a8 THE NEW AGRICULTURE. 



passing concern. Information is now available regarding prob- 

 able weather conditions which subserve both his convenience 

 and his profit. Eighty millions of people in this country alone 

 are backing the work of the Weather Bureau which sends its 

 forecasts to the furthermost sections of the country, and rural 

 deliveries and country telephone lines carry to millions of 

 farmers these predictions, 85 per cent, of which come true. 

 Our own Weather Bureau and that of other countries are 

 studying climatic and weather conditions with an intelligence 

 and enthusiasm never before displayed. The reasons for 

 drouth and flood are being pried into with the same persist- 

 ence that physicians seek for the germ of a deadly disease, 

 and the origin and prognosis of a hot wind will yet be as 

 accurately determined as that of a fever. The upper air is being 

 explored, and men are already knocking at the home of the 

 storm with the view of learning the secrets that lie hidden 

 there. There are conservative data for believing that in the 

 not distant future scientific forecasts of the weather will reach 

 within 5 per cent, of absolute accuracy and that they will 

 be made for at least a season, and perhaps a year, in advance. 

 What will it mean when the Government foretells for our 

 farmers, with 95 per cent, of fulfillment, for three months in 

 advance, whether, in a given locality, the season is going to 

 be early or late, hot or cold, wet or dry? 



Starch is now increased in corn and potatoes at will, sugar 

 in beets and cane, and gluten in wheat. If the eggs from 

 your poultry are loo small for your liking they may be in- 

 creased in size, and if there is not enough nitrogen in your 

 soil you may sow it broadcast with bacteria at four cents an 

 acre and these microscopic organisms will extract the needed 

 element from the air and feed it to your plants. Is your land 



