Improved understanding is needed of factors that may govern the degree of usefulness of weather information to farm operators. This study was undertaken to evaluate the usefulness of precipitation forecasts and field conditions forecasts to farm operators in planning and conducting field operations. Possible relationships between farm operator valuations of forecasts, soil management characteristics, and the accuracy of precipitation forecasts were studied. Two‐thirds of the 145 interviewed farm operators used both precipitation and field conditions forecasts in planning and conducting major field operations. These operators valued both types of forecasts at higher levels of usefulness than did the remaining one‐third, who used only precipitation forecasts. The usefulness of precipitation forecasts and field conditions forecasts increased with increasing water‐holding capacity and susceptibility of soils to physical problems such as cloddiness, tillage pans, and surface sealing. Farm operators who used both types of forecasts valued them at approximately the same levels of usefulness in relation to major field operations conducted during the crop season. Highest values were associated with field operations that are conducted during the spring months. Precipitation forecasts were more useful than field conditions forecasts in making general management decisions. No relationship was found between the error rates of precipitation forecasts and farm operator evaluation of their usefulness.

The stream of lava burst forth in August, 1855, from the side of Mauna Loa, which rises to a height of 14,000 feet above the sea, at a short distance below the summit, and about sixty miles in a direct line from the harbour of the town of Hilo in Byron's Bay. At the date of Mr. Miller's letter it had not ceased to flow, and had then continued for a period of twenty-three weeks, and the stream had a length of about fifty miles in all its windings. For the first three weeks it had flowed uninterruptedly about thirty-eight miles, when it met with a dense forest of trees and jungle which arrested its rapid progress. It had forced its way through ten or twelve miles of the forest, at the rate of about half a mile in a week. There still remained about three miles of the forest to the open ground which extends to the town of Hilo, the lava being about five or six miles distant from the town.

The late volcanic eruption in the Sandwich Islands broke out in August last, near the summit of Mauna Loa, which is 14,000 feet high and sixty miles from Hilo, Byron's Bay, in Hawaii. The stream of lava, having a breadth of from two to three miles, continued to flow in a north-east direction until the end of October, when the lava-current, after having traversed a great part of the dense forest, appeared to have been checked in its progress at about ten miles from the town of Hilo.

This communication is a letter addressed to and transmitted by Mr. Miller, H.M. Consul-General at Woahoo. It describes some remarkable volcanic eruptions in the Island of Hawaii (Owhyhee), of which Mr. Coan was an eye-witness, during the last sixteen years; and includes an account of the great eruption of 1855–56. Mr. Coan has been the Resident Protestant Missionary at Hilo for twenty-one years; and was attending at the Annual Meeting in Honolulu when he wrote his letter. In a despatch from Mr. Miller, dated July 30, 1856, the eruption in Hawaii is stated to be still active; and a copy of ‘The Pacific Commercial Advertiser’ newspaper, accompanying this despatch, contains a further notice of the eruption, which will be quoted in the sequel.

Deciduous Trees.NOTE.-Stock selected by customers at the Nurseries, or specially selected stock ordered by mail or otherwise, will be charged at advanced rates according to the value of the stock selected.ACER dasycarpum, see A. saccharinum. Each lo ginnala {A. tatar-icum ginnala). Siberian Maple .