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Show HTAKVINt KroCK. Thai is unfortunate news which comes from New Mexico to the effort that cattle cat-tle and sheep are dying there in laro numbers from hunger. Tho weather has been cold and the ground covered ! with miiiw, so the poor brutes cannot f."'t anything to cat. What i-t the cun in Nov Mexico this year may happen mid does happen to some oilier slate and territory another year ami the losses thus sustained by ranchers mount tip to large fortunes every winter. The question is can this distress bo alleviated if not wholly obviated. For twenty years tho United States meteorological meteor-ological service has experimented with weather forecasts without improving their value or utility. While expend ing millions of dollars upon tho investigation inves-tigation of natural phenomena that pcriain entirely to the domain of speculative specu-lative science it has done almost nothing noth-ing for the advancement of its practical application. Professor Hknicv of tho Smithsonian institute was the lirst man to point out the feasibility of making weather predictions. As all storms progress in ccitv.n well known directions direc-tions which owing to tho immense stretch of territory we possess can be traced over a vast area, he suggested that we watch thu symptoms in their lncipiency and then give due warniug to the regions over which these storms are likely to spread. Still, after a period of twenty years, wo can only give indications twenty-four hours in advance und even then only approximately. Nobody in particular is to blame for this state of things. Metoorology was never until recently regarded as a worthy wor-thy science aud it takes time to divine and define her precise workings. It was a mistake moreover to outrust this work to tho army. As well make theology part of a soldier's duty. Fortunately the last congress has decreed tha trans, fer of the weather bureau to tho agricultural agri-cultural department, where it properly belongs, the change to lake ell'ect on July 1, and we hope that this will load to better results. If the service is to be of any benelit whatever it should not be impossible to foretell tho approach of extreme weather some time in advance, so that precautions against such calamities calami-ties as occurred in New Mexico this season might be averted. It seems to us that with timely uotico of a protracted pro-tracted snow storm the ranchers could make provisions to round up thoir herds and keep them from wholesale starvation. |