Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 November 1882 — SIGNAL SERVICE. [ARTICLE]

SIGNAL SERVICE.

Annual Report of the Chief Officer. The Chief Signal Officer of the Army, in his annual report, says eleven new stations have been added, and special reports r.rc made for the cotton and tobacco-growing regions of the country, and the means for giving warnings to cattle-raisers of Texas against the approachof “northers”have been improved. Experiments have been made with a view ot increasing *he value of the farmers’bulletin by the addition of a weather chart of the United States, and it is believed that in a short time these charts may be successful!}’ reproduced on the farmers’ bulletin. With each year the popular knowledge of the uses of this bulletin enables those interested in agriculture to judge of the correctness of forecasts, and with the addition of the proposed weather-map individuals will be able to make correct predictions of the weather for localities which it is impossible to provide for in the brief sentence which expresses the prevailing weather indications antiepated for an entire district It is contemplated, as the work of the office progresses, to add to this bulletin brief instructions for the use of instruments which may hereafter be furnished for lo al observers. The railway-bulletin service has proven of great value the past year. The system of frost warnings for the "benefit of the sugar interests in Louisiana has been continued. During the coming year it is proposed to telegraph frost warnings direct from the Signal Office to all telegraph offices in the sugar-growing sections. It 'A proposed to establish a system of frost warn'ngs for the benefit of the to-bacco-growing interest of the country, also similar service for the benefit of the orangegrowers of Florida. A system of r< ports for the benefit of the cotton interests was thoroughly organized and successfully operated since 'September, 1881. At the solic ta'icn of those interested in the cultivation of wheat and other grains in the Northwest it is contemplated to establish a service similar to that now in operation for the benefit of the cotton interests, which will enable this office to publish in the journals of the Northwest the daily rainfall and temperature, as determined from a large number of stations. The cost to the Government of the men who do the signal-service work is less than $450,01X1 a year. The cost of salaries alone for the same number of civilian clerks would amount to more than $600,000.