216 TENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 



DEPARTMENT OF METEOROLOGY AND AGRI- 

 CULTURAL ENGINEERING. 



» 



1897-'98. 



I. Meteorology. 



Obsen^ations have been continued the past year as hereto- 

 fore under the charge of James A. Foord, New Hampshire 

 College, class of '98, who has been assisted for a portion of 

 the year by William F. Fiske, special student in biology. 



Signal flags have been displayed each day, except Sundays, 

 throughout the year from the tower of the experiment station 

 building, indicative of the weather for the succeeding night 

 and day. In addition, a synopsis of weather conditions has 

 been written each day upon the blackboard at the station 

 building for the benefit of the station workers. 



Another year has been characterized by a large precipita- 

 tion, and it is like the last in having this precipitation quite 

 uniformly distributed throughout the year. There has been 

 no suspicion of drought, and the soil has been moist contin- 

 uously. The least number of rainy days in any month was 

 five, the same as for the year preceding. The total rainfall 

 was seven inches less than for the previous year, chiefly be- 

 cause of the absence of such remarkable storms as those of 

 September 6, 1896, and June 10, 1897. The mean tempera- 

 ture of the summer months of 1897 was about normal, but 

 there was a notable lack of extremes. Only one hot spell 

 occurred in July, not one in August, and one in September. 

 No one was of great length or of excessive severity. July 

 was the wettest month of the year, judged by its total rain- 

 fall. In both July and August the weather was very catchy, 

 so that it was almost impossible to cure hay seasonably or 

 well. It was frequently remarked that nothing like it was 

 remembered by the oldest inhabitant. The result was a large 

 crop of very poor quality of hay. Other crops were back- 

 ward, but the long season helped them out so that a fair har- 

 vest was reaped. No killing frost occurred till near the close 

 of September. 



