86 MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY 



and phenomena of the atmosphere can be properly stud- 

 ied or thoroughly investigated until observations, both 

 by land and sea, shall enable us to treat the atmosphere 

 as a whole". 



The lukewarmness of Great Britain toward such a 

 conference, and the Crimean War into which both that 

 country and France entered, interfered with its meeting. 

 But Maury continued to advocate a universal system of 

 meteorological observations for the United States. He 

 declared that it would cost no more to extend the system 

 to the land than it had cost to spread it over the sea, and 

 that, should it at any time be judged expedient so to 

 enlarge the field of his researches as to include agriculture 

 as well as commercial meteorology, he was ready at the 

 bidding of the Department to submit a detailed plan 

 for its consideration. The first fruits of his system of 

 observations, which would be reported daily by telegraph 

 and announced in the newspapers, would be, he said, 

 that the farmers, merchants, and public in general 

 would know with something like certainty the kind of 

 weather to be expected, one, two, or more days in 

 advance. 



Maury addressed the United States Agricultural 

 Society on the subject in Washington on January 10, 

 1856; and the question having been carried to the Agri- 

 cultural Committee of the Senate, a bill was drawn in 

 April to appropriate $20,000 to establish a system of 

 daily observations. In June, Maury thought that Con- 

 gress was disposed to enlarge on the idea and establish an 

 Agricultural Bureau, but in August he wrote sadly that 

 political events of a different nature had turned public 

 attention away from meteorology and the advancement 



