New Yoek Ageicultueal Expeeiment Station. 391 
Lake Cochituate 
Lake Cochituate 
Lake Cochituate 
Lake Cochituate 
Sudbury river. . . 
Sudbury river. . . 
Sudbury river. . . 
Sudbury river. . . 
Mystic river 
Mystic river 
Mystic river 
Mystic river 
Ave. 29 y'rs . 
1878 
1879 
1880 
Ave. 6 years 
1878 
1879 
1880 
Ave. 5 years 
1878 
1879 
1880 
Eainfall, 
inches. 
49.11 
53.58 
38.01 
35.83 
46.10 
57.93 
41.42 
38.18 
42.78 
54.06 
35.30 
34.42 
Water col- 
lected, inches. 
22.08 
26.25 
17.86 
10.30 
21.93 
30.49 
18 
12 
77 
49 
19.65 
25.79 
17.61 
12.28 
Evaporation, 
inches. 
27.03 
27.33 
20.15 
25.53 
24.17 
27.44 
22.65 
25 . 69 
23.13 
28.27 
17.69 
22.14 
It will be seen that the year 1878 was marked by an exceptionally 
large precipitation, to the influence of which may be atttributed the 
apparently low evaporation of the following year. The rainfall for 
the year 1880 was less than any previously recorded on this basin, 
and although the previous year was dry, the apparent evaporation 
differs but little from the mean. 
The Oswego basin, to which this locality must be assigned, receives 
an average of about thirty-five inches of rainfall per year. Calcula- 
tions based upon the assumed discharge of the river show an average 
discharge of less than fourteen inches, leaving about twenty-one 
inches as the probable evaporation for the whole water-shed. But a 
portion of this basin, which includes the vicinity of this station, extend- 
ing from Geneva to Penn Yan, receives on the average less than thirty 
inches of rainfall, and some years but little more than twenty inches. 
This is less than is reported from any other section of the United 
States east of the Mississippi valley. The average rainfall at the New 
York Agricultural Experiment Station for four years, 1883-1886 
inclusive, was twenty-five inches. The average for other points in this 
basin, as shown bv the Smithsonian records, is as follows:* 
Number of 
years' 
observation. 
Average 
rainfall, 
inches. 
39 
19 
45 
9 
18 
28.31 
34.54 
33.65 
36.75 
40.42 
* Tenth U. S. Census, Vol. XVI. 
