No. 4.] WORK OF WEATHER BUREAU. 187 



service work for all New England. We establish stations, 

 collect data and issue bulletins for the section as a whole. 

 Soon after the transfer we began the work of establishing more 

 stations for the display of weather and temperature signals. 

 Either the morning or evening forecasts were ordered to be 

 telegraphed to any town in New England where the signals 

 would be beneficial, and where flags would be procured and 

 displayed for the benefit of the public, or the signals given 

 by mill whistles. Five flags are used for the display. 

 The flags cost about seven dollars a set, the price varying 

 with the quality of the material. They can be bought of 

 almost any dealer in such things, or can be easily made. 

 What they are made of does not matter, as long as they are 

 the regulation color ; but they should not be less than six 

 feet square. 



The number of stations that can be maintained under the 

 present appropriation for telegraphing the forecasts has 

 about reached its limit, and we are instructed to cease our 

 efforts to establish new stations, and to turn them toward 

 giving a wider distribution to the forecasts which are already 

 provided for. Those sent to Northampton go to the secre- 

 tary of the Board of Trade, and he distributes them by tele- 

 phone to a number of the surrounding towns. The Telephone 

 Exchange at Palmer also sends them out to all their patrons. 

 This work can be extended almost indefinitely by the free use 

 of telephone and telegraph lines ; and no corporation or 

 company owning such lines can benefit the community 

 through which they run more than by sending these 

 forecasts from place to place. In some of the Western 

 States the railroads display the signals from their baggage 

 cars, — a thing that might well be done here. The Old Col- 

 ony road, I believe, did that for a while several years ago, 

 but now they post the forecasts at their stations. 



The forecasting was formerly all done at Washington, and 

 covered twenty-four hours from the time of observation. 

 Thus the forecasts which were sent out from Washington to 

 Boston in the morning and from there to the display stations 

 covered until eight a.m. on the following day, and those sent 

 at ten p.m. covered until ten p.m. on the following day. The 

 observers at some of the lame stations were allowed to make 



