10 HATCH EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



States Weather Bureau, and the signals displayed on the 

 top of the tower. At the request of Mr. J. W. Smith, 

 director of the New England section of the United States 

 Weather Bureau, this division has arranged to furnish his 

 office the weekly snow reports, as has been done the past 

 few years. The record of the number of days of sleighing, 

 begun by Professor Metcalf, is being continued. 



During the year attempts were made to secure some rec- 

 ords of atmospheric electricity by using the quadrant elec- 

 trometer in the tower, but without success. The extreme 

 sensitiveness of the instrument seems to preclude its working 

 at any such height from the ground, where it is necessarily 

 subjected to the vibrations of the building. Unless a suit- 

 able location and mounting can be provided elsewhere, the 

 records it was intended to secure cannot be obtained with 

 any degree of success. 



During the year the division purchased one of the resist- 

 ance boxes made after the design of Prof. Milton Whitney, 

 of the Division of Soils, United States Department of Agri- 

 culture, for the purpose of continuing the examination of 

 soil moisture by the electrical method. The electrodes 

 could not be obtained from the manufacturer until early 

 in June, and then a number proved defective. Others 

 were loaned us later by the Department at Washington 

 for continuino; the work. The results obtained have been 

 even less satisfactory than those of last year. An examina- 

 tion of the electrodes in the soil showed in some cases short 

 circuits to have been produced by the growth of roots across 

 the face ; in other cases no cause could be found for unusual 

 changes in the resistance. A continuation of the experiment 

 another year may perhaps furnish more satisfactory results, 

 or reveal the causes of some abnormal fluctuations. 



