MARYLAND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 93

The Maryland State Weather Service is similar in its organization
and methods to like services in other states; the personnel consists of
voluntary observers who have been selected at favorable points
throughout the state, and of a corps of permanent observers who have
been assigned from the United States Weather Bureau to take charge
of the work at the central office. The National Bureau also supplies
instruments, forms and stationery to all stations of the service, and all
the correspondence and reports are mailed under the frank of the
United States Department of Agriculture.

The stations connected with the service are of three classes: first,
those which report meteorological facts; second, those which send
crop notes; third, those which display signals. In a few instances the
same person fulfills the duties of all three offices. Nearly every sec-
tion of the state is represented in this manner, several stations having
been established in each county.

The publications of the Maryland State Weather Service consist
of monthly Meteorological Reports and weekly Crop Bulletins. Both
of these reports were published independently by the Maryland State
Weather Service until the autumn of 1896, but since that date they
have been prepared and printed in co-operation with the United States
Weather Bureau as part of its Climate and Crop Service, Maryland
and Delaware Section. The publications are devoted chiefly to a dis-
cussion of the climate of Maryland, the efficacy of meteorological
conditions upon the products of the soil, and the especial advantages
in these directions to be enjoyed by the inhabitants of the state. On
account of the varied climate of Maryland, the difference of its soil
formations and its extensive coast-line, the agricultural and commer-
cial interests of the state are many and important, and the Maryland
State Weather Service has been of great value in bringing to the
attention of the public the special advantages which the state possesses
in these several directions.

Several special reports have been brought out by the Maryland
State Weather Service in addition to the regular publications above
described. In 1893 series of large Climatic Charts with explana-
tory texts were prepared to represent the seasonal and annual tempera-