No. 4.] MASSACHUSETTS AVEATHHll. xxv 



good condition. Poultry raisers received good prices for 

 their products. Horticulturists had })erhaps the most cause 

 to complain, owing to the damage to peach trees from the 

 severe winter, the low price of ap})les and the high price of 

 barrels. Of the 132 correspondents answering the (juestion, 

 "Considered as a whole, has the season been a profitable 

 one for your farmers?" 64 considered the season to have 

 been a profitable one, 32 fairly profitable, 19 an average 

 season for profit, 8 hardly an average one, and 15 that it 

 had not been a profitable season. 



Massachusetts Weather, 1904. 



[Compiled from Data furnished bv the Xew England Weather Service.] 



The ^veather of January was unusually severe, with cold 

 waves of marked intensity, heavy and frequent storms, gales 

 of great force, and snowfall of unusual depth. The monthly 

 mean temperature was decidedly below the normal, being 8° 

 lielow in interior portions of the State. The total snowfall 

 for the month ranged from 4 inches on the coast to about 50 

 inches in some interior sections. As a whole, January may 

 be considered one of the most severe months of the last 

 century. 



In February the monthly mean temperatures were again 

 below the normal at all stations, the snowfall in excess of 

 the average, though below the preceding month in amount ; 

 and the month was also characterized by severe and per- 

 sistent storms alonof the coast, durino; which the wind blew 

 with great violence. The month was a fitting climax to a 

 winter that, so far as temperatures are concerned, is unprec- 

 edented in the oiEcial records. 



In March the temperature at most points was below the 

 average for the month, but with deficiencies less marked 

 than in the preceding months. The same was true of the 

 precipitation, mostly in the form of snoAV. The storms of 

 the month were less severe and fewer in number than usual. 

 The month closed with moderate weather, during which the 

 snow disappeared except in protected places, giving condi- 

 tions favorable to the beginning of farm operations. 



April was very unpleasant, the weather being unusually 

 cold and wet. A^'^ith slight exceptions, the month was tlu' 



