New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 427 
York for the ten years from 1897 to 1906, is shown in Table III. 
A study of the table shows that the amount of rainfall is increased 
by proximity to large bodies of water, as the ocean and the Great 
Lakes, and in accordance with the topography of the State. 
Marked increase is found in the highlands of the State; and ranges 
of hills or mountains which run at right angles to the direction of 
rainbearing winds, as those of the hill ranges of the southeastern 
counties, give a copious rainfall on the windward side of the obstruc- 
tion. Where the land rises abruptly about the Great Lakes, too, 
the amount of precipitation is considerably increased. There is 
a marked deficiency in the May rainfall in the depression of the 
Central Lakes and in some of the river valleys, notably the valley 
of the Susquehanna, probably because of surrounding highlands 
which obstruct the passage of rainclouds. May is a wet month in 
New York, yet the total downfall is not great. The rains, however, 
are frequent or long continued and usually accompanied by cold, 
and in these conditions lies the power to injure blossems. 
The average rainfall in May for all of the weather stations in 
New York for ten years was, from data in Table III, 3.06 inches. 
For the leading fruit counties, it is: Erie, 2.68; Niagara, 2.32; 
Onondaga, 2.56; Monroe, 2.12; Genesee, 2.56; Dutchess, 3.86; 
Chautauqua, 3.52; Wayne, 2.43; Yates, 2.16; Orleans, 2.65 ; Ontario, 
2.46. It is interesting to note that for nine out of the eleven coun- 
ties named above the average is considerably below that of the State. 
