EDITORIAL NOTES. 



613 



For the coming year Professor Lovewell 

 will do his meteorological work in connection 

 with the Board of Agriculture, having been 

 appointed State Meteorologist of Kansas. 



A bill was introduced in Congress on Jan- 

 uary 8th, by Hon. Mr. Anderson, of Kansas, 

 for the construction of a railroad and wagon 

 bridge over the Missouri River at Leaven- 

 worth City. 



At the meeting of the Kansas State His- 

 torical Society the address of Hon. T. Dwight 

 Thacher was a most important and valuable 

 contribution to its literature. It was a full, 

 accurate, analytical history of the four con- 

 stitutional conventions of that State and their 

 doings, together with brief accounts of sever- 

 al of the prominent members thereof. As a 

 model of condensed history it should be, as 

 it will be, carefully preserved among the 

 papers of the Society. 



It is certainly a great gratification and a 

 source of no small degree of hope, that a 

 Government officer's report can be published 

 and distributed before the en/1 of the year to 

 which it pertains. We refer to Prof. C. V. 

 Riley's Report as Entomologist of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture for the year ending 

 June 30, 1882, which was issued in Decem- 

 cember, 1882, It is, as is always the case 

 with Prof. Riley's published papers, full, 

 complete, valuable and handsome in execu- 

 tion. 



The Memphis extension of the Kansas 

 City, Ft. Scott & Gulf R. R. is now complet- 

 ed, and regular trains running to West 

 Plains, Howell County, Mo , 315 miles from 

 Kansas City. The line will reach Augusta, 

 Oregon County, Mo., about February 20tb, 

 and will be completed and open for business 

 to Memphis, Tenn., about June i, 1883. 

 This is a result of great in»portance to Kan- 

 sas City and the west. A Kansas City and 

 Memphis railroad was projected many years 

 ago, and work upon severallines commenced 

 at diflferent times, but for many reasons none 

 has been effectually pushed until now. 



Prof. Nipher's bill for a State Weather 

 Service in Missouri ought to be passed with- 

 out hesitation, as it will be of the greatest 

 service to the agricultural iriterests and will 

 cost a very small sum to establish it. 



The bill only asks for ^1,000 for the pur- 

 chase of instruments for 1 14 observers, or one 

 for every county, and it asks for the next two 

 years a sum of ;^i.500 annually for the pay- 

 ment of actual expenses, including the hire 

 of a clerk at the central office at ^700 a year. 

 The bill provides that no money shall be paid 

 as salary to the Director, or to any other of 

 ficer or member of the service. The Director 

 and trustees are to be appointed by the Gov- 

 ernor, a'^d are to account to him in detail for 

 the money expended. 



It is intended to use this sum in giving 

 daily and systematic study to our local storms, 

 the reports being sent by mail each day Irom 

 the stations. It is expected that in two years 

 enough wi 1 be known of our storms to justi- 

 fy the commencement of harvest warnings. 

 Each harvest rain does damageenough to pay 

 the expense of weather service for years. 



Is it to be credited to shakespeare as scien- 

 tific foresight that at the very time, 1603, 

 when Dr. Gilbert was groping blindly amid 

 the simplest experiments in magnetic af Tac- 

 tion, he put into the mouth of King Lear, 

 when apostrophizing the lightning, the pro- 

 phetic words: "You sulphurous and thought- 

 executing fires " ? 



ITEMS FROM PERIODICALS. 



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The Northern Indiana School Journal is, now 

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