270 PROCEEDINGS OF THE OHIO ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



agencies of communication have made available to us immediate 

 reports, otherwise unobtainable, from vessels at sea. These have 

 been of very great value at times, as, for example, such reports 

 from vessels plying the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the 

 Caribbean Sea during the occurrence of those terrifying tropical 

 storms known as the West Indian hurricanes. Neither national 

 boundaries nor continental outlines, however, offer any limita- 

 tions to atmospheric conditions or the study of meteorological 

 problems, and for a number of years before the outbreak of the 

 European war the Weather Bureau obtained telegraphic weather 

 reports from a considerable number of stations scattered over 

 the entire northern hemisphere. With the aid of these it in- 

 augurated on January i, 1914, the publication of a daily weather 

 map of the northern hemisphere. It is of scientific interest to 

 note that temperature was shown on these maps on the absolute 

 scale and pressure was expressed in absolute units of force. We 

 hopefully look forward to the resumption of this publication so 

 valuable to the student and which was immediately terminated 

 upon the opening of European hostilities. 



In the minds of the general public the Weather Bureau is 

 associated, simply, with the daily forecasts of weather and tem- 

 perature — a work that is relatively not of the highest impor- 

 tance. The great service of the Bureau is found in its numerous 

 warnings of frosts, floods, cold waves, storms dangerous to 

 shipping and in numerous bulletins and advices relating to the 

 current weather conditions aiid their influence upon all the prin- 

 cipal and important crops. I imagine there is scarcely any one 

 here who does not already know a good deal about the frost- 

 warning service in the interest of the horticulturists, especially. 

 This beneficial service is administered throughout Ohio under 

 Professor Smith's very capable supervision, and is known to be 

 the agency through which many enterprising horticulturists are 

 able to protect crops and orchards on occasions when nature, 

 allowed to carry out her own course, would cause great damage, 

 or total loss. 



The Bureau's application of the science of meteorology to 

 the welfare of man is not only beneficial to agriculture, commerce 



