348 



COUNTRY LIFE CONVENIENCES 



convenient mode of transportation for rural residents who wish 

 to spend a few hours in the city and return the same day or 

 night. It also affords a chance for the rapid delivery of express 

 and light packages of freight. Likewise it can be used to good 

 advantage for the rapid delivery of mail between the villages 

 and towns along the route of the interurban trolley line. 



By means of the telephone the farmer can order repairs for 

 broken machinery or other necessary articles and have them 

 delivered frequently in the course of a few hours. If there is some 

 lecture or entertainment in the city which he and his family wish 

 to attend, it is a very easy matter to telephone for the tickets a day 

 or two in advance without the necessity of having to make a trip for 

 that purpose. Then through the services of the interurban trolley 

 line it is possible for him and his family to visit the city in the after- 

 noon, attend an entertainment in the evening, and return home 

 the same night. Interurban car lines have generally been success- 

 ful wherever tried, and farmers have always accorded them a 

 liberal patronage from the very start. 



The United States Weather Service. Provision for daily 

 weather reports was first made in 1870 in connection with the 



KEY TO COLORS ->[] WHITE gJBLUE (BLACK 



Weather service flags. 



signal service of the army; but about 1890 this feature was made 

 a part of the work of the Department of Agriculture. 



The forecasts, which are prepared daily at the central office in 

 Washington, D.C., and certain designated stations, are telegraphed 

 to all stations of the Weather Bureau, railway officials, postmas- 

 ters, and voluntary observers generally in time to be received 

 between ten o'clock and noon of each day; These reports are 

 sent out by means of rural telephones, by bulletins transmitted by 

 rural mail service, by means of signal flags of certain designs and 



