122 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



line was begun at Muscatine in Jannary, 1839, and continued at that place 

 until 186 J. , After his removal in the latter year to Iowa City to accept a 

 professorship in the state university, his observations were resumed and 

 continued until 1873, when the service was transferred to Dr. Gustavus Hin- 

 richs, who began the organization of the Iowa weather service. » The 

 records made by Professor Parvin, covering a third of a century, were used 

 by him in the preparation of articles on the climate of Iowa, contributed to 

 various scientific publications, rendering valuable service by setting forth 

 the climatic advantages of this then comparatively unknown and sparsely 

 settled region. At Muscatine the observations were continued by the Rev. 

 John Qfiford and J. P. Walton, making a consecutive record of more than 

 fifty years, of much public value. 



In 1849 the Smithsonian Institution, aided by the general government, 

 established stations of observation in all parts of the Union, wherever ama- 

 teurs of science could be found to serve as voluntary observers. An issue of 

 instruments was made to observers, and about twenty fairly well equipped 

 stations were established in Iowa. The records of mean temperature and 

 precipitation are to be found in the voluminous reports of that institution. 

 The first attempt to predict the course of general storm movements in the 

 United States was made previously to 1850 by the Smithsonian Institution, 

 which secured telegraphic reports upon temperature, atmospheric pressure 

 and rainfall from a number of stations east of the Missouri river. This was 

 the inception of the system of daily weather forecasting which has become 

 so popular and useful to the public. 



Upon the foundation thus prepared by series of observations covering a 

 period of fifty years, the structure of the National Weather Bureau was 

 erected by the general government in 1870. In Iowa five regular and fully 

 equipped stations have been established by the government, as follows: At 

 Davenport in 1872; at Keokuk and Dubuque in 1873; at Des Moines in 1878, 

 and at Sioux City in 1889. The Iowa weather Service was organized in 

 1874, the special object being to collect climatic data from a much larger 

 number of stations than were provided for by the national service. In 1878 

 the general assembly made an appropriation to defray a portion of the 

 expense of the state service, and named Dr. Hinrichs as director. In 1890 

 the service was re-organized and made co-operative with the National 

 Weather Bureau, and its scope was enlarged by providing for the collection 

 and tabulation of statistics of the acreage and yield of staple farm crops in 

 addition to the climatic records. By this system of co-operation it is be- 

 lieved, the state is recipient of a much larger measure of benefits than might 

 be secured by the independent operation of either the national or state 

 service. 



Climatology is properly included as a branch of physical geography, cor- 

 related to geology; and, therefore, as a fitting prelude to the study of climate 

 and crops, the following paper on "The Physiography of Iowa" has been gen- 

 erously contributed by Prof. Samuel Calvin, chief of the state geological 

 department.^ In this most excellent paper we have a clear presentation of 

 some of the results of surveys and studies made by the able scientists of the 

 geological corps. The foundations of agricultural empire appear to have 

 been laid deeply and securely in this central valley during the far distant 



