§ MR. HUGH HOARE () Cambridge, ChestertonI beg to ask the President of the Board of Agriculture whether the experiment now being made in Cambridgeshire and some other counties, whereby the Meteorological Society telegraph the weather forecast at 3.30 p.m. 775 for the next 24 hours to certain country post offices, could not be made more thorough and useful by his arranging with the Postmaster General for him to direct that the rural postmen shall convey a copy of the telegram to villages where they deliver letters, but which are not within easy reach of the telegraph office; and whether, for example, a copy of the telegraphic forecast now sent to the small village of Arlington could be given to the rural postman who delivers in Orwell, Wimpole, Croydon, and Tadlow, and affixed outside these post offices for the benefit of farmers and others?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF AGRICULT URE (Mr. H. GARDNER,) Essex, Saffron WaldenThe suggestion of my hon. Friend is, I think, well worth consideration, and I shall be very glad to confer with my right hon. Friend the Postmaster General respecting it in the event of the continuance next year of the arrangements for the telegraphic transmission of the weather forecasts to rural districts. Those arrangements, however, come to an end very shortly, so far as the present year is concerned, and I do not think it would be practicable to extend them as proposed within the limits of the time which still remains.