will propose to the International Meteorological Committee practical resolutions on the nature of observations which might be useful from the different viewpoints of agricultural meteorology, on the manner of executing them, and of publishing them in a uniform fashion, and, in general, on new researches for whose undertaking an international understanding is required.

A. Angot, Honorary Director of the Central Meteorological Bureau, and Professor of the National Institute of Agronomy, of Paris, France, is the President of the Commission, and sixteen different countries are represented in its membership.

After these proposals have been formulated, they may serve as a basis for activity on the part of the Committee on Agricultural Meteorology of the American Meteorological Society.-J. Warren Smith, Chairman.

Committee on Engineering Meteorology and Hydrology Members of the Committee have been working along various lines and have the results of studies of some special problems advanced to such a state that they will be available for publication in some form in the near future. Attention is particularly directed to various aspects of the important question of water losses from the surface of the earth. The committee of the New England Water Works Association on this subject is closely affiliated with the Committee on Hydrology of the American Meteorological Society, and furnishes a working organization through which an attempt is being made to analyze in detail the various water losses from a limited number of drainage basins for which adequate data are available.

Inasmuch as the Committee on Hydrology has little to report directly on its own account, it seems proper at this time to note briefly the progress along the lines of hydrology and meteorology of rainfall and evaporation during the past year.

Rainfall.-M. D. Carle Salter's "Relation of Rainfall to Configuration" and his book “Rainfall of the British Isles," just announced, add much to our knowledge of local variations in rainfall. These British studies are of special interest, among other things, owing to the fact that similar studies can rarely be carried out in this country because of the relative infrequency of rainfall stations.

A valuable contribution to American rainfall data is X. H. Goodnough's "Rainfall of New England," which appeared in the September issue of the Journal of the New England Water Works Association, bringing down to 1920 the records which were published for years prior to 1914 in the same Journal for September, 1915. The recent publication in the Monthly Weather Review of Alvord's excellent series of diagrams of equifrequent rain intensities for short time-intervals (Aug., 1921), and the writer's "Correlation of Rain Intensities at New Orleans for Long and Short Time Intervals" (April, 1921), are among the numerous recent contributions to this subject. There are now many such studies for individual localities or stations available and a time is ripe for broader generalization and intensive study of the subject along casual as well as purely statistical lines. Angot's series of articles on the rainfall in France, which have appeared recently, represents a type of general study of the various aspects of the rainfall of a region worthy of repetition elsewhere.

Evaporation.-Isolated studies have been made and data published as hereafter described, at many evaporation stations; among the most notable

annual collection of such data is that appearing in the issues of British Rainfall. A compilation of some thirty or more evaporation records, each of several years' duration, and maintained under standard conditions at various locations and altitudes in the Middle West, have been completed, and the records will appear in an early number of the Monthly Weather Review. These records were maintained by the former Bureau of Plant Industry of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. As they are accompanied by meteorological data for the casual factors affecting evaporation, they afford a basis of study of the relation of evaporation rate to these factors, and also provide data applied to some other problems of interest in hydro-meteorology, including records of actual wind velocities close to the ground at different altitudes and latitudes, temperature records in buried evaporation pans, and their relation to altitude and latitude, and the relation of evaporation rate to elevation.

Floods and Infiltration.-It is coming to be well recognized that next to rainfall, infiltration is probably the most influencing factor affecting the occurrence of floods. Ivan E. Houk's experimental studies of infiltration, published this year in vol. viii of the technical records of the Miami Conservancy Commission, form an important contribution to the very meagre quantitative data on this subject. In the same volume are some interesting data on the interception losses under haw trees.

Those who have been accustomed to think of maximum flood discharges in terms of 100, or at most 300 or 400 feet per second per square mile from small areas, will be interested in the publication by Willcox in the third edition of his "Irrigation Pocketbook," 1920, and by Houk, “Engineering News-Record," (Sept. 22, 1921, pp. 480-481) of a considerable number of well authenticated instances of run-off rates from such areas ranging from 1,000 to 4,000 c. f. s. per square mile, equivalent to the actual run-off from the surface of varying rates up to nearly seven inches depth per hour.

Hydrology is advancing slowly, at least, from a somewhat vague and mostly qualitative science to a mere definite quantitative one. As yet most of the results which appear are largely empirical, and however valuable they may be as such, are of local application. Broader and more general studies, and especially correlation of facts with causal conditions, are needed at every turn.-Robert E. Horton, Chairman.

Committee on Marine Meteorology

The Committee met twice during the year, both times at Washington, D. C. The first meeting was held on April 29, the second on June 15. At these meetings the Committee adopted resolutions to be submitted to the Council of the Society outlining a national marine meteorological program. It also acted favorably upon resolutions presented by Dr. C. F. Brooks covering a plan of international co-operation in ocean work, oceanographic in character as well as meteorological. The Committee also gave tentative approval to a plan for soliciting funds wherewith to promote individual work along marine meteorological lines.

A very complete report of the proceedings of these meetings, together with a report of subsequent action by the Council on the recommendations of the Committee, appears in the September issue of the BULLETIN.-F. G. Tingley, Chairman,

Committee on Physiological Meteorology

The Committee on Physiological Meteorology has carried on an active correspondence during the year. It held one formal meeting at New Haven, a report of which appeared in the June BULLETIN, p. 76. In addition to this, the Chairman has had conferences with most of the members. Work on the articles and book suggested in the report has been delayed by the fact that Dr. Redway has found it impossible to act as editor, while the Chairman has been obliged to devote a large part of his time to work as Chairman of a committee of the National Research Council on the Atmosphere and Man. This latter committee is working in co-operation with the Committee on Physiological Meteorology along lines to be announced later. In addition to this the Committee on Physiological Meteorology has conferred informally with the American Climatological and Clinical Association. The latter has appointed a committee to confer with the Meteorological Society and it is hoped that a conference may soon be held.-Ellsworth Huntington, Chairman.

Committee on Public Information

This Committee has made no attempt to develop new methods or agencies for disseminating meteorological information, and there appears to be no need of doing so, in view of the number and character of those that already exist. The best channel of information is the daily newspaper. Access to the columns of a large number of newspapers throughout the country is now afforded by the institution known as Science Service, founded in the spring of 1921 through the generosity of Mr. E. W. Scripps. The office of this institution, which is backed by the patronage and authority of the National Academy of Science, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Research Council, and is under the able editorial direction of Dr. E. E. Slosson, is conveniently located in Washington. From the time Science Service began its work the chairman of our Committee has supplied it with articles for release through newspaper syndicates. Thus far the articles have dealt chiefly with prevalent fallacies in regard to the weather and the atmosphere. The protracted drought of last summer led to a marked revival of the rain-making delusion and to numerous attempts to explain the abnormal weather as an immediate effect of sunspots, though it so happened that the sun was actually freer from spots than usual during the period in question. These popular errors have been appropriately dealt with. Papers have also been contributed on "hail-rods," the "rain-tree," etc. One paper supplied to Science Service sets forth the magnitude, little realized by the public, of the work carried on throughout the world in taking and recording climatological observations. The chairman has likewise written for the Mentor, a semi-educational magazine with a very large circulation, a brief paper on the perennial myth of the "old-fashioned winter," as well as several meteorological notes and articles for other magazines, including abstracts published in the Review of Reviews. Lastly, he has just read page-proofs of a popular reading book on meteorology which he wrote a year ago for the P. F. Collier & Son Company, of New York.

A number of letters asking for meteorological information have been received from members of the Society and have been answered by the chairman.-C. Fitzhugh Talman, Chairman.

Committee on Research

The membership of the committee as at present constituted consists of Alexander McAdie, R. S. Millikan, Willis R. Gregg, and C. F. Marvin, Chairman. Owing to the wide geographic separation of the members of the committee and the lack of funds to meet traveling expenses, it has seemed impracticable to assemble the committee. No meetings have been held during the year and no formal program of report can be made.

However, it seems pertinent to mention certain lines of important investigations that have been or are being conducted in the Weather Bureau, and to make certain suggestions concerning the future organization of the committee.

Meteorological researches in the Weather Bureau which seem to be worthy of mention are a series of studies conducted chiefly under Prof. Henry, concerning laws of sequence of weather conditions, having reference to the determination of such definite relations as would be of practical value in the preparation of forecasts for a longer time in advance than has heretofore been deemed possible. In these investigations a study of weather sequences themselves have been made relating to periodic occurrences of rainfall, temperature, etc., and to some extent extended to coordination and correlation of effects with solar phenomena.

Studies of a similar character have been in progress in work by Mr. H. W. Clough.

The subject of the reduction of barometers with reference to free air observations, as well as to general surface conditions, has been extensively studied by Mr. C. L. Meisinger and constitutes a contribution to the papers of the meeting of the Society.

A considerable line of work has been conducted in the assemblage and discussion of three years of observations in the free air made by the aerological section of the Weather Bureau under the direction of Mr. Gregg. In these studies special attention has been given, among others, to the so-called standard conditions of the atmosphere adapted to meet the needs of artillerists and aviation, and the summary will be extended to include a complete discussion of the free air data.

In the line of instrumental investigation mention should be made of improvements of a most practical and valuable character in the development of certain types of raingages, automatically recording windvanes and apparatus for aerological investigations, under the direction of Mr. B. C. Kadel and Mr. S. P. Fergusson.

Important developments have been made in the study of the relation of weather to crops and in schemes for the estimation of the yield of crops based on foreknowledge of influencing weather conditions.

Studies of intensity of solar radiation under Prof. H. H. Kimball have been continued at a limited number of stations, and special investigations have been conducted to ascertain possible relations between observed intensities and fluctuations of temperature. It may be fairly stated that the investigations so far conducted increase the doubt that day-to-day fluctuations in intensity of solar radiation of any significant magnitude can be proved to exist. The fluctuations are more readily explained by uneliminated influences of the earth's atmosphere on the transmission of the incoming radiation.

An additional study of great practical importance is the accurate measurement of light intensity under varying degrees of cloudiness or clear

ness of the sky, with the view to furnishing illuminating engineers and architects, etc., with definite data for the regulation of illumination and building construction with reference to the utilization of daylight to the fullest practicable degree.

Much progress has been made during the year in the restoration of systematic meteorological reports from vessels at sea, both through the agency of wireless communications, which reports are used in the daily program of weather forecasts, and issue of warnings and the like, and from mail reports. The present program contemplates the preparation of a complete and detailed map of atmospheric conditions, especially over the Northern Hemisphere, to serve the purpose especially of detailed study of the great phenomena of atmosphere circulation, also the possibility of publication for the purpose of placing the material in the hands of students.

A project of major magnitude under the particular direction of the Chairman of the Committee has consisted in the discussion of nearly 50 years of maximum and minimum temperature observations for the United States. In all there are over 90 stations from which records of this length of time are available, and these have been compiled in the form of weekly mean values. For the discussion of these data a Fourier equation with four harmonics is being prepared, yielding results in the form of residual departures from this definite uniform law applied to all the various stations with very promising and interesting results. The object of the investigation is to procure normal daily temperatures of more dependable character than otherwise obtainable and to discuss the nature of the systematic or accidental departure, as the case may be, of the observed temperature from the uniform law. In this study important improvements have been developed in the application of the harmonic analysis, and simple aids for the practical application of the analysis have been worked out.

The foregoing constitute but a few of the more important lines of work in progress in the Weather Bureau for the development of the art of weather forecasting and the science of meteorology in general.

The experience of the present chairman of this committee indicates the inability on his part to give the attention to the activities of the committee which the importance of the subject justifies and leads to the belief that the chairmanship of the committee should be placed in other hands, in accordance with which his resignation has already been tendered through the Secretary.

It seems pertinent also to add at this point that it seems feasible that, by placing the membership of the committee in important universities and outside institutions rather than in the Weather Bureau, to encourage the conduct of special lines of research where facilities and opportunities are available, to be carried out under the leadership of members of the university faculty and thus secure the accomplishment of many minor lines of research that might not otherwise receive attention.

The foregoing is simply offered as a suggestion, as the course of action of the committee as hereafter constituted must of course be left to the committee itself.-C. F. Marvin, Chairman.

Committee on Meteorological Instruction

In the absence of the chairman, Prof. W. I. Milham presented the following report:

The report of a committee may well call attention to past endeavors