808 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. [Vol. 37 



Summer types of rainfall in upper Pecos Valley, [N. Mex.], C. Hallen- 

 BECK {U. S. Mo. Weather Rev., 45 {1911), No. 5, pp. 209-216, figs. 5).— From a 

 study of data showing the rainfall, May to September, inclusive, for 12 years, 

 1905-1916, the author concludes that, while the summer rains of this portion 

 of the United States are essentially daytime rains, there is a preponderance 

 of night rains over the limited area occupied by the upper half of the Pecos 

 Valley, due wholly to the occurrence of a peculiar type of nonconvective rainfall 

 which is described. 



Showers of organic matter, W. L. McAtee {U. S. Mo. Weather Rev., 45 

 (1917), No. 5, pp. 217-224)- — This article describes in some detail the various 

 kinds of animal and vegetable matter, alive and dead, which are transported 

 and distributed through the atmosphere. It is stated that the more spectacular 

 phenomena of this kind, such as the distribution of live animals of various 

 kinds, are the least important from the standpoint of the distribution of life. 

 " The rains of larger animals have attracted much attention and excited 

 wonder, but in many cases the animals have been dead ; in others they were 

 doomed to die because of falling in an unsuitable environment. Not often are 

 all the conditions propitious for the species to secure a new foothold. 



" The unobtrusive, but steady and widespread movement of minute eggs 

 and spores by the atmosphere, however, is of great importance in distribution 

 because these organic bodies are adapted to survive such transport ; their 

 numbers are so great and their dispersal so wide that some of them will 

 necessarily fall in favorable places. The chances are, in fact, that every 

 suitable environment will be populated." 



The cold spring of 1917, P. C. Dat (U. S. Mo. Weather Rev., 45 (1917), No. 

 6, pp. 285-2S9, figs. 4)- — The uiisensonable cold weather which persisted to an 

 unusual degree in nearly all portions of the country during a period of three 

 weeks, beginning about April 24 and continuing to the middle of May. is 

 described. Discussing the agricultural effects of the low temperature, the 

 author states that " while low temperatures retarded the planting and ger- 

 mination of corn, cotton, and other spring crops, and delayed the growth of 

 gardens and truck over the southern districts, the cool weather was not 

 unfavorable to winter wheat and other hardy cereals which are reported to 

 have greatly improved during the month. Likewise fruit buds which had largely 

 remained dormant escaped damage from the prevailing cold, although severe 

 frosts were not experienced as late in the month as in some previous years. 

 However, the cool weather was unfavorable in that it caused crops generally 

 to be backward, which at the end of May were estimated to be from one to 

 three weeks late throughout the country. This increases the liability to damage 

 by fall frost for such crops as have a long period of gro\%-th." 



SOILS— FERTILIZERS. 



Relation of movement of water in a soil to its hygroscopicity and initial 

 moistness, F. J. Alway and G. R. McDole (U. S. Dept. Agr., .Jour. Agr. Re- 

 search, 10 (1917), No. 8, pp. 391-428, figs. 2). — In experiments conducto*! at the 

 Nebraska Experiment Station " 17 soils, ranging from a coarse sand with a 

 hygroscopic coefficient of 0.6 to a silt loam with one of 13.3. were placed In 

 cylinders in three different degrees of moistness, 0.5, 1, and 1.5 times the 

 hygroscopic coefficient, 1 in. of water was applied to the surface, the rate of 

 movement during five days observed, and finally the moisture distribution at 

 the end of this period determined. 



