HIS EXTRA-PROFESSIONAL INTERESTS 89 



mariners at sea, to make voluntary observations of the 

 weather, crops, soil, and flora, and report regularly to a 

 common superintendent, by whom they also shall be 

 discussed and classified". 



This bill failed to become a law, and Maury's am- 

 bitious but reasonable plan for a system of land meteor- 

 ology came to grief. The defeat of the measure was 

 brought about largely through the opposition of Pro- 

 fessor Henry, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, 

 who considered that Maury's plan would be a rival to 

 that proposed by him for the Smithsonian. Maury 

 bitterly regretted this opposition, and in an address 

 delivered in October, 1859 before the North Alabama 

 Agricultural and Mechanical Association at Decatur he 

 said, "Some years ago I proposed, you recollect, a system 

 of agricultural meteorology for farmers, and of daily 

 weather reports by telegraph from all parts of the 

 country for the benefit of mankind. The Smithsonian 

 Institution and the Agricultural Bureau of the Patent 

 Ofiice stole this idea and attempted to carry it out, but 

 with w^hat success let silence tell. Take notice now that 

 this plan of crop reports is 'my thunder', and if you see 

 some one in Washington running away with it there, 

 recollect if you please where the lightning came from". 



Maury continued to agitate this question by both 

 letters and public addresses particularly among the 

 people of the Great Lakes region and of the South, until 

 the outbreak of the Civil War. This put an end for the 

 time being to Maury's attempts to establish a system of 

 land meteorology in the United States and to his en- 

 deavors to bring together another international confer- 

 ence at which a scheme could be devised for making 

 universal land and sea meteorological observations. 



