Lower coast gazette., 1910-11-05
The Weather Maps.

liz VSokASi A'AoPo'
For nearly twenty years the U. S. Weather
Service, now under the control Of the u. 5. De-
partment of Agriculture, has been carefully and
earnestly endeavoring to educate the people OF
the United States to a complete knowledge OF
weather conditions and weather probabilities.
One of the chief features of this education has
been the weather maps that have been displayed
in public places and were sent to the various
post offices in the country and to such leading
citizens as desired them and in this way the
public generally had the opportunity OF making
a study of the weather conditions, noting where
rain was falling, the direction of the winds and
the height or lowness of the barometer, and the
public were thus gradually learning to judge Of
the weather for themselves, just as the govern
ment experts do. The combined intelligence of
the American people devoted to a careful study
of the weather, or Of any other topic, is sure to
result in the accumulation Of much valuable
knowledge.
We now find that the Weather Service has
cut off the issue of these maps and we are LED
to depend upon the newspapers for a microscopic
view of the weather conditions through the
country, scarcely understandable without a
magnifying glass, and the maps now emitting
the printing of the names of the weather sta
tons, and Of course information got in that way
will have but very little value.
The u. s. Department of Agriculture has for
many years been agressively progressive and
while perhaps some of it's efforts smacked too
strongly of %paternalism, it must be acknoWl-
edged that under the wise administration of
Hon. James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture,
the agricultural interests of the United States
have advanced with extraordinary rapidity and
far more rapidly we believe than would have
been possible under any other conditions. We
believe that Mr.. Wilson's name as the leader in
the last years of the Nineteenth Century and of
the early years of the Twentieth Century in
American agriculture will be held sacred in the
estimation of all of those who know how to ap-
preciate the good work that Mr.. Wilson has
done. All of this having been done, we regret
now to see this retrograde movement on the
part of the Department of Agriculture ard
should like to see a protest raised throughout
the country against it and to secure the reissu-
ing of the weather maps which hitherto have
been exhibited in so many public places so that
ever casual visitors have begun to study the
barometer, the direction of the winds and the
possibilities of pleasant or stormy weather.
Farmers are often scolded, and sometimes
abused, for the complaints they make as to the
weather conditions and their effects upon the
crops. Only those who are throughly familiar
with agriculture can have any fair appreciation
of the great influences that weather conditions
have upon any of our growing crops. Many Of
our sugar planters will remember the wonderful
agricultural season of 1890, looking at it from a
sugar planters point of view. Nothing in the
memory of men before that or in the experience
of men since that has equalled that wonderful
year, 1890, when the rainfall seemed to be so
properly distributed that the cane crops
were practically increased by 50 per cent. over
what might have been called reasonable crop
results. No wonder the farmers have their
complaints to make. They must necessarily set
a high standard and in choosing standard like
1890 or some other favored year, they find un-
happily too frequently that their expectations
are not realized and if their expenses, improve
ments and general outlay have been based upon
high expectations, grievous results frequently
follow.
Let US ask our good friend, the Honorable
James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture to rein.
state in their old form the weather maps in
their circulation among the people and not ask
US to study the MICROSCOPE" fly specks that we
now get in the modern newspaper.
Concrete Fence Posts.
AS Lower Coast lands are becoming more