366 The National Geographic Magazine 



quite evenly distributed over the conti- 

 nent and its island possessions, and who 

 are available to report on an}^ matters 

 concerning weather, crops, climate, or 

 statistics. It has 200 officials and em- 

 plo5'^es at the central office in Washing- 

 ton. It has 1 80 fully equipped meteor- 

 ological stations quite equidistantly 

 scattered over the United States and its 

 dependencies, each manned by from 

 one to ten trained officials, which sta- 

 tions are not onlj^ weather observato- 

 ries, but are centers for the gathering 

 of statistical and climate and crop re- 

 ports. It has a central observator}^ in 

 each State and Territorj^ to which all 

 subordinate offices' in the State report 

 and to which all voluUtar}^ weather and 

 crop observers report. These central 

 observatories are equipped with print- 

 ers, printing plants, trained meteorolo- 

 gists and crop writers, clerks, and mes- 

 sengers. During the past fifteen 3'ears 

 the work of the substations and volun- 

 tary crop and weather observers has 

 been so S5\stematized under the State 

 central offices that these centers consti- 

 tute the most efficient means for the 

 accurate and rapid gathering, collation, 

 and dissemination of statistical and cli- 

 mate and crop information. The State 

 central offices are under the systematic 

 direction of the central office in Wash- 

 ington. The central office at Washing- 

 ton is equipped with cartographers, 

 printers, pressmen, lithographers, and 

 elaborate addressing and mailing ap- 

 pliances for the printing and mailing 

 of large quantities of national weekly, 

 monthly, quarterly, or annual reports 

 and bulletins. The telegraph circuits 

 of the Weather Bureau are ingeniously 

 devised for the rapid collection, twice 

 daily, of meteorological reports ; they are 

 also used to collect the weekly national 

 crop bulletin. The Weather Bureau has 

 315 paid temperature and rainfall re- 

 porters who are now daily telegraphing 

 their data from the growing fields to 

 certain cotton, corn, and wheat centers. 



The Bureau has 250 storm-warning dis- 

 playmen distributed among the ports 

 along the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific 

 coasts and in the Lake region. The 

 Bureau has an obsen^er serving each 

 morning on the floor of each important 

 board of trade, commercial association, 

 or cotton or maritime exchange in the 

 countr}^, who displays weather and crop 

 information and each day charts the 

 weather reports on a large map. The 

 Weather Bureau has 3,000 voluntarj^ 

 observers — nearl}' one for each county in 

 the United States — equipped with stand- 

 ard thermometers, instrument shelters, 

 and rain gages, who have for 3'ears in- 

 telligently served the Government by 

 taking daih' weather observations and 

 rendering weekly crop reports to State 

 central offices. There are 14,000 per- 

 sons reporting weekly to the climate and 

 crop centers on the effect of weather upon 

 the crops in their respective localities. 

 These voluntary crop correspondents 

 could quickh^ be increased in number to 

 several hundred thousand if occasion re- 

 quired. In one month of four weeks 

 there are printed and distributed 168 

 different State crop bulletins, four na- 

 tional crop bulletins, and 42 monthly 

 eight-page State climate and crop bulle- 

 tins. The weekly State crop bulletins 

 are written b}' the directors of the dif- 

 ferent State sections, and the weekly 

 national crop bulletin b}" Mr. James 

 Berry, Chief of the Climate and Crop 

 Division of the Weather Bureau, a man 

 who has had many years experience as a 

 writer on crop conditions in the United 

 States. 



BENEFITS TO FRUIT AND SUGAR 

 GROWERS , 



The utilities of the weather service 

 are well illustrated by the benefits that 

 the fruit interests of California derive 

 from the rain warnings, which, on ac- 

 count of the peculiar topography of that 

 region, are made with a high degree -of 

 accuracy but a few hours before the 



