weather bureau under the Agricultural Department and transferred to it
the business of weather prognostication which had been tinder the Chief
Signal officer in the War Department. The service remains unchanged. It
has stations at the military stations in the interior of the continent,
at life-saving stations, and at other points in the States and
Territories. Meteorological observations are taken at each station, and
the information forwarded to the central office at Washington, where
weather predictions for the succeeding day or days are made. The
predictions are given gratuitously to the public through a system of
flag signals, by the distribution of weather maps, and by publication in
the daily papers. The percentage of successful forecasts of the weather
during 1890 was 84.4.

The Department publishes the result of the scientific investigations
carried on by its officers in "Annual Reports" of the Secretary and
Chiefs of Divisions; in a series of "Circulars" on special subjects, in
regular "Bulletins;" and in a series of studies on "Insect Life." These
documents are distributed gratuitously.

_#The Department of Labor.#_--The Department of Labor was created in
1884, as a bureau under the Interior Department. In 1888, it became a
separate department. It is a purely statistical bureau. It collects and
publishes statistics on the cost of production, on wages, labor
statistics, etc. Its six published reports are on (1) Industrial
Depressions, (2) Convict Labor, (3) Strikes and Lockouts, (4) Working
Women in Large Cities, (5) Marriage and Divorce, and (6) Railroad
Employés.

Had all the executive departments been created at one time by a
constitutional convention, we should be justified in expecting a greater