EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. XXXIV. May, 1916. No. 7. 



The establishment of a Division of Agricultural Meteorology in 

 the U. S. Weather Bureau is a matter of special importance, as mark- 

 ing a new step in agricultural investigation. It makes provision for 

 a type of study which has long been advocated and under considera- 

 tion by the Weather Bureau, and it definitely recognizes a field of 

 investigation looking to the correlation of meteorological and plant 

 growth factors. 



The fact that it is planned to conduct most of this work in close 

 cooperation with the experiment stations brings the latter promi- 

 nently into the new undertaking, and gives to it a national scope 

 and interest. The selection as head of the new division of Prof. J. 

 Warren Smith, for several years section director of the Weather 

 Bureau at Columbus, Ohio, and a student in this special field, insures 

 for it s^^mpathetic and capable leadership. 



Heretofore the chief effort of the weather service in relation to 

 aiding agriculture has been directed toward the prevention of crop 

 losses by timely warnings of adverse conditions. For more than 

 twenty years the Weather Bureau has been publishing weekly and 

 monthly weather and crop bulletins, and has been conducting certain 

 special services in the interests of agricultural production. Its efforts 

 in the latter direction have covered quite a wide range. Among them 

 are the distribution of frost warnings in fruit growing and trucking 

 regions, studies on the occurrence and distribution of frosts in moun- 

 tain regions, with particular reference to the location of orchards, 

 and warnings of adverse weather conditions in the great corn, wheat, 

 cotton, tobacco, sugar, rice, and truck growing regions. It has also 

 made measurements of snow in the western mountain States as a 

 basis for predicting the probable water supply for irrigation, and 

 has distributed information regarding pasture conditions on the 

 ranges with a view to bringing about a favorable distribution of 

 cattle. 



Although these services have not been designated as agricultural 

 meteorology they properly fall under that head, and it is expected 

 that they will be continued by the new division. As more detailed 

 information is gained upon the effects of temperature, rainfall, and 



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