PART I, 
Report of the Iowa Weather and Crop Service for 
1908. 
Geo. M. Chappel, Director. 
This report is a condensation of the monthly and weekly bulletins 
and reports of the Iowa Weather and Crop Service. It contains, in a 
condensed form, all oi the salient climatic features of the year, to- 
gether with tabulated statistics of the staple soil products of the state. 
Through the generous co-operation of the Hon. Chief U. S. Weather 
Bureau, the equipment of the co-operative meteorological stations has been 
materially improved and most of the instruments now used by the co- 
operative observers in the state are the same as the high standard in- 
struments used by the U. S. Weather Bureau. Special attention has 
been paid to the exposure of instruments and, whenever an exposure 
was found to be faulty, standard instrument shelters were furnished. 
Meteorological reports were received regularly each month from 122 
stations in charge of co-operative observers, and also from the U. S. 
Weather Bureau stations at Des Moines, Davenport, Dubuque, Charles 
City, Keokuk, Sioux City and Omaha. Neb. 
During the six crop months of 1908, this office distributed about 
48,000 copies of the weekly weather crop bulletin and during the year 
25,500 copies of the Monthly Climatological Report of the Weather 
and Crop Service. 
The distribution of daily weather forecasts has been maintained, and 
at least one hundred thousand patrons of the rural telephone lines re- 
ceive the forecasts before noon of each working day and the special 
warnings of the approach of cold waves, heavy snows, etc., whenever 
issued. The forecasts are also distributed by rural free delivery mail 
service to about seven thousand patrons of the rural mail routes. 
There has been a marked increase in the number of requests from 
teachers and students of high schools and colleges for the climatological 
and crop statistical reports, and from drainage engineers for tabulated 
precipitation data; and, in order to meet the demand for information, 
all precipitation data available in the state are now l^eing collected and 
tabulated for the several drainage basins of the state. 
