An effort is being made in southern France to dissipate hail storms by firing cannon at the clouds. Fifty-two cannon, manned by one hundred and four cannoneers and their chiefs, were last year distributed over an area of twenty-five acres of rich vine land. For the expense of the experiment, the government appropriated f.2000 ($386), the departmental council f.1500 ($289), the National French Agricultural Society and a number of wealthy wine growers added f.12,000 ($2,316), and furnished fourteen more cannon. The minister of war supplied powder for 2¾ cents per pound. A high point in the vine land to be covered by the experiments was selected as the central post of observation, and a signal code adopted. When a shot was heard from the central post all the cannon were fired, at first twice per minute; more slowly after the first ten shots. The report of the first firing at the storm clouds states that "the farmers of Denice were aroused at half past one on the night of June 5-6. The storm was very severe. The artillerists, from forty to fifty strong, fired their guns and stopped the thunder and lightning. In the neighboring communes, the people saw columns of flames rise three hundred feet above the cannon when the shots were fired."

The wine growers have organized to attack the hail storms in many of the great wine-growing regions of France. A writer in one of the wine-growers' organs says: "The results obtained from experiments are such that organizations will be established in all the places that have heretofore been ravaged by hail."

It is said that the practice of shooting at the clouds was known in France over a hundred years ago, and that it originated in Italy. It is to be more extensively carried on this year than ever before.

Mr. John C. Covert, who accompanied M. Jean Raulin, a professor of agriculture and an official of the Farmers' Alliance of the southeast of France, in a visit to the towns of Bois-d'Oinget and Denice, says: "In the first place, all the grape growers of the neighborhood had been invited to witness the trial of two guns, especially constructed as hail destroyers. In the second place, Denice, a general jollification was organized to give vent to the joy of the grape growers over their success in vanquishing their most dreaded enemy, the hail. Two long cannon were displayed in each place, almost identical in shape, but differing in the manner of firing. Each gun is of the shape of an inverted cone, the opening at the mouth being 28½ inches wide. It is planted upon tripod three feet high. The gun itself is six feet six inches high above the tripod. It is made of thin boiler iron. At its base is a forged breech, which holds a forged iron block. In the centre of this block is an aperture six inches long, about the size of a large dynamite cartridge, in which is placed a metallic cartridge containing eighty grams of blasing powder, wadded with a cork and tamped like an ordinary miner's blast. It is discharged by a needle on a lever attached to the base of the forged iron holder.

"As many as fifty shots were fired in my presence, in order that I and Vice-Consul Browne might inspect the working of the guns. The detonation is very loud. As soon as the lanyard is pulled, flame is visible at the mouth of the gun, followed immediately by a wreath of smoke. A shrill whistling sound immediately follows the firing of the cannon, and is heard for fourteen seconds. At a distance this whistling is much louder than near the gun. I am told that it travels at a speed of 330 metres per second—4,620 metres in 14 seconds, which is nearly 2½ miles. During the firing a few drops of rain fell.

"I interviewed from twenty to thirty large wine growers who used the cannon last summer. They were all emphatic in their belief in the efficiency of fighting hail with gunpowder. They said that, if the weather were hot and they saw clouds forming, they prepared for a charge. If the clouds were moving rapidly, their direction was changed or the movement was stopped by the firing. They were torn asunder and broken into shreds, and a copious fall of rain soon followed. In localities where great losses from hail have been incurred every summer the cannon were used last summer and no hail fell. Two or three miles distant, where no cannon were fired, the hail was very destructive. At Denice, in the Beaujolais, the grape-growers have suffered from hail seven years out of the last decade. They think all the conditions favored hail last summer, and that they were protected from its destructive ravages by their cannon.

"One cannon protects nearly seventy-five acres of land. The expense of equipping a shooting station is about $45, and the cost of operating a gun for five hundred shots, not including labor, is $15.50. The cannoneer is insured against accidents for a season for $2.

"At the meeting which followed the exhibition the general secretary of the alliance delivered an address, in which he cited many proofs of the efficacy of the cannon against the hail. Several grape-growers took the floor and asserted that their vines were destroyed, while those of their neighbors who were under the protection of the cannon were uninjured."

At the congress held in November, in Padua, Italy, to consider the question of firing cannon at clouds to prevent hail, the reports presented by wine growers were all in favor of the efficacy of the use of cannon. Insurance men whose business is to insure crops against damages from hail attended the congress with the intention of proving that cannon firing was useless. Their propositions were overwhelmingly voted down. By an almost unanimous vote, it was resolved that the firing of cannon stopped the movement of the hurricane; that the lightning and thunder ceased; that rain or melted snow immediately began to fall; and that the clouds soon passed away.

Mr. Durand, the director of the large agricultural college near Lyons, states that the experience in the use of cannon in Italy left no possible doubt of their absolute efficacy. He says the vineyards on the line of the hail covered by the cannon were protected; those outside the spaces covered by the cannon, but very near them, were destroyed by the hail.

A vast defensive alliance has been formed in the French Alps, including the grape growers of five departments, for the purpose of buying cannon and powder for war against hail next summer. The grape growers everywhere believe in the cannon.

Dr. Paul Cazeneuve, one of the most distinguished scientists of France, says the question is still in the domain of experiment, and that nothing is proven; "that the commune of Denice was not last year on the line of the hail storm, and was only spattered by the heavy surrounding storms." He adds that "if a number of communes where cannon were fired were on the line of the hail storm and were protected, and the others were subjected to great losses from hail, that would prove the efficacy of the cannon." The wine growers say this is just what happened. Dr. Cazeneuve thinks no amount of cannon firing would influence great storms, and asks what these cannon would have done against the terrible cyclone at Galveston. But he thinks the experiments should be continued "systematically and scientifically," and that "when it shall have been demonstrated that moderate hail storms can be conquered, then it will be time enough to take measures against hurricanes."

The doubts of this learned scientist will not prevent many thousands of cannon from being used in the vineyards of France next summer.

In 1899 two thousand cannon were engaged in cloud shooting in Italy. Last year the number swelled to fifteen thousand. The Italian government goes so far in recognizing the efficacy of the cannon as to furnish powder to grape growers at three cents per pound.

The director of the agricultural societies of the southeast of France, a union of farmers' alliances, has sent a report to the French minister of agriculture on this subject. He witnessed many demonstrations against hail in France, and was a delegate to the anti-hail convention in Italy. He says in his report that "we cannot conclude that, in all cases, the use of cannon will afford complete protection, but it is undeniable that the results obtained are most interesting and give veritable hopes for the future."

Before the present improved cloud destroyers were in use, vine growers shot powder from a sheet-iron case fixed in a strong box on the trunk of a tree. In some parts of France, they rang, and still ring, church bells, believing that the vibrations in the atmosphere affected the elements. If the hail continued to fall in spite of the ringing, they averred that it would have been worse but for the clangor of the bells.