Contents: Preface. 1. The meaning of agricultural meteorology. 2. The materials of agricultural meteorology. 3. The modes of agricultural meteorology-plants. 4. The modes of agricultural meteorology-animals. 5. The modes of agricultural meteorology-soils. 6. The modes of agricultural meteorology-techniques. 7. The modes of agricultural meteorology-hazards. 8. The market place of agricultural meteorology. Index.

Agricultural meteorology aims to put the science of meteorology to the service of agriculture in all its various forms and facets, to improve the sensible use of land, to help to produce the maximum food for humanity and to avoid the irreversible abuse of land resources.

Numbers are, or should be, the language of science, and the use of numbers enables an art to be transformed into an applied science so that skills can be learnt more quickly and more efficiently, and errors or disasters can be avoided. There is nothing quite so frightening as the sight of ignorance in action.

The pursuit and establishment of full scientific truth is part of this process, but such knowledge is sterile unless it is put to use and unless it is made available in a way in which others can use it. The increase of basic knowledge depends to a large extent on the input of effort, involving brains, time, money and facilities. As a general rule, the more intensive the effort, the more successful the outcome, but many a research programme, conscientiously carried out, leads frustrating minimal discoveries. Except in the rare cases of genius, or fortunate serendipity, progress is distressingly slow.