1917] METEOROLOGY. 209 



the number of bacteria gradually decreased until at the end of five weeks 

 between 4,000,000 and 10,000,000 viable organisms were present. 



Vats showing abnormal fermentation contained a different class of organisms. 

 Bad fermentations in properly salted vats were found to be due to the growth of 

 unfavorable organisms during the first few days before the normal acid flora 

 had been able to establish itself and produce sufficient acid to stop decomposition. 

 A slight increase in temperature was found in the course of normal fermentation. 



METEOROLOGY. 



Relation of weather to crops and varieties adapted to Arizona conditions 

 {Aiizana Sta. Bui. 78 (1916), pp. 45-118, pi. 1, fig. i).— "This publication is a 

 thorough revision of Bulletin 61 (E. S. R., 22, p. 418). The arrangement and 

 much of the body of the publication are essentially the same, but considerable 

 new matter has been added, and information concerning the various crops and 

 their adaptability to different parts of the State has been revised in accordance 

 with new developments and the added experience of the past several years. 

 This information has been secured from records which have been accumulating 

 at the experiment station farms, and from personal visits and correspondence of 

 the different members of the station staff throughout the State." 



The records upon which the bulletin is based have now covered a period of 

 18 years. The bulletin deals briefly with methods of keeping weather records ; 

 factors influencing results ; general effects of temperature, direct sunshine, and 

 aridity and rainfall ; and more in detail with varieties of crops which have 

 proved most suitable to different sections of the State, arranged alphabetically 

 for convenient reference and also with reference to the months in which they 

 should be planted and when they mature. 



Native vegetation and climate of Colorado in their relation to agriculture, 

 W. W. Bobbins (Colorado Sta. Bui. 224 (1911), pp. 3-56, pis. 4, figs. 16).—'' This 

 bulletin is an outgrowth of a number of years of observation and study of the 

 native vegetation of Colorado in its relation to climate and to agriculture " 

 supplemented by a reconnoissance survey especially of the west middle portion 

 of the State during the summer of 1916, which was undertaken " for the purpose 

 of testing conclusions arrived at and finding new relations." 



In this study little consideration has been given " to the question of the value 

 of native plant life as an indicator of the local physical conditions of the en- 

 vironment. Such detailed study, however, is of much practical importance, and 

 it is planned to engage in such a study later. But the attempt here is to point 

 out the broader relations between our large native plant associations and the 

 principal climatic factors under which they are growing, and to show their 

 relation, in a very general way, to Colorado agriculture." Data, original and 

 compiled, on temperature of the surface of the plant, air, and soil, vrith different 

 altitudes, slopes, and other conditions ; length of frostless season and effects of 

 frosts and freezes ; amount and distribution of precipitation under varying con- 

 ditions ; humidity ; and sunshine, are presented and discussed. 



" The following large communities of Colorado native plants, with their cli- 

 matic and agricultural relations, are discussed: (1) Grass-steppe or short-grass- 

 land (Great Plains) ; (2) shrub-steppe — sagebrush, greasewood, rabbitbrush, 

 etc.; (3) chaparral or brushland (thicket) — oakbrush, buckbrush, willow 

 thicket, chokeberry, thornapple, mountain mahogany, etc.; (4) coniferous wood- 

 land — pinyon pine and juniper woodland; (5) coniferous forests — (a) yellow 

 pine-Douglas fir forest, (b) white fir forest, (c) lodgepole pine forest, (d) 

 Engelmann spruce-balsam fir forest." 



