Ssc-Sandy Loam
C-Clay Loam
Sic-Silt Loam

Legend

Ws

Orangeburg fine sandy loam

Lc

Lufkin clay

M

Meadow

Fig. 694. A soil map (Texas, Lufkin sheet) reproduced from one issued by the Bureau of Soils. A
map, engraved in colors, is published by the Bureau of Soils for each area that has been sur-
veyed by its field parties.

、

Fig. 695. Black spots show the areas surveyed by the Bureau of Soils, United States Department of Agriculture, to July 1, 1905.

AREAS SURVEYED BY THE BUREAU OF SOILS OF THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE TO JUNE 30, 1905.

PART IV

THE ATMOSPHERE ENVIRONMENT

Agriculture rests on the production of plants; and the production of plants is conditioned on the environment in which they grow. This environment is comprised of the soil and the atmosphere.

The soil environment we are in the habit of discussing. The atmosphere environment is given little rational thought: it is accepted. It is true that we cannot change or modify atmospheric conditions to any great degree; but these conditions dominate all life on the globe. It is our part not only to understand them but to adapt ourselves to them. A good part of the farming of the world is not yet adapted to its climate this defect is far more important and significant than our lack of knowledge of mere

weather or than the necessity of foretelling atmospheric changes. To adapt itself to climate is the greatest problem of agriculture.

This problem of adaptation to weather and climate is not peculiar to agriculture. One of the overmastering necessities of mankind is to accept the unmodifiable environment in which it is placed and to make it a means of personal development. Few persons are in harmony with the weather environment. Setting themselves against it, they consume energy that might be utilized in constructive work, and put themselves in such a mental attitude that full satisfaction of life is impossible.

Sympathy with the weather develops weather wisdom. Such wisdom is found with farmers, sailors and naturalists, the accuracy and value of it depending on the degree of harmony with the environment. We are not consciously educating our people toward sympathy with weather, notwithstanding that we live in a time of great effort to interest them in plants and animals. The natural history of weather changes is as im

portant to know as the life histories of birds and trees. The first interest of the child in the out-of-doors world is in the air, the sky and the weather. We seem to be losing something of the desire for personal weather wisdom because of the great development of instrumental means of measuring atmospheric changes and the perfecting of governmental weather service. We are leaving weather-knowledge to the weather man. Nothing is now more needed in nature-teaching than to direct the attention to winds and storms and calms and frosts. The farmer, of all men, should know his meteorology; and this accounts for the length and the detail of this Part IV on which we are entering.

The farmer should be able to judge the weather by the local signs. These signs or indications are the expressions of normal and natural atmospheric conditions. Careful and continued observation should enable one to connect the appearances with their causes, or at least with the results that are likely to follow, and therefore give a man a rational basis for predicting many common changes.

There is also such a thing as studying climate, and some of the larger aspects of weather, in terms of animals and plants. Observations on the migration of birds, the opening of leaves, the ripening

of fruits, the hibernating of animals, and other life-epochs, can be so made and collated as to constitute an almost perfect expression of the seasonal changes. This subject is known as phenology (contraction of phenomenology). It is the science of the periodicity of organisms as related to environment, particularly to climate. It has been carefully studied on the continent of Europe by Hoffmann, Linsser, Ihne and others; and physiological constants, measuring the seasons, have been worked out. Thermometers, barometers, and other instruments, measure only certain attributes or expressions of weather; and even when the results are all put together, they cannot make as perfect a measure of climate as do the epochs of the animals and plants, for these respond to all the weather elements. Some of the subjects involved as touching agriculture are indicated in Chapter XVII of Bailey's "Survival of the Unlike"; and instructions for taking phenological observations, by the same author, are given in the Monthly Weather Review, for September, 1896.

The history of the gradual rise of a science of weather constitutes one of the most interesting chapters in the evolution of the race. For centuries storms were attributed to the wrath of deity or the machinations of devils. The atmosphere, as well as the destinies of men, was thought to be controlled by superior agents and by the planets and the moon. These were centuries of credulity, when a habit of reasoning from natural cause to effect had not developed or was suppressed by authority. We have not even yet outgrown this credulity and mental confusion, for persons still believe in the occult influence of the moon, books are written describing the influence of the signs of the zodiac as if they were realities, and weather-quacks have large followings; and the old dread, fear and awe of storms, as if they were supernatural agencies, still linger with us. Gradually there arose a conviction that atmospheric phenomena are natural rather than supernatural, and that they are not necessarily beyond the knowledge of man. This rising intelligence early took the form of foreknowledge or prognostication. The first great experimental contribution to a science of meteorology was Franklin's experiment with the kite in 1752. This experiment aroused wide-spread discussion. Efforts were made to apply the quickened knowledge to agriculture. It was only twenty years thereafter that John Mills published in London a book called "An Essay on the Weather; with remarks on the Shepherd of Banbury's rules for judging of its changes; and directions for preserving lives and buildings from the fatal effects of lightning. Intended chiefly for the use of Husbandmen." The book contains a most interesting appendix consisting of an 'abstract of the meteorological observations made by the Economical Society of Berne, for the year 1766." These observations are of the phenological kind, rather than measurements. There are general notes on winds, frosts, crops, diseases, and agricultural practices. This little book is scientific in its method; its chapters explain how to prognosticate weather from vegetables and animals; sun, moon and stars; clouds; mist; rain; winds; changes of the seasons. The subject is approached from the viewpoint of nature-knowledge, an attitude that we need still to emphasize.

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All men of trained intelligence now approach the subject of weather rationally, in the same spirit that they study any other natural phenomena, assuming that it is governed by law. There are a number of recent popular American books on weather that may be recommended, following the excellent early "Treatise on Meteorology," by Professor Loomis in 1868. Loomis' book has a good bibliography up to that date. Omitting the subject of climate, the following writings may be mentioned: William Blasius, "Storms," Porter & Coates, 1875; Ralph Abercromby, "Weather," International Scientific Series, Appleton, 1887; A. W. Greely, "American Weather," Dodd, Mead & Co., 1888; William Ferrel, "Popular Treatise on the Winds," John Wiley and Sons, 1889; W. M. Davis, "Elementary Meteorology," Ginn & Co., 1894; Thomas Russel, "Meteorology; Weather, and Methods of Forecasting," Macmillan, 1895; Frank Waldo, "Modern Meteorology," Scribners, 1893; Waldo, "Elementary Meteorology," American Book Co., 1896; R. DeC. Ward, "Practical Exercises in Elementary Meteorology," Boston, Ginn & Co., 1899; A. L. Rotch, of the Blue Hill (Mass.) Observatory, Boston, “Sounding the Ocean of Air," London, 1900; J. Hann, "Handbook of Climatology," New York, The Macmillan Co., 1903 (translated by R. DeC. Ward). If the reader wishes to know what mental and physiological effects the weather produces, he should consult Edwin Grant Dexter's "Weather Influences," Macmillan, 1904. For popular signs, consult Edward B. Garriott, "Weather Folk-Lore and Local Weather Signs," Weather Bureau Bulletin No. 33, United States Department of Agriculture, 1903. A set of weather signs, and a table for computing frost predictions, are contained in Chapter XVIII of the "Horticulturist's RuleBook." Those desiring to inquire into the history of meteorology should consult the chapter, "From "The Prince of the Power of the Air' to Meteorology," in Andrew Dickson White's "History of the Warfare of Science." For charts, see Bartholomew's Atlas of Meteorology (Vol. 3 of his Physical Atlas), London.

CHAPTER XVII

WEATHER SERVICE AND WEATHER KNOWLEDGE

By WILFORD M. WILSON

HE ORGANIZATION OF WEATHER SERVICES contemplates a three-fold function: (1) The collection and tabulation of meteorological facts by means of observations; (2) the correlation of these facts and the solution of the problems they present; (3) the application of the knowledge thus secured to the public needs. They are equally important and are interdependent. The present article is concerned chiefly with the last-mentioned function; but in discussing the practical utility of weather services it must not be overlooked that the application of the principles of meteorology to the every-day needs of the farmer, the mariner, the shipper, the manufacturer and the seeker after health or pleasure, has been made possible only through the painstaking labor of those devotees to pure science who gathered the facts

and formulated the theories, working methodically and patiently day after day.

Weather services are best known, perhaps, through the medium of their forecasts, and the public estimate of their efficiency is determined largely by the success in this effort. Absolute success, however, has not been attained, nor will it be attained until a perfect understanding of the complex problems presented by the atmosphere has been reached. But so much has been accomplished in the past fifty years that he is indeed lacking in faith who will say that this twentieth century may not witness the perfect solution.

The purpose of this article is to explain briefly the practical workings of the weather service of this and other countries, and to point out wherein their work may be utilized in agricultural practice. The work of such service is of necessity of a generalized character, and its value to the farmer depends largely on his ability to localize and adapt it to his own needs. It may not be substituted for a knowledge of the conditions in his own locality, which every farmer should possess; but the farmer should rather supplement that knowledge with the larger and more extended view to be secured through the weather service.

No attempt is made to discuss the underlying principles of meteorology further than to point out the significance of some of the more common weather signs. Such a discussion is given by Cleveland Abbe, Jr., in his article in Chapter XVIII.

Weather forecasting based on observations.

The methods employed by all meteorological services in the world for forecasting the weather are practically the same, and depend, first, on the fact that disturbances or storms within the earth's atmosphere move over the surface of the earth along well-defined tracks or paths at a fairly uniform speed, and, second, that the electric telegraph has made it possible to herald the approach of these disturbances far in advance of their appearance. Without this means of instantaneous communication, weather services as now organized could not exist, for the weather forecaster must have before him not only the weather conditions as shown by his own instruments, but a broad view of the weather over a large territory-the larger the better. The United States Weather Bureau, which is the most highly organized and favorably

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situated weather service in the world, has at present about 200 regular stations where observations are recorded twice each day and telegraphed to about 100 offices where maps and bulletins are prepared, including the Central Office at Washington, D. C. These observing stations were originally located with regard to the telegraphic facilities that existed, and also with a view to securing reports from points distributed over the country as evenly as possible. The service was organized in 1870, with about 50 stations. Since telegraphic facilities have become so wide-spread, and the value of the weather servic has been demonstrated, stations have been located more and more with reference to their value to the public as centers for the distribution of meteorological information. In addition to the above stations, daily telegraphic reports are received, through the courtesy of the