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THE WEATHER SERVICE.

The manner in which the State Weather Service became connected with the Station has been explained in the introduction to this report.

A State weather service has a twofold duty:

1st. The collection of accurate, detailed weather statistics for the territory of a State; and 2d, the dissemination of practical information, weather "indications," and frost or cold-wave warnings.

The profession of farming is more interested in the weather than any other; and forecasts of the weather for twenty-four or forty-eight hours ahead will determine the commonest every-day operations on the farm.

Besides these ordinary benefits, which everybody will appreciate, North Carolina has unusually large interests in crops which frosts and freezes can destroy, and which may be saved if only a half a day's warning of cold is given. Our tobacco, truck and fruit interests have been frequently damaged to the extent of from one-fourth to one-half of the whole, by sudden frosts or freezes, of which our farmers had no warnings.

It would seem eminently appropriate that the Agricultural Department of the State should undertake to collect these statistics and to give out this important information. Through the agency of the Agricultural Experiment Station the Department has undertaken this work, and intends to push it just as far as the facilities of communication will permit.

Some of the immediate benefits of the State Weather Service may only be briefly touched upon here.

1. It will bring the benefits of the weather "indications,” "cold-wave" warnings, etc., of the United States Signal Office to bear directly upon the interests and daily lives of a great many of our people, and secure for them whatever benefits there may be in them.

2. The weather service will be the means of securing a much better knowledge of the meteorology of our State, which will be valuable in more ways than can be named here.

3. It will give the people of all parts of the State reliable standards for temperature, rain-fall, humidity, wind-velocity, etc., which are sources of varied, useful information.

4. It will put within the reach of local agricultural clubs and individual farmers the means of accurate observations upon the relations of the weather to our crops. Without a weather record in figures, our conceptions of what the weather was during any particular season are sure to be very unreliable.

5. It will educate the people at large on the subjects in science which have the most important bearing upon their interests, comfort and lives.

The distribution of weather reports commenced on one railroad on October 8th, and was extended to all the railroads in the State before January 1st, 1887.

The Weather Station started operations at the Experiment Farm on the 1st of December. The meteorological work, formerly conducted at the farm, included studies of the air and soil temperatures, the moisture in the soil, and a record of sunshine. To this has now been added the regular work of a full Signal Station.

The State Weather Service is an organization of the railroads and of voluntary observers and signal men throughout the State of North Carolina, co-operating with the United States Signal Service and this Experiment Station.

WEATHER SIGNALS.

The daily weather indications and "cold-wave" warnings sent to the central office at Raleigh from the Signal Office at Washington are distributed to all the telegraph and some telephone stations in North Carolina. These reports are posted up on bulletin-boards or published by signal flags.

At present all the railroads in the State are co-operating with the State in the extension of this work. The managers and

superintendents of railroads operating in North Carolina were, without exception, prompt to appreciate the advantages which would follow to their lines and their patrons from the distribution and publication of the weather warnings. The railroad lines named below receive the weather and temperature and coldwave warnings from our signal service, and use them on their own account and for the benefit of their business. For their intelligent appreciation of this matter, and for their public spirit in co-operating with us, the State Weather Service is under great obligations to these railroad companies.

RAILROAD COMPANIES CO-OPERATING WITH THE WEATHER SERVICE,

The Seaboard Air-Line system, comprising the Raleigh & Gaston division, Raleigh & Augusta division and the Carolina Central division, with 44 stations and 3 private telegraph stations connecting therewith. The Piedmont Air-Line system, comprising the Richmond & Danville division, with 15 stations; the North Carolina division, with 14 stations; the Western North Carolina division, with 25 stations; the Charlotte & Columbia division, with 4 stations; the Atlanta & Charlotte Air-Line, with three stations. The Atlantic & North Carolina Railroad, with 6 stations.

The Atlantic Coast Line and branches, with 32 stations, 1 private line station connecting.

The Cape Fear & Yadkin Valley Railroad, with 16 stations.

The Norfolk Southern Railroad, with 3 stations.

The Tarboro, Greenville & Washington Telegraph Co., with 8 stations.

This is a total of 175 stations in North Carolina reached by means of these lines.

SIGNAL STATIONS.

Stations having flags and the necessary facilities for displaying them are designated Signal Stations.

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The important work of collecting meteorological statistics is carried on by the voluntary assistance of thirty observers scattered pretty well throughout the State from east to west, with the additional information obtained from the reports of eleven regular signal service observers located in this and the adjacent territory of other States.

As the State Weather Service is a purely voluntary association, without available funds for the purchase of meteorological instruments, we find it necessary to appeal to the generosity and public spirit of representative citizens in each town and community where we hope to establish a local observing station. Agreeable to our expectations, and much to the credit of the friends. of the Service, these appeals have met with prompt and ready

responses in nearly every case, and twenty-two stations have been fully equipped with instruments as below. Three stations already had the equipment, and five have been only partially supplied. The full set of instruments for voluntary observers consists of maximum registering thermometer, minimum registering thermometer, dry bulb thermometer, wet bulb thermometer, and rain-gauge with overflow and measuring-stick. All the new instruments are of H. J. Green's best make, and were corrected at Washington.

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