Agricultural and Forest Meteorology. 59 
The meteorologists present felt themselves incompetent to 
discuss this question fully, contenting themselves with laying 
down certain broad lines on which the subject should be treated, 
and recommending that a special Conference of experts should 
be convened to take it into consideration. 
Such a meeting was accordingly held at Vienna in the month 
of September last, and was attended by 22 members, represent- 
ing meteorology and agriculture in about equal proportions. 
Of these, Austria sent 8, France 3, Germany 5, and Hungary 2 ; 
while Belgium, Denmark, Italy, and Switzerland, sent one 
apiece. The only important meteorological organisations in 
Europe which were not represented at the Conference were 
Russia and this country, but in our case the Meteorological 
Society had taken the programme of subjects to be discussed 
into careful consideration, and had drawn up and forwarded a 
series of replies to the various questions therein contained. 
The meeting was held in the Academy Building at Vienna, 
and it commenced on the 6th of September, lasting three days. 
The final outcome of the deliberations is conveyed in the sub- 
joined resolutions. 
At the outset it will be evident that the whole of the utterances 
presuppose the existence of a central agricultural institution 
connected with a Government department and administering 
extensive Crown lands. The considerations also have a closer 
relation to forest management than to simple agriculture, and 
accordingly several of the recommendations can scarcely be 
carried into effect in these islands. 
With these few words of preface I shall proceed to the con- 
sideration of the Report, adding such explanatory remarks as 
may seem to be desirable, in view of the existing condition of 
the agricultural and meteorological organisations of the country. 
The questions of the programme will be given in italics, the 
resolutions between inverted commas. 
Question I. 
What are the mutual relations ietween the meteorological elements and 
vegetation : not only those already determined, hut those theoretically 
supposed to exist ? 
K. 1. " Vegetation is materially dependent on the following meteorological 
elements : 
a. " Temperature of the air and the soil. 
h. "Duration and intensity of the light. 
c. " All the hydrometeors ; consequently the vapour tension and relative 
humidity ; precipitation (rain and snow, &c.), as well as the other 
forms of condensation (fog, dew and hoarfrost). 
d. " Motion of the air. 
" On the other hand, the daily march of pressure and of ozone appear to 
exert but slight influence on the march of vegetation." 
