) There is a gradual increase of temperature in the winter months from the sur- 

 face to the depth of 8 feet, averaging 7.3°, greatest in January (10.1°) and least in 

 December (3.9°). In the spring months there is a decrease in temperature to 8 feet, 

 averaging (^..3°), least in March (1.9°) and greatest in May (13.7°). In the summer 

 months the stratum of earth at 8 feet depth is 12.7° cooler than that of 1 inch below 

 the surface. It is 15.4° cooler in July and only 7.7° cooler in August. In September 

 the 8 feet stratum is only 4. .5° cooler, whiL) in October it it 3. .3°, and in November 

 10.4° warmer than the 1-iuch stratum. 



(3) In the middle of summer the 6-feet soil thermometer registers an average tem- 



13153— No. 5 2 



