CHAPTER X. 



THE NEW INSPIRATION 



THE WORK OF METEOROLOGISTS FOR THE FARMER. 



IN THE year 1881 and again in 1882, property to the value of 

 millions of dollars was swept away by the overflowing floods 

 of the Ohio and the Mississippi Rivers it was a catastrophe 

 of the first magnitude. Men strove madly but strove in vain 

 for the rescuing of human lives, the saving of property and 

 the staying of the torrential waters. Two years later, in 1884; 

 the Ohio was again out of its banks, and, in the region about 

 Cincinnati alone, the loss sustained amounted to $10,000,000. 



It is unlikely that the farmers and other citizens of this 

 country will ever again be called upon to suffer in like degree 

 from causes of this character. A body of men now foretell the 

 weather with amazing accuracy, and millions of people whose 

 interests are out of doors as the farmers' are, profit by the 

 information which is both put on record and sent broadcast 

 over the country. These seers are not astrologers, neither 

 do they depend upon an inward light for their knowledge, nor 

 yet are they in league with "the powers of the air." They 

 are just plain scientists, devoted to the study of the atmosphere 

 and its phenomena its storms, and calms, and air currents, 

 its clouds and temperature and rainfall, and indeed all the 

 movements, modifications and interactions which go to make 

 up the subject of their investigations they are the meteorolo- 

 gists. They have been organizing for their work for some 

 years, and by 1897 had become sufficiently well equipped to 



