42 KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



ive meteorology, I state candidly, that although we have found a few verifications, 

 yet the predictions as a whole seem to me to afford a poor showing. The present 

 year has exhibited most striking and well-defined characteristics, and thereby has 

 afforded a particularly good opportunity for one who with a true method should 

 essay to predict its peculiarities. The winter throughout the country was generally 

 mild. The spring and early summer east of the Mississippi river were characterized 

 by almost unprecedented rains and floods, producing wide-spread ravages, and in- 

 juring or ruining many crops. In the northwestern territories of the arid region, 

 on the other hand — Utah, Idaho, and Montana — a continued drouth has prevailed, 

 and all vegetation has succumbed. In the Dakotas the rainfall has been very small, 

 but still in many portions very good crops will be secured. 



I submit that a weather prophet could scarcely have failed more signally in de- 

 termining the marked characteristics of the seasons than has Mr. Blake with his 

 cold winter, his hot summer, and his unprecedented drouth in the Northern States 

 extending from the Atlantic seaboard to the Rocky Mountains, Kansas excepted. 

 Instead of a cold winter, there was a mild winter; instead of a hot summer, the 

 temperature has in general been below the average in Kansas and east of the Mis- 

 sissippi river; and instead of an unprecedented drouth, there have been east of the 

 Mississippi river most extraordinary rains. The price of wheat, which was to have 

 risen to $1.40 in July, has remained persistently low, and the Kansas farmers who 

 held for a rise have seen the price steadily decline under the prospects of a mag- 

 nificent crop. 



In view of all this experience, the hard-working Kansas farmer will be too hard- 

 headed to trust to weather tables "based on astronomical mathematics" which the 

 author fails to publish to the world. Scientific men obtain their laurels by the fullest 

 publication of their work; and one who refuses to make such publication deserves 

 no following, for this of itself is prima facie evidence of presumption or fraud. 



For the man who really accomplishes what Mr. Blake pretends, there awaits a 

 position of power, a seat of honor, and the laurel wreath of fame. Science and in- 

 dustry will unite in placing on his head an imperishable crown, and the present 

 profits of the sale of the "Annual Weather Tables" will be insignificant compared 

 with the emoluments that the discoverer will receive. If Mr. Blake has a scientific 

 method of weather prediction he should lose no time in presenting it in detail to 

 the scientific men by whom its merits will be fairly judged, and in which way alone 

 he can secure the rewards, money and medals sure to be awarded by kings and 

 learned societies as due to so great a discovery. But in the absence of any such 

 publication and its acceptance by other students of the weather, I earnestly call upon 

 the farmers of Kansas to reconsider the grounds of their faith in these "Weather 

 Tables," and rely upon their own enlightened energy and judgment to overcome the 

 vicissitudes of seasons. A true knowledge of the climate of Kansas is being ac- 

 cumulated by the Kansas Weather Service, and everyone by taking simple observa- 

 tions may aid in its work. The relation of crops to climate is being studied by the 

 agricultural colleges and experiment stations, and every farmer should read the 

 publications of the State Board of Agriculture and of the Agricultural Department 

 of the Government, in which the results of their valuable experiments are made 

 accessible. It is in these directions that agriculturists may reasonably look to ob- 

 tain a conquest over climate, rather than to the presumptuous predictions of pro- 

 fessional prophets. 



