No. 4.] WORK OF WEATHER BUREAU. 189 



There are many who have bought their own instruments 

 and have kept records for several years. 



The New England Meteorological Society has been doing 

 a very interesting work during the past summer. We have 

 been collecting and tabulating all the records of mean tem- 

 perature and precipitation that we can obtain in New England. 

 The oldest record that we have been able to find so far was 

 taken by Prof. John Winthrop, the first Hollis professor of 

 Harvard College, from 1743 to 1775. On that memorable 

 17th of April in 1775 he took his morning and noon observa- 

 tions, and then he wrote in his record, the original of which 

 I saw and copied the data from, "A fight at Concord puts an 

 end to all observations." We have several- of those records, 

 extending back into the beginning of the eighteenth century ; 

 but the longest and at the same time the most accurate are 

 those kept by the late Mr. Samuel Rodman at New Bedford, 

 Mass., from 1812 to 1876, and since his death in 1876 by 

 his son, Mr. T. R. Rodman, until the present time. If we 

 had several hundred such records as that scattered over New 

 England, we could tell fairly well our exact climate, and 

 whether it was changing in any way. 



Now, right in connection with the weather signal displays 

 which we were talking about a few moments a^o come the 

 frost- warning stations. The organization of a system of 

 such stations was begun last fall and will be continued during 

 the winter, to cover the tobacco and cranberry growing sec- 

 tions, and for the benefit of any other industry which is liable 

 to injury by early or late frosts, and which can be kept from 

 injury by a timely warning. The warnings of frost will as a 

 rule be sent twenty-four hours before the frost is expected, 

 and sometimes cold waves may be predicted forty-eight 

 hours before they reach us. The only flag which these frost- 

 warning stations will need to display is the cold-wave flag, 

 which costs about $1.50 by mail; and, as they need to be 

 displayed only when a frost is expected, they will last for 

 years. 



We wish to establish a large number of these display 

 stations this winter in the cranberry and tobacco growing 

 sections especially, and prefer that some tobacco grower or 

 cranberry raiser, or some other interested person, should be 



