Xo. 4.] U. S. DEPAETMEXT OF AGRICULTURE. 183 



rate and rapid collection and dissemination of crop informa- 

 tion, t 



Twelve hundred skillfully trained officials outside of 

 Washington are employed to report on all matters concern- 

 ing weather, crops, climate or statistics. The Bureau has 

 315 paid temperature and rainfall reporters, who make 

 daily telegraphic reports from growing fields of certain 

 cotton, corn and wheat centres. It has 3,000 voluntary 

 observers, one for nearl}' everv county in the United States, 

 who serve the grovernment bv making dailv observations 

 and rendering weekly crop reports. Fourteen thousand 

 persons report weekly to the climate and crop centres on 

 the effect of the weather upon crops in then- respective 

 localities. This number could easily be increased to several 

 hundred thousand, if necessary. 



It is estimated from the reports furnished by truck 

 farmers in the sugar cane and orange growing districts of 

 Louisiana and Florida, respectively, who time their opera- 

 tions by the frost warnings of the Bureau, that the amount 

 annually saved to them is far greater than the cost of the 

 entire department. 



Thousands of dollars Avorth of property have been saved 

 ])y the flood warnings telegraphed all over the United States 

 by the "Weather Bureau. 



In the great flood of 1897, warning bulletins preceded 

 the flood by several days throughout the whole area sub- 

 merged, and statisticians of the government have estimated 

 that $15,000,000 worth of live stock and movable property 

 was saved. 



One of the most important additions to the work of the 

 Bureau has been the distribution, through the instrumental- 

 ity of the rural free mail delivery, of forecasts of frosts and 

 cold waves to the very doors of those who can make the 

 most profitable use of them. The latest forecasts of the 

 weather are printed on small slips of paper, and each carrier 

 is given a number equal to the number of houses on his 

 rural route. 



The last appropriation for the support of the "Weather 

 Bureau was $1,263,760, and it is the opinion of many iusur- 



