Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-08-18

ahead instead of day. AS one can readily
understand. If this could only be done with
any degree Of accuracy 1t would be OF
inestimable advantage to the farmer.
For several years. said Mr.. w. S. Boyd.
who has been following this subject. Il
have been taking the forecasts Of Prof.
W. T. Foster of st. Joseph, Mo. who has
had twenty-five years experience In long
range forecasting and I know that his pre-
dictions have been wonderfully accurate
A few years ago he not only predicted
frost for August but gave the dates on
which it would occur, and strange to say,
the daily papers of those dates gave the
accounts of the frosts that actually oc-
Cured.
Nearly q month ago he predicted east
of the Rockies the first half of August
will average cooler than the last half and
much below the normal In the same To-
calities the last half of August will be the
reverse of the first half Referring more
particularly to the days of the month he
said: Cool wave will cross eastern states
10TH Can any one claim that such pre-
dictions are mere guess work, and es-
Decially when they have been verified
month after month for years?
Every week he issues bulletin and in
his last one. which was written some two
weeks ago, but dated the 18th, he says:
Near the date of this bulletin will begin
ten days heated term in the northern
states, accompanied Dy dry weather Not
all the time hot and dry. but these will be
the averages of the ten days. In the same
bulletin he says: 'Threshing should be con-
tinued day and night in the far north and
wheat should be put in stack or barns inn
mediately There is bad weather ahead,
and wheat left in the shock will be mater
tally injured
He not only particularizes his predic-
tons in this manner but he charts them
as well. that is. he makes diagram of in
tersecting lines, portion of which lnd1-
cate the days of the month. and the others
indicate the degrees of temperature and
then draws q line across the lines to in
dictate the changes of temperature above
or below the normal for each day of the
month. Last year he filed such charts
with the weather bureau of what the tenn
perature would be in Chicago, ILL.,, for the
months of January, February and March,
1898. where l suppose they can be exam
ined by any one who is interested In the
subject and be compared with what the
ranges of the temperature actually were.
''In his printed forecasts accompanying
the charts he said the highest temperature
for January would be on the 18th and 18th,
and it occurred the 18th and 18th. For
February he predicted rising temperature
for the first eight days; it rose from the
I'd to the 10th. Lowest temperature the 1st
and 1t occurred on the ID; highest tenn
perature for lhe Sth and it occurred on the
10th. General fall of temperature from
the 9th to 18th, and it occurred from the
18th to 2jth. For March he said the tenn
perature would remain above the normal
twenty-seven days of the month, and 1t
remained above twenty-five days; that the
first and the last days of the month would
be the coolest and they We're.
with such success attending the efforts
of a private individual what might not our
weather bureau accomplish in that line
with its vast army of workers and experts
and with its appropriation of thousands
of dollars from the government to support
it? Surely it would be worth the effort,
and if failure should happen occasionally
the enormous benefits secured by the sue
ceSsful predictions would be recomperse
enough for the trial. Let us secure all the
knowledge can and try and use 1t for
our mutual benefit and advancement