The weekly soliphone., 1916-12-01

sive activity. There is a rush to hay or grain fields to get in the crop, or, in the spring, work like beavers covering young seedlings in the truck gardens with paper or Eother protection from frost, or pre- pairing to build fires or light smudges in orchards. On ranches every available worker may be dis patched to herd in sheep or stock to protect them from storms. To them the message, which in the city may have foretold only slight personal discomfort, carries tidings of conditions which may mean heavy monetary losses to the unpre- pared farm or ranch.
 On the other hand forecast pre- dieting good or hot weather for three or four days to come may send thousands of reapers into the fields to take advantage of favora- ble weather, and, as if by magic, change the landscape from one of waving grain or grass into scene of haycocks, or wheat sheaves.
 The U. s. weather bureau has perfected special systems and fla cilities for obtaining and dissemi- mating advance weather news adapt ed to the protection of growers of many special crops in different sec tions of the country. In connec- ton with the weather reports re ceiyed from it's 200 stations and from 4,5O0 other observation points, the bureau has established large number of special stations for ob- serving crop weather conditions in the corn wheat, cotton, sugar, rice and cattle raising districts. The object of this service is to furnish the growers of each of these crops throughout the summer with infor- nation that will enable them to handle the crops to best advant- age. The corn and wheat region service covers, for example, the l15 principal grain states, in which it maintains one region center, l3 district centers, and 17f special stations. from which telegrams are received daily, and reports dis seminated. Daily bulletins show ing the temperature and rainfall at these stations are published at |1S different points and distributed to approximately 2,775 different people. Similar services dealing with cotton weather conditions GOV CT the II principal cotton states land consist of data gathered in Is centers through 175 special sta tions. This service was extended during the spring of 1916 to the
 new cotton growing district in west ern Texas and other uncovered fields. The sugar and rice region service heretofore has supplied weather information to the rice growers of Texas and Louisiana and the sugar growers throughout the southern states. It is expected that special rice service will be in augurated in Arkansas,
 The special tobacco service is carried on in the states of Con necticut and Wisconsin through two centers and IA stations. Extension is contemplated to give a more com plete special tobacco service in i'm portant tobacco districts in western Kentucky. The crop weather ser vice is particularly important to alfalfa growers in all the western states and special three or four-day forecasts are issued throughout the season to alfalfa harvesters. Tenn perature forecasts are issued in the same way in connection with the harvesting of alfalfa seed, which is dependent on weather conditions.
 SPECIAL FRUIT REGION SERVICE
 The special fruit region weather warning service, which forecasts particularly the coming of spring frosts, is of particular value in the intensive orcharding districts where fruit growers have made prepara- tions by means of smudging or