20 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



tion to the meteorological service; they express their opinion on the weather 

 forecast and follow all the details of the work. Their criticism of the forecast 

 is expressed in figures and sent every weeli on post cards to the heads of the 

 service. The value of these ' percentages of hits ' is not very great, [and they] 

 are not published ; nevertheless, they often give the directors of the service use- 

 ful hints and have thus, in spite of many objections, been kept up. Further, 

 the Vertrauensmanner transmit to the directors many of the wishes and pro- 

 posals arising from the daily practice of farming, and in this manner many 

 valuable improvements have been made in the meteorological senice." 



The need of educating farmers to a better understanding and use of the 

 weather charts is emphasized. " Lectures and discussions in meetings of 

 associations, especially agricultural and educational, as well as special courses 

 for teachers and the inclusion of meteorology in the curriculum of seminaries 

 and universities, provide both for making grown-up people acquainted with 

 the principles of meteorology and for introducing this branch of science into the 

 schools." 



Present organization of agricultural meteorolgy in Sweden, H. E. Ham- 

 BEEG (InternaL Inst. Agr. [Rome], Mo. Bui. A^r. Intel, and Plant Diseases, 

 5 {1914), No. 1, pp. 6-8). — The meteorological service of Sweden is centralized 

 in the State Meteorological Institute at Stockholm. There is no special service 

 for agricultural meteorology, but an effort is made to collect data and to issue 

 storm warnings and forecasts and publications of interest to agriculture. The 

 Swedish Monthly Meteorological Bulletin in the Interests of Agriculture has 

 been issued for over 30 years. " Each number contains a chart showing the 

 quantity of rainfall, and a certain number of tables on the temperatures of the 

 air and the soil, and the winds, besides communications from observers, etc." 

 Special provision is made for observations in the interest of agriculture on 

 storms, frosts, and ice, as well as for phenological observations. 



A short list of references to articles bearing on the subject is given. 



About climatical variations, H. Abctowski (Amer. Jour. 8ci., 4- ser., 37 

 (1914), No. 220, pp. 305-315, figs. 3). — A'arious causes which produce climatic 

 changes are discussed, the more important conclusions reached being " that more 

 or less periodical changes of the solar constant must be the real primary cause 

 of the various climatic variations. . . . Differences of 0.15 to 0.20 have been 

 observed every year. Such differences, if permanent during some centuries or 

 thousands of years, would produce the required differences of temperature." 



The thermal state of the atmosphere, A. Boutaric ( Compt. Rend. Acad. Bci. 

 [Paris'], 158 {1914), No. 9, pp. 652-656). — Methods of mathematical physics are 

 applied in this article to the solution of the question of the causes of the fall 

 in temperature of the atmosphere with elevation. 



]M[easurem.ents of the emanations content of soil air, K. Kahler (.Phys. 

 Ztschr., 15 {1914), No. 1, pp. 27-31). — Measurements by means of the Benndorf 

 electrometer are recorded. 



It was found that changes in atmospheric pressure exerted a great influence 

 upon the amount of the radio-active emanations of the soil and also upon the 

 escape of the emanations from the soil into the air. Sunshine favored the 

 escape of the emanations but its action was masked by other factors. 



A determination of the variation with altitude of the radium, emanation 

 content of the atmosphere, J. R. Wright and O. F. Smith {Phys. Ztschr., 

 15 {1914), No. 1, pp. 31-39). — The amount of radium emanations in the air at 

 Manila at a height of 5 meters above the sea and on Mt. Pauai, 2,460 meters 

 abOA'e sea level, was determined by the method of absorption in coconut 

 charcoal. 



