keeps in touch with their latest findings, and who contacts with the extension foresters employed by the State extension services, in order to give them all possible aid in advising farmers, primarily through county agents, regarding the management of farm woodlots and the planning of shelterbelts and other things of that kind.

Mr. UMSTEAD. In how many States will this appropriation be needed?

Dr. WARBURTON. My recollection is that we have cooperation with some 34 States and Puerto Rico at the present time.

Mr. UMSTEAD. Doctor, is there any further statement that you would like to make in reference to any item?

Dr. WARBURTON. I know of nothing further, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much.

MONDAY, JANUARY 13, 1936.

WEATHER BUREAU

STATEMENT OF WILLIS R. GREGG, CHIEF

GENERAL STATEMENT

Mr. TARVER (presiding). Will you proceed, Mr. Gregg? Mr. GREGG. Mr. Chairman, I have a brief general statement that I would like to make.

Mr. TARVER. Very well.

Mr. GREGG. During the 2 years since my appointment as Chief of the Weather Bureau I have endeavored to make a very thorough study of the needs of the public generally for weather service and to determine to what extent those needs are being met. By the "public generally" I mean such activities as (1) agriculture, in some lines of which success is largely dependent, during certain seasons critical, on advance knowledge of destructive weather conditions; (2) transportation-sea, land, and air, each requiring a specialized type of service; (3) conservation of natural resources, especially of our forests, the destruction of which by fires can, to a considerable extent, be reduced by a detailed weather reporting and forecasting service; and (4) those large portions of our population whose lives are spent in regions subject to occasional visitations from particularly severe conditions, such as hurricanes, cold waves, and floods, timely warnings of which make possible the saving of many of those lives as well as millions of dollars worth of property.

The results of this careful survey may be summed up in the brief statement that, by and large, weather service in this country has not kept itself attuned to developments in almost all other fields. It is not now efficient, if we base our appraisal on existing needs, although I am convinced that it is as efficient as it can be with the funds that are provided for it. But the service is not in the detail and completeness that the public demands and has a right to expect.

During recent years, in the urge for economy, it has been necessary to discontinue some 150 crop-weather reporting stations. The result is an insufficient amount of data on which to base an accurate appraisal each week of the condition of the various crops, as affected by the weather up to that time.

Again, about 100 river and rainfall stations have been discontinued with the result that forecasters are deprived of some of the essential information for accurate flood forecasts for the protection of thousands of lives and millions of dollars worth of property.

Still again, 16 first-order airport stations, with trained personnel for giving special service to airline operators and pilots, and also scores of intermediate reporting stations, have been discontinued during a period when the total airway mileage increased 28 percent and the number of flights on those airways increased many fold.

So in other lines, stations have been discontinued in the services for the protection of citrus fruits from freezing, forests from fires, shipping from gales, and perishable goods from damage in transit. Consider what may be called the Bureau's physical structure. In station after station will be found a deplorable, even a disreputable, condition, with office furniture, typewriters, and other equipment antiquated, unsightly, and almost unusuable.

The question of research remains for discussion. Never in the history of meteorological science has the outlook for real progress been so bright as now. Modern working tools such as radio and the airplane can provide us with a wealth of data, both in the horizontal and in the vertical, which, if properly applied, will contribute in a large way to the improvement of forecasting and other features of the Bureau's service. Such improvement, however, cannot be realized unless those data are studied and analyzed by personnel of high technical qualifications, who can be largely relieved of routine or other duties that would interfere with the one big project on which they are. engaged. The present facilities of the Weather Bureau for research of high potential importance are woefully inadequate. That this condition is regrettable in the extreme is reflected in the just criticisms of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Science Advisory Board, and many others regarding the Bureau's activities in research. A relatively small fund would permit the beginning of a program of investigations in air-mass analysis, in long-range forecasting, in the relations of climate to the development of crops, and a score of other projects that would yield benefits of incalculable value to the country.

The considerations which I have outlined in the foregoing statement form the basis for the appeal that we are making for additional funds. The growing complexities of industry, commerce and navigation, the introduction of new and faster forms of transportation and the development of highly efficient means of communication all emphasize the urgent need for a much more detailed and specialized type of service than has ever been required before. The funds that we are requesting, if allowed, will make possible a definite beginning in that direction.

GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES

Mr. TARVER. The first item is for general administrative expenses, and it provides

For carrying into effect in the District of Columbia and elsewhere in the United States, in the West Indies, in the Panama Canal, the Caribbean Sea, and on adjacent coasts, in the Hawaiian Islands, in Bermuda, and in Alaska the provisions of an Act approved October 1, 1890 (U.S. C., title 15, secs. 311-313, 317), BO far as they relate to the weather service transferred thereby to the Department

47432-36- -9

of Agriculture, and the amendment thereof contained in section 5 (e) of the Air Commerce Act of 1926 (U. S. C., Supp. VII, title 15, sec. 313), for the employment of professors of meteorology, district forecasters, local forecasters, meteorologists, section directors, observers, apprentices, operators, skilled mechanics, instrument makers, foremen, assistant foremen, proofreaders, compositors, pressmen, lithographers, folders and feeders, repairmen, station agents, messengers, messenger boys, laborers, special observers, display men, and other necessary employees; for fuel, gas, electricity, freight and express charges, furniture, stationery, ice, dry goods, twine, mats, oil, paints, glass, lumber, hardware, and washing towels; for advertising; for purchase, subsistence, and care of horses and vehicles, the purchase and repair of harness, for official purposes only; for instruments, shelters, apparatus, storm-warning towers and repairs thereto; for rent of offices; for repair, alterations, and improvements to existing buildings and care and preservation of grounds, including the construction of necessary outbuildings and sidewalks on public streets, abutting Weather Bureau grounds; and the erection of temporary buildings for living quarters of observers; for official traveling expenses; for telephone rentals, and for telegraphing, telephoning, and cabling reports and messages, rates to be fixed by the Secretary of Agriculture by agreement with the companies performing the service; for the maintenance and repair of Weather Bureau telegraph, telephone, and cable lines; and for every other expenditure required for the establishment, equipment, and maintenance of meteorological offices and stations and for the issuing of weather forecasts and warnings of storms, cold waves, frosts, and heavy snows, the gaging and measuring of the flow of rivers and the issuing of river forecasts and warnings; for observations and reports relating to crops; and for other necessary observations and reports, including cooperation with other bureaus of the Government and societies and institutions of learning for the dissemination of meteorological information, as follows:

General administrative expenses: For necessary expenses for general administrative purposes, including the salary of chief of bureau and other personal services in the District of Columbia, $138,280.

Mr. WREGG. The following statement is presented for the record:

(1) An increase of $13,440 when compared with appropriation for 1936 but no change when compared with amount available for 1936, since the Budget estimate provides for the transfer of certain administrative and service positions now carried under the appropriations for "General weather service and research" and "aerology”, in which there are corresponding reductions ($13,440) for 1937.

WORK DONE UNDER THIS APPROPRIATION

General administration and business service.-General administration of the Bureau is centralized in Washington, D. C., and this appropriation is for the maintenance of fiscal and administrative units, including offices concerned in matters of personnel, accounting, contracts, files, and property.

TRANSFER OF ADMINISTRATIVE POSITIONS

It will be noted that there is no increase in the appropriation here, but merely a transfer of the amount of $13,440 from two other appropriations, namely, General Weather Service and Research, and Aerology.

During the past few years, in connection with increases in those appropriations, certain new positions have been set up at the central office to take care of the added administrative work resulting from the increases, but as a matter of good bookkeeping, these positions

should be carried under the appropriation for general administrative expenses.

The total for 1937 is the same, you will note, as for 1936.

GENERAL WEATHER SERVICE AND RESEARCH

Mr. TARVER. You may proceed to the second item, general weather service and research. The item in the bill provides:

General weather service and research: For necessary expenses incident to collecting and disseminating meteorological, climatological, and marine information, and for investigations in meteorology, climatology, seismology, evaporation, and aerology in the District of Columbia and elsewhere, including $3,930 for investigations of the relationship of weather conditions to forest fires, under section 6 of the Act approved May 22, 1928 (U. S. C., Supp. VII, title 16, sec. 581e), $2,227,155, of which not to exceed $800 may be expended for the contribution of the United States to the cost of the office of the secretariat of the International Meterological Committee, and not to exceed $10,000 may be expended for the maintenance of a printing office in the city of Washington for the printing of weather maps, bulletins, circulars, forms, and other publications: Provided, That no printing shall be done by the Weather Bureau that can be done at the Government Printing Office without impairing the service of said Bureau.

Mr. GREGG. The following statement is presented in explanation of this activity:

Appropriation Act, 1936.

Transferred from

"Meteorological station, western Montana".

"Horticultural protection".

Less: Allotment to "General administrative expenses".

Total available, 1936

Budget estimate, 1937.

Increase__

$2,040, 968

+10, 000

+49, 467

-3, 300

2,097, 135

2,227, 155

130, 020

(1) The increase of $130,020 for 1937 is on the basis of a total available appropriation of $2,097,135 for 1936 (which provides for the transfer of $10,000 from "Meteorological Station, Western Montana", and $49,467 from "Horticultural Protection", and an allotment of $3,300 to the item "General Administrative Expenses"). The $130,020 increase includes:

(2) An increase of $57,600 in the project "General Forecast and Warning Service." This will make provision for an indispensable emergent need. Although the forecast and warning work conducted under this project is among the most essential activities for which the Weather Bureau is directly responsible to the people of the Nation, it has been impossible, because of economies since 1933, to maintain the adequate forecast service necessary to properly safeguard life and property. Forecast and warning message distribution is far below a minimum of adequacy and should be returned to more normal requirements. The numerous field headquarters carrying on this important work require rehabilitation, particularly in regard to instrumentation and office facilities. Only the barest necessities can be furnished by these additional funds.

(3) An increase of $9,000 in the project "Climatological Service", to provide for inspection and needed improvement of climatological cooperative equipment. The cooperative climatological service of the Bureau is unique in utilizing the observations and reports of over 4,000 cooperatives who work, often over long periods of years, without pay. The successful operation of this service depends mainly upon regular personal contact with supervisory officials. The interest of the cooperatives in their work is best maintained by personal relationships estabIshed through frequent inspections. These inspections have, as a rule, because of economy measures, been postponed in the last several years beyond reasonable periods. Equipment at many of the cooperative stations is now in poor condition and rehabilitation is imperative.

(4) An increase of $25,000 in the project "River and Flood Service." In the foods of the Mississippi basin and elsewhere, the Weather Bureau has saved

through its warnings numerous lives and property worth millions of dollars. This branch of the Bureau work requires material strengthening, however, to enable it effectively to meet the ever-increasing needs incident to the development of large engineering projects and to other changes in the industrial development of the country. The demands for river-stage forecasts and flood warnings have increased. Some regions subject to river floods are not covered by Weather Bureau service, and those regions which are covered should be given a more intensive service to the end of still further reducing flood losses. The artificial changes that are being made in an engineering way in the flood plains of most of the rivers also require a revision of the entire flood-forecasting plan to enable the Bureau to provide the service it has been able to render in the past. Strengthening of the service is required to enable some personnel to devote full time to the necessary revision and use of the flood forecasting formulas and, in addition, permit of extension and improvement of the mountain snowfall work conducted under this project. The need for mountain snowfall measurements and water run-off estimates made from these measurements has increased beyond the present facilities of the Weather Bureau, which is called upon to furnish information to the operators of the numerous reservoirs in the West, both to enable them to know approximately how much water will be available for power, domestic use, irrigation, etc., and to prepare for floods. The Bureau is also dependent upon a full knowledge of the amount and condition of the mountain snow in making flood forecasts for western rivers, such as the Sacramento in California and the Columbia in Washington and Oregon. More detailed, comprehensive evaporation data than now available must be provided to agriculture and to engineers of western reservoirs where evaporation losses are very great.

(5) An increase of $35,000 in the project "Forest Fire-Weather Warning Service." There is urgent need for improving and materially strengthening the fire-weather warning service. At the present time the organization is a skeletonized one. It is impossible to meet the justifiable demands of the agencies of the Government (Forest Service) and State and private owners engaged in the protection of forests for weather information, especially localized forecasts of conditions favorable to the inception and spread of forest fires.

The fire-weather warning service is conducted in seven districts, each district consisting of from one to several States. Only one meteorologist is on duty in each district. This does not permit proper inspection of substations, compilation and arrangement of records in a form to enable the forecaster to localize and amplify the forecasts, or to provide needed service in other directions.

Experients conducted in California for 4 years with a truck and radio equipment loaned by the Forest Service have abundantly demonstrated that in many cases far more efficiency is obtained by the forecaster's proceeding to the region of large fires and giving to the fire fighters first-hand and frequent advices concerning weather conditions which may increase or n inimize the danger of fire spread. The value of such service in fire-protection operations is great.

It is the Bureau's purpose to equip each district with a truck unit and necessary personnel as soon as practicable. The increase under consideration will pera it truck units being placed in the three districts where they are most needed. Each truck will be equipped with meteorological instruments and radio receiving and sending apparatus, thereby enabling the meteorologist in charge, while at the locality of a fire, to obtain weather reports, prepare charts, and issue forecasts and information to other sections. The trucks also will be used to inspect substations and to transport instrumental equipment thereto.

(6) An increase of $3,420 in the project "Forecast Improvement Investigations." The present staff of the Weather Bureau Library, probably the largest meteorological library in the world, is so small that it is with difficulty that it can perform even the most necessary routine work of accessioning, cataloging, binding, aintaining loan and periodical records, supervising station libraries, and translating correspondence. The proper functioning of the library as an aid to the research workers of the Bureau through the preparation of bibliographies and through reference work is of first importance. Much of the time of the librarian and first assistant could be released for these purposes if additional personnel were available for carrying on the ordinary functions of library service.

CHANGE IN LANGUAGE

The word "Printing" has been inserted after the word "Government" to correct an error in the 1936 text.