EDITORIAL. 603 



bearing on the general problem which the Weather Bureau is now 

 addressing itself to, and cooperation will be sought in extending the 

 inquiries and in applying the results. 



It is the desire of the new division to get track of the various 

 types of study in this country bearing on the correlation of cli- 

 mate and plant growth. One of its early aims will doubtless be 

 to make a survey of such investigation, to ascertain the status of the 

 inquiry in this field, and to study the methods employed with a view 

 to determining those best adapted to the purpose of the proposed 

 investigations. There has been an increasing amount of such study, 

 scattered over the country, and it gives much encouragement for a 

 more systematic undertaking. 



For example Voorhees, of Tennessee, has been able so to correlate 

 climatic conditions, as shown by ordinary meteorological observa- 

 tions, with crop requirements as to arrange a double cropping system 

 which utilizes the rainfall and temperature of that State to much 

 better advantage in crop production than has been done under gen- 

 eral practice. Blair has worked out some interesting correlations be- 

 tween temperature and rainfall and spring wheat in the Northwest, 

 which may prove of practical value in predicting probable wheat 

 yield. "Wallis has attempted a broad correlation of rainfall and 

 agriculture in the United States, Kinzer of weather and cotton in 

 Texas, and McLean of climate and plant growth in Maryland. Prof. 

 J. Warren Smith has reported a series of studies of the effect of 

 weather (more particularly temperature and rainfall) on yield of 

 wheat and potatoes in Ohio, and on the yield of corn in the main corn 

 growing districts of the United States. These studies have had in 

 mind especially the critical periods and limiting meteorological fac- 

 tors in crop growth. Dr. O. L. Fassig is studying the period of safe 

 plant growth in different parts of Maryland. 



The inadequacy of present methods and data for quantitative 

 studies of the climatic relations of crops has been pointed out by 

 various investigators who have attempted to nse the data in such 

 studies. For example, Prof. B. E. Livingston, in referring to the 

 systematic collection of observations upon the various climatic areas, 

 used largely for weather prediction and for the purposes of theoreti- 

 cal meteorology, suggests that " quantitative climatic descriptions 

 must lie hidden somehow in these enormous masses of figures, but 

 the plant geographer, whether agriculturist or ecologist, has thus 

 far been able to derive therefrom but a very small amount of appli- 

 cable information." 



Nevertheless the data are being used to an increasing extent by a 

 number of investigators, including Livingston, in working out valu- 

 able climate and crop correlations. 



