EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. IX. No. (5. 



The importance of careful studies of the influence of meteorological 

 and climatic conditions on the growth of plants has frequently been 

 urged in the Record. Many of the stations have from their organiza- 

 tion carried on series of the usual observations on the temperature, 

 rainfall, etc., but these observations, as a rule, have either had no 

 definite aim in view, or have had some other object than the study of 

 these factors as related to the development of crops. They have also 

 rarely been made in direct connection with the growing plant in the 

 experiment field under circumstances insuring an accurate record of the 

 conditions which actually prevail there. They have consequently been 

 of little or no utility in interpreting the phenomena of plant growth. 



Phenological observations, which may be considered a step in 

 advance of the observations just mentioned when systematically and 

 continuously carried out, have received little attention from the agri- 

 cultural institutions of the United States, lime's bibliography, 1 how- 

 ever, shows that the literature of such studies in other parts of the 

 world is by no means insignificant, and yet even with the aid of the 

 best of these observations little progress has actually been made in deter- 

 mining what influences a given meteorological or climatic condition or 

 set of conditions will exert on the final product of a plant or what are the 

 conditions which will give the maximum and optimum of a given crop. 2 



jSTo attempt has been made in the past by the stations to carry out 

 consistently planned investigations along the lines suggested through 

 the long periods of time necessary to arrive at satisfactory conclusions. 

 This seems somewhat remarkable, because, aside from the intrinsic 

 importance of the knowledge to be thus secured, this work, as Professor 

 Harrington has said, -'affords a field for the display of skill and talent 

 which is not surpassed in any other branch of science and the sur- 

 roundings of the experiment station and agricultural college are very 

 favorable for carrying it on." 



There are many lines of such work which promise abundant reward 

 to the patient and persistent investigator. Professor Harrington has 

 enumerated among others "such problems as the distribution of tem- 

 peratures within such heights in the air and depths in the soil as are 

 occupied by animal and plant life and the changes of temperature with 



1 Phliuologische Beobachtungen aus den Jahren 1879-'82. 



2 For suggestions regarding phenological observations, see Bailey : U. S. Dept. Agr., 

 Weather Bureau, Monthly Weather Review. 24 (1896), pp. 328-331 (E. S. R., 8, p. 672). 



501 



