Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 December 1883 — The Signal Serviee for Farmers. [ARTICLE]

The Signal Serviee for Farmers.

The project of making the United States weather signal service of more direct use to our farmers has been much agitated. There is not. one inducement for sustaining tho signal service for its protection to shipping that cannot be urged by farmers in asking that it be extended so as to give them ample notice of approaching storms. In point of importance, agriculture has no superior among industries; and there is no industry more completely dependent upon the weather for success than that of the cultivation of the soil. The scheme is an entirely practicable one. A system of signals by flags to be used on trains has already been devised. The farmer who wishes to plan his farm operations according to the probable state of the weather for the next day, could get within sight of some train that carried weather signals—signs of danger or of safety to the crops—-as it goes dashing along. Dr. R. 0. Kedzie and others think that these signals ought to be under the management of a State weather service bureau similar to those now flourishing in lowa and Ohio. This State bureau could take the weather predictions of the National signal service in connection with independent observations, and telegraph the probable state .of the weather for the next thirty-six hours to all parts of the State, employing such means to spread the news in the rural districts as study and experience may suggest. There can be no doubt that such a weather service in Michigan would be of immense value. In July, - 18S1, the farmers lost more than $1,000,000 because their wheat was not secured before the well-remembered storm of that year. That famous storm, which lasted nine days, was partially expected by meteorological observers three daj T s before it struck Michigan, but no warning could be sent brpadcost over the State to the:: easy and confident farmers because there were no systematic means. c There is a vast amount of prejudice against any kind of weather service, simply because there is a vast amount of ignorance in regard to what has been accomplished in the science of meteorology. Tho atmosphere above and around ns, it is now believed, is governed by fixed laws, and all these laws must be discovered before storm predictions can approach perfection. Much is already done in this direction, and it is hoped that the people will furnish means for its further progress.—r Lansing Republican.