New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. SLC 
In order to discover whether it were possible that some old for- 
gotten syphon is discharging the water in this well, a trench was 
dug around it to a point six inches lower than the water level at 
the time. This trench penetrated into soil which appeared never 
to have been before disturbed and nothing which could conduct 
away the water was found. 
“METEOROLOGY OF 1889. 
The past season will be remembered as a wet one. It has been 
one in which monthly extremes of temperature and rainfall have 
alternated. January was aremarkably warm month, and there 
was a heavy rainfall for a winter month. February was nearly 
as much colder than the average as January was warmer, and 
gave a correspondingly small amount of precipitation. These 
ranges of temperature have been moderate, but those of rainfall 
have been wide, while the total fall of rain has been much in 
excess for this locality. | 
The heavy rainfall during the warmest part of summer gave 
_ parasitic fungi such an opportunity for development that almost 
every host was severely taxed. Some of the most noticeable of 
these attacks were the smut on corn (Ustilago madis, corda) which — 
loaded the tassels and took the place of ears in many cases. 
Clover leaves withered and died down soon after being developed 
from the attacks of the clover parasites. Chief among these here 
was Uromyces trifolu. Another fungusruined the oat crop, and 
others attacked the potato, apple, pear, small fruits and. so on to 
the flower garden, where a hollyhock fungus developed which is 
known to have spread over Europe from South America and 
ruined the host wherever it spread. 
The monthly extremes of temperature with the range is given 
in the following table, together with the monthly means of the 
four previous years. A column is given which shows the monthly 
mean for five years. 
It is to be regretted that these records have been broken into 
by some criminally disposed person. Twice during this season 
we have been obliged to purchase new instruments to replace 
others wantonly destroyed at night by parties passing on the 
highway. | 
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