(a) To meet the higher cost of maintaining the regular stations, for the restoration of work that was discontinued during the war and for the extension of the service; (b) for the extension of the vessel weather service, in order to secure a larger number of wireless reports during the hurricane season in the Atlantic, Gulf, and Caribbean Sea regions and also to inaugurate a similar service on the coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean westward of the United States; (c) for the enlargement of the fruit frost service and the dissemination of special localized forecasts, in order that orchardists may promptly apply protective measures; (d) for the inauguration of special 48 to 72-hour forecasts in connection with orchard spraying operations, to enable fruit growers to secure the best results by the application of sprays in advance of rainy spells; (e) for the extension of the cattle region service to Montana and to inaugurate a daily corn and wheat service in sections of the country where large quantities of these cereals are grown, but which the Bureau has been unable to cover because of lack of funds; and (f) to provide for the upkeep of the instrumental equipment and for working over, tabulating, and disseminating meteorological data secured at the various field stations of the Bureau of Plant Industry located in the arid and semiarid sections of the country, especially in the Great Plains.

LATER: The bill (H. R. 12272) making appropriations for the Department of Agriculture for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1921, was reported to the House of Representatives by the Committee on Agriculture on February 3, 1920. None of the increases submitted in the estimates (as outlined above) was allowed. The paragraph providing for the continuation of the present aerological work was stricken out on a point of order, but was later restored with a change of language. The bill was passed by the House on February 14, 1920, and has been sent to the Senate for its consideration.

It is hoped that action favorable and beneficial to the service that is demanded of the Weather Bureau may be taken by the Senate before the bill becomes a law.

Among many interesting items in the Report of the Chief of the Weather Bureau, 1918-1919 (just issued, 8vo, 24 p.), is the "Highways Weather Service," which motorists particularly are using. This is a new project, in which the principal Weather Bureau stations keep in touch with the conditions of the roads and important highways [or, failing that, use rainfall reports basing their road bulletins on previously compared effects of certain amounts of rainfall].

NEWS ITEMS, NOTES, AND QUERIES.

Dr. Julius von Hann in distress.-A letter received from Lieut. Col. E. Gold, of the Meteorological Office, London, stated that Dr. von Hann, the famous author of the world's standard books on meteorology and climatology, was in immediate need of food and fuel, and that some private contributions were being made in England to help him. $50 was raised in Washington immediately and in the name of the American Meteorological Society a food draft for this value was sent to him with a letter asking for a statement of his condition. Dr. von Hann is now 81 years old.

Waivure of the $5 entrance fee to the A. A. A. S.-The council of the American Association for the Advancement of Science specially voted to grant the waivure of the usual $5 entrance fee to all who join the A. A. A. S. within one year of

their connection with the American Meteorological Society. Requests for application blanks may be sent to the A. A. A. S., Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C., and when filled (either with or without the recommendatory signatures) sent to the Secretary of the American Meteorological Society for endorsement and transmittal. Members of the A. A. A. S. receive Science (weekly) or the Scientific Monthly.

International Meteorological Conference.-The Meteorological Office Circular (London) of Dec. 1, 1919, gives a summary of the work of the International Conference of Directors of Meteorological Institutions held at Paris from September 30th to October 6th. One of the primary tasks of this conference was to establish an international organization for coöperation in meteorological work, which is obviously of vital importance to the science. Commissions whose business it is to discuss and report on various special phases were appointed, and their fields embrace all the important lines of meteorological activity such as agricultural meteorology, marine meteorology, telegraphy, solar radiation, application of meteorology to aeronautics, aerological investigations, polar investigations, atmospheric electricity and terrestrial magnetism. Many practical problems were discussed such as meteorological units, codes, wireless transmission of observations, clouds and visibility. Symons's Meteorological Magazine (London) for December 1919 (p. 136) contains the following:

THE CONGRESS OF DIRECTORS of Independent Meteorological services recently decided at Paris, by a majority, that the millibar should be adopted in preference to the millimeter of mercury for use in stating the pressure of the atmosphere.

The Directors of Science in Congress assembled,

Agreed that in future no discord should mar
The values of pressure so often dissembled

By units derived from a platinum bar.

The inch and the meter and gravity trembled,

As into the Congress there tripped lightly skipping
An innocent damsel who'd just 'scaped a whipping;
Her name in plain English was Miss Milly Barr.
Dear Milly Barr

Bjerknesian star;

A thousand of you

Shall be ever our cue,

.-E. G.

As our standard of pressure wherever we are.

Meteorology in Australian Schools.—Mr. H. A. Hunt, Meteorologist to the Commonwealth, has presented the Office with a set of maps and charts used for exhibiting weather observations in Australian Schools.

Special mention may be made of the forms used in Infant Schools. Colored discs gummed at the back are provided for pasting on to a chart which may be exhibited in the classroom. Different colors are used for different types of weather, and thus the color scheme of the completed chart gives a representation of the general character of the month. The scheme appears well suited for training the child-mind to observe and note weather phenomena and learn the meaning of a continuous record.—Meteorological Office Circular (London), 41, Nov. 1, 1919.

How should we compute the mean annual temperature?-Professor Charles F. Marvin, who has recently studied much data calls attention to the rather inaccurate way in which annual temperatures are computed: by taking the mean

of the means of the 12 months. Even when the monthly means are made more strictly comparable by dividing each by the number of days in the month and multiplying by 30.4, an annual mean determined from them is not strictly accurate. For getting the mean of a year should we not add up the daily means and divide by 365 or 366; and for getting normal annual temperatures should we not take the total of the means of all the days in, say, a 50-year period and divide by the total number of days?

On a closely related question, Professor Marvin's recent paper, "Normal temperatures (daily): are irregularities in the annual march of temperature persistent?" (see Monthly Weather Review, Aug. 1919, vol. 47, p. 544-555), shows that the harmonic equation of not more than two terms gives the closest present realization of the normal annual march of temperature. The advantages of the week as a unit interval for many meteorological investigations is advocated. Treated by the methods indicated, results of relatively short records command confidence.

What would be the meteorological condition of the earth if a screen were placed between the sun and the earth for a month?-Teachers of meteorology might raise an interesting discussion by putting this question to their classes. This question arose during a discussion as to how much of our weather changes may be ascribed to changes in the solar constant of radiation.

What is a flood?-A teacher of hydrology in a western university asks for a quantitative definition of the word "flood," such that flood waters can be distinguished from other stages of a stream.

Grand Haven, Mich., was 22° F. warmer than Milwaukee, Wis., on the morning of Jan. 5, 1920. Why?-One answer is as follows:

Coldness at Milwaukee (0° F.)—due to wind off a deeply snow-covered region after a clear night.

Relative warmth at Grand Haven (22° F.)-due to moderate wind off an unfrozen portion of Lake Michigan. The S. W. wind of 10 miles per hour, if it had been the same all night, indicates that the air arriving at Grand Haven may have left the other shore of the Lake about 10 hours before, and at a temperature about 10° to 15° F. lower than that at which it arrived. Still, on arrival the air temperature was 10° F. below the temperature (lowest possible) of the open-lake surface.

MATERIAL FOR THE BULLETIN.

The Council asks that material for the March BULLETIN be in the hands of any of its members in time to reach the Secretary by March 10th, and that material for those of later months be in hand by the 1st of each month.