LACK OF RAIN

Taranaki Daily News, 25 November 1929, Page 16

LACK OF RAIN

THE DROUGHT IN ENGLAND. REMARKABLE RESULTS. The effects of the recent severe drought in England had proved very serious at the end of September. The London Observer on September 29 said:—• The springs and lakes of subterranean water, supplying thousands of wells in country places, have continued to sink with a devastating suddenness. A 6 foot drop within a day or two has been a common experience in many parts of tho chalk area, especially in the Chilterns. Even wells close to the rivers have failed altogether during the week; and great numbers of villages are almost without water to wash in, and are forced to go considerable distances for water to drink. Some of the richer country dwellers have even abandoned their houses for tho time being, and do riot mean to return till the pumps can be effectively active again. The hardships of the rest are progressive, and will not be easilv dissipated, even when the rain returns. Unlike a tank, the springs, especially in the chalk,' do not respond to belated supplies for weeks, or even months. The few showers and thunderstorms that have intervened have been more than normally eccentric, and partial, utterly avoiding some places, and favouring their immediate neighbours. Oxford, for example, has been altogether rainless, while some neighbouring parishes have enjoyed “waterspouts of blessed rain.” SUFFERINGS OF STOCK. , Stock of all sorts have suffered inordinately in the chalk country, in the Fens, and on the Lincolnshire wolds. It has been found almost impossible on many farms to keep sheep and cattle within bounds. They have utterly disregarded the ordinary hedges, and ranged over wide areas in the often vain search for water or green grass with' any juices left in it. On hundreds of farms they have been kept alive and in condition only by the use of hay and roots meant for winter feeding. It is too late in the year to hope for any real revival of the grass. Probably most lawn-keepers and greenkeepers are greater experts in the culture of grass than the farmers, and the opinion of some of the best is that their greens and pawns are past revival. They see nothing for it but fresh laying or fresh sowing. This verdict by the golfers and tennis players—if not of immense importance in itself —will indicate the plight of the farmer whose land is heavily stocked and whose crops or hay and roots were light. Even it downpour of weeks would probably hot refill the chalk wells till winter is half over—-such was the experience of the notorious drought of 1921—50 that men and stock are both likely to feel the effect of the drought, not only unbroken in many places, but more insistent than ever, till they reach the spring of 1930. CURIOUS EFFECT ON TREES. Vegetation is affected in many curious ways. The drought has been accompanied with sunlight of exceptional intensity. Tho result is that leaves on the south side of trees —especially beeches and thorns — have shrivelled as if a fire had been lit underneath. They are not beai.tifully coloured by the gradual process of autumn, but scorched by excess of ultraviolet rays, and much sunburn is not good for" trees. One tree often looks like two trees, for one part is fresh arid green and the other shrivelled and brown. ■ Insects as well as larger , animals have been oddly affected. The drought has tended to mass production. Motorists return with a windscreen uyed green by its passage through a clpud of aphis, and on occasion both car and occupants have been plastered with daddy longlegs.. Even wild trees, notably the “pussy willows,” are smothered with green-fly, which is seldom active at this late date; and some vegetable crops are utterly destroyed. • -••••