DROUGHT BROKEN

Grey River Argus, 18 March 1941, Page 2

DROUGHT BROKEN

In Canterbury CHRISTCHURCH, March 17. The rain for which gardeners and farmers have been hoping, fell yesterday, but not so heavily in the country as in Christchurch itself. Here, starting about- 6 p.m. on Saturday— no doubt after some desperate gardeners hadi spent the aSfernoon hosing—rain continued intermittently until this morning, and sank several inches into the soil. In the country, moisture was badly needed to bring on the pasture in time for mating the ewes, while root crops and rape were drying up. White butterfly and diamond-back moth were flourishing, but they will be fewer now. The ground was so hard that farmers had to put heavy weights on the ploughs, and broke ploughshares if they were not careful. South Canterbury probably felt the dry spell more severely than any part of the province. It is five months since a really heavy fall of rain was recorded and the long succession of hot, sunny days, with drying winds, had resulted in a rather gloomy outlook for farmers. Springs which had given water for 40 years had dried up during the last few weeks. The total fall for the year on Saturday was less than two and a half inches, which is the average monthly fall. The present fall has been intermittent, and only misty rain ha's fallen. Autumn sowings have been almost totally held up because farmers are unwilling to risk losing their seed. The main crop of turnips has been practically lost through the lack of rain, and other root crops are threatened. A serious aspect of the drought is that the sowing of rape, later in the month, may be hold up, and since no seed can now be imported, there is a possibility that seed crops also may be lost. A steady, light rain, fell in Rangiora all day yesterday. Light rain fell intermittently on Friday and Saturday also. Farmers in the Geraldine and Temuka districts were pleased when rain began to fall on Saturday evening, and-hoped that the drought had broken properly. A total of 24 points were recorded by Mr. A. J. Blakiston, Raukapuka, Geraldine, up till 5 o’clock.

VARIED RAINFALL. The rainfall varied throughout the province, and not all farmers were satisfied with such rain as had fallen by the time they went to church last evening. It was found that not all parts had received as much rain as the city. At Culverden it had been drizzling lightly all day, and had come on to rain in the evening. >' Hanmer Springs had a dull day, with occasional drizzle and rain startting at 6 p.m., so that more was hoped for there. At Cheviot, drizzle started early in the morning. A gauge on Mr. Athol Wilkinson’s property at Gore Bay showed that 31 points had fallen by evening, and at Mr. de Lambret’s property, at Cheviot, there were 25 points. Amberley had hardly any rain at all during the day, apart from an occasional drizzle. A drizzle all day brought down about two points at Methven, and the same at Oxford. Ellesmere, a district which usually suffers less from drought than other parts; was another district not favoured with heavy rain. Leeston had light showers in the night, and misty drizzle until 11 a.m., but since then none.