1 Ava., 1901.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. , 243 
minute investigations have now shown that, even with the best loadings, a 
greater height:than 300 metres cannot be reached; so that, as the hail-clouds 
are considerably higher, the effect on them in this sense would be impossible. 
This supposition is supported by the fact that in some places, in spite of such 
shooting being done in the proper way, hailstorms have fallen nevertheless. It 
-ean therefore be by mere chance that the country where the Stiger experiments 
have been made, have hitherto been spared from hail. To wait and try again, 
is the only thing to be done, in spite of the many who deny any possible 
influence of this shooting on storm or hail. With some justice the opponents 
call to witness the battle of Solferino, in which hundreds of cannons were firing, 
and, nevertheless, a thunderstorm of such terrible violence broke between 4 and 
5 oclock in the afternoon, that hostilities had to be suspended over the whole 
battle-field. Againstthis objection, however, it should be remembered that when 
cannon thunder the sound does not rise straight up, but usually takes a more 
horizontal direction, and therefore does not reach the higher regions of air at 
all—Hxport Lrade Journal. 
— 
A PRACTICAL PROPOSAL, 
From the Mackay Mercury we learn that Mr. P. McKenney is determined 
to put weather-shooting to a practical test. He announces that he has 
arranged for a shilling subscription throughout the State, which he hopes to 
have subsidised by the Government, with the object of securing some half- 
dozen guns to test the efficacy of detonations as a means of making clouds 
‘break in rain. The tests proposed are to be under the guidance of Mr. Wragge. 
Singularly enough, it is stated that Mi. Wragge has communicated with Mr. 
McKenney expressing surprise that a system admitted to be successful by the 
scientists of the old world should be ignored in this country, yet not a word has 
yet been mentioned publicly, either in favour of or against the system which 
Mr. Wragge personally inspected. We note that the intention of Mr. 
McKenney is to attempt to bring rain, yet all literature on the subject of 
weather-shooting refers to the prevention of hail by turning it into rain. We 
shall be glad to publish anything on the subject from anyone who has seen the 
results of weather-shooting. ! 
A NEW WEATHER-CANNON. 
Ever since “ weather-shooting,” as it is called in Germany and Switzerland, 
met with such pronounced success in Styria, Upper Italy, Hungary, and 
France, meteorologists have been engaged in a very wordy battle as to the 
merits of the scheme. That something has been accomplished cannot be 
denied. Indeed, so successful have been the efforts in preventing hailstorms 
‘in Upper Italy that, since the experiments of 1898, some 20,000 stations have 
been established. At the Agricultural Congress held in Padua last November, 
by far the greater number of the members were in favour of the building of 
““weather-shooting” stations. The congress was very decidedly impressed by 
an account of one of last summer’s (1900) hailstorms in the vicinity of 
Vicenza. So violent was this particular storm, the story runs, that for miles 
the land was completely devastated. But, in this ravaged section, one spot 
‘was spared because there, it is asserted, a number of stations had been located, 
which had warded off the danger. 
The shooting apparatus hitherto used has been very primitive in construc- 
tion. Fora cannon a mortar with a funnel-like barrel was often used. In 
some places the funnel is fixed vertically in masonry. This method of mountin, 
the cannon is not only crude but also dangerous, for often enough serious 
accidents have occurred. In order to avoid these dangers, as well as_ to 
improve the apparatus in general, a Hungarian editor, named Kanitz, has 
devised a simple form of cannon which is essentially a breech-loading mortar 
