1918.] METEOROLOGY. 811 



western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Virginia between about 800 and 2,000 

 ft. elevation, and in North Carolina, northwestern corner of Georgia, eastern 

 Tennessee, and Kentucky above about 1,400 ft. elevations. It would seem that 

 experiments with early varieties, such as Marquis, which have been found best 

 adapted to the more southern range in which they have been tried should be 

 undertaken on a small scale in all of these areas. The dates for sowing in the 

 larger area as well as those for the higher levels mentioned will agree closely 

 with those which have been found best for spring oats, and the time it will 

 be ready for harvest will also agree quite closely with that of oats. In the 

 larger area mentioned the time of seeding would be from as early as it is possi- 

 ble to sow in March to the 10th of April, with harvest from the middle of July 

 to the 10th of August." 



Nitrites from nitrates by sunlight, B. Moore {Abs. in Nature [London], 100 

 {1911), No. 2513, p. 338; U. S. Mo. Weather Rev., J^ {1911), No. 12, pp. 602, 

 603). — " Dilute solutions of nitrates exposed either to sunlight or to a source of 

 L'ght rich in light-energy of short wave-length (such as light from a mercury 

 vapor arc inclosed in silica) undergo conversion of nitrate into nitrite. There 

 is an uptake of chemical energy in this reaction transformed from light energy, 

 as in the formation of organic carbon compounds in foliage leaves ; it is to be 

 added to the relatively small number of endothermic reactions induced by light. 

 When green leaves are immersed in nitrate solution comparatively little nitrite 

 accumulates, indicating that nitrites are rapidly absorbed by the green leaf. 

 Nitrates taken up by plants from soil would, in presence of sunlight, be 

 changed to nitrites; which are much more reactive than nitrates. This indi- 

 cates that the early stages of synthesis of nitrogenous compounds are carried 

 out in tlie green leaf and aided by sunlight. Rain water collected for a consid- 

 erable time contains no nitrites, all having been oxidized to nitrates ; but if 

 exposed to bright sunlight or ultra-violet light for a few hours a strong reaction 

 for nitrites is always obtained. There is no hydrogen peroxid or ozone in air 

 at surface level." 



Monthly Weather Review {U. S. Mo. Weather Rev., 45 {1917), Nos, 11, pp. 

 529-572, pis. 9, figs. 12; 12, pp. 573-636, pis. IS, figs. 5).— In addition to weather 

 forecasts, river and flood observations, and seismological reports for November 

 and December, 1917 ; lists of additions to the Weather Bureau Library and of 

 recent papers on meteorology and seismology ; notes on the weather of the 

 months; solar and sky radiation measurements at Washington, D. C, during 

 November and December, 1917 ; condensed climatological summaries ; and the 

 usual climatological tables and charts, these numbers contain the following 

 articles : 



No. 11. — Observations of the Neutral Points of Atmospheric Polarization from 

 Great Heights, by A. Wigand (reprinted abs.) ; Sf>me Nuclei of Cloudy Con- 

 densation, III, by J. Aitken (reprinted abs.) ; Relation between Sunlight and 

 Moonlight, by J. S. Dow (reprinted abs.) ; Minute Structure of the Solar Atmos- 

 phere, by G. E. Hale and F. Ellerman (reprinted abs.) ; Why the Axes of the 

 Planets are Inclined (illus.) by W. H. Pickering (reprinted) ; Shall We Revise 

 Our Nomenclature for Thermometric Scales? by C. F. Marvin; Some Researches 

 in the Far Eastern Seasonal Correlations. — Fourth Note (illus.), by T. Okada 

 (abs.) ; Sun Spots, Magnetic Storms, and Rainfall (illus.), by H. Arctowski ; 

 Local Wind of the Foehn Type near San Francisco Bay (illus.), by B. M. 

 Varney; Nebraska Hailstorm of August 8, 1917 (illus.), by G. A. Loveland ; 

 Vapor Pressure of Ice, by S. Weber (reprinted abs.) ; The Arithmetic Mean 

 and the " Middle " Value of Certain Meteorological Observations, by L. Becker 

 (reprinted abs.) ; and New Zealand Standard Time (reprinted). 



