ly and blindly the storm may seem to come,
it sends messengers telling just where it arose, what course it will
take, and how far it will extend. But it tells its secrets to those
only who pay strict attention.

The system of danger signals, adopted by the United States Government,
has proved of great benefit to shipping. All along the coasts are
stations, at which plainly visible signals are displayed, to warn
ship-captains of approaching storms. The reports of observers at the
stations are required to give all instances in which vessels have
remained in port on account of official warnings given. In these cases
danger was avoided, and statistics show that disasters to shipping have
been considerably fewer since the introduction of the cautionary
signals.

The agricultural interests of the country also have been greatly
benefited by the daily bulletins sent to every farming district in the
land by the Weather Department. These bulletins are made from
telegraphic reports received at appointed centers of distribution,
where they are at once printed, placed in envelopes, and addressed to
designated post-offices in the district to be supplied. Each postmaster
receiving a bulletin has the order of the Postmaster-General to display
it instantly in a frame furnished for the purpose.

The bulletins reach the different offices, and are displayed in the
frames, on the average, at eleven o'clock in the morning, making about
ten hours from the time the report first left the chief signal officer
until it appeared placarded at every center of the farming populations,
and became accessible to all classes even in the most distant parts of
the country.

The information given on these bulletins has been found especially
valuable to those farmers who take an interest in the study of
meteorology, or the science of weather, and the facts announced are so
plain, that any intelligent person may profit by them. For instance,
each bulletin now announces, for its particular district, what winds in
each month have been found most likely, and what least likely, to be
followed by rain. Attention given to this one simple piece of
information will result in increasing the gains and reducing the losses
of harvesting.

Warnings of expected rises or falls in the great rivers are made with
equal regularity, telegraphed, bulletined in frames, and also published
by the newspapers, at the different river cities. These daily reports
give the depths o