The Meteorological Division. 



The work in the Meteorological department has been a con- 

 tinuation of that begun in previous years. The object for which 

 the observatory was established has been constantly kept in 

 view ; namely, the gathering of useful meteorological data and 

 its systematic arrangement, in order to facilitate the study of 

 climatic changes and their direct bearing upon agriculture. A 

 careful register of all meteorological phenomena and a full and 

 minute record of every day since the establishment of the ob- 

 servatory have been kept for future reference. The impor- 

 tance of such records must be apparent, for all the peculiarities 

 of the weather in any locality do not manifest themselves in a 

 season. Natural conditions change and corresponding results 

 follow ; extreme drought, copious rains, heavy snows, high and 

 low mean temperatures are periodical, and occur as the result of 

 cyclical atmospheric changes. Hence our knowledge of climatic 

 and recurring local weather changes is not obtained from obser- 

 vations made for a few years, but accurate and reliable deduc- 

 tions can only be drawn from data covering at least a period of 

 half a century. 



A careful record of the mean rainfall and temperature at 

 Amherst has been prepared from the writings of the late Pro- 

 fessor Snell of Amherst College, who began work in this direc- 

 tion in 1836, so that the observatory is now in possession of an 

 unbroken chain of data covering a period of fifty-five years. 



Bulletins containing a daily and monthly summary of obser- 

 vations are issued every month, and at the close of each year a 

 summary for the twelve months is prepared ; thus the more 

 important results are placed in a condensed and useful form. 

 The bulletins are sent to meteorological societies and signal 

 stations in the various States, also to voluntary observers and 

 other individuals who may apply for them. 



In addition to the regular routine work of the observatory, 

 a series of experiments with dynamical electricity and its 

 influence upon vegetable growth has been undertaken. These 

 experiments have been in progress for two years, and further 

 observation will be made in this direction. J^reparations are 

 now in progress for testing various seeds, submitted to the 

 influence of electric currents of different degrees of intensity, 



