No. 4.] WORK OF WEATHER BUREAU. 183 



ADDRESS OF MR. J. WARREN SMITH, 



ASSISTANT OF THE N. E. METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: — I wish to 

 occupy a few moments in calling your attention to the line 

 of work which the Weather Bureau are taking up in New 

 England, and some of the ways in which the farmers can 

 co-operate with us to extend that work for their own good. 

 But first let us glance at the early history of the Bureau, 

 and its work in the past. We find that by an act of Con- 

 gress, approved Feb. 9, 1870, the Secretary of War was 

 required to cause meteorological observations to be taken 

 and notice given by signals and the electric telegraph of the 

 approach and force of storms. The summer was spent in 

 organizing, and the actual work began on November 1, with 

 the 7.35 a.m. observation. The results of those obser- 

 vations were charted, but the issue of a weather synopsis 

 and probabilities was not begun until February 19 of the 

 following year, deductions being made as to the probable 

 condition of the weather for the ensuing eio;ht hours. 



This work was highly satisfactory, and the next matter to 

 receive consideration by the heads of the department was to 

 display wind signals along the great lakes and the Atlantic 

 and Gulf coasts, warning the marine and other interests of 

 approaching storms. This seemed like a great step at the 

 time to the people, uneducated as they were in the first 

 rudiments of the science ; and, if a big storm was predicted, 

 the officials were looked upon as wizards almost, and the 

 man who pretended to forecast the weather even one day in 

 advance was thought by many to be gifted with almost 

 supernatural powers. To Illustrate this, I will mention one 

 example. In the early days of the service the establishment 

 of a station in one of the Western towns was followed by 



