Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-12-25
DEVELOPMENT OF
NATIONAL WEATHER
BUREAU WORK
Special Service for Orchardists
and Raisers of Various Fruits
and Other Crops-C a t 6
Region Service-Timberlands
Protected in Times of Unusual
Drought-The Work Con-
stantly Expanding.

Washington, Dec. 23.-Several new
public, and especially of the farmers,
according to the annual report of the
Weather Bureau were inaugurated
during the year. Others recently be-
gun have been extended into portions
of the country where the growing i'm
portance of agricultural pursuits have
made them of increased value.
A special service given to orchardists
and raisers of tobacco, oranges, cram
berries, and certain other crops has
been rendered by means of frost warn
ings issued in spring and autumn.
Close attention is paid by the forecast
ers to the needs of these crops at
critical periods, and the growers are
kept fully advised as to the dangers
of frost and are warned of the neces-
sity of resorting to measures of pro-
lection through artificial heating and
smudging, or flooding the boys in the
case of cranberries.
The establishment of a Cattle Re-
ion Service" through which bulletins
containing statements of weather con-
ditions over the stock ranges of the
Texas panhandle and adjacent regions
are issued, constitutes a new feature
of the bureaus work. This has been
particularly effective as affecting the
cattle industry of the great Southwest,
having proved of such material value
as to create a demand for its contin-
uance throughout the entire year, in
stead of from Apr1 to october as at
present
70 hoc
been found in the timbered regions of
the west during periods of unusual
drought. This has been taken advan-
tage of through the issue of special
forecasts Of hot dry winds, which are
disseminated directly to the officials
Of the fire patrol of the Forest Service
and other similar organizations, plac-
ing them on their guard at times of
unusual danger of fire inception. A
feature of considerable moment to
scientists and students of meteorology
was the daily issue of a weather map
for the entire North I'm hemisphere,
begun by the bureau last January.
Unfortunately, the issue of this map
was necessarily suspended at the out
break of the present European war.
A special investigation of orchard
conditions in western North Carolina,
where systematic observations are be-
ing carried on In number of orchards
by the Weather Bureau in cooperation
with the State Experiment Station,
promises to give valuable results.
These studies have in view the estab-
lishment of the influence of tcpogra-
ply on local climate, the ultimate OBJ
ject being to differentiate the safe and
unsafe locations for orchards in such
regions.
Explorations of the upper air and
studies of solar radiation were con-
tinued by the bureau during the year.
No small light has been thrown upon
obscure features of weather control
through the information already OBJ
tanned of conditions prevailing in the
upper atmosphere, and continued in
vestigations are expected to disclose
additional valuable facts. Active field
work of this character was transferred
during the year from Mount Weather,
Va, to Fort omaha, Nebr., where more
favorable conditions for atmospheric
exploration exist.