LONDON'S “DROUGHT.”

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVLI, Issue 10, 6 September 1911, Page 44

LONDON'S “DROUGHT.”

London, and inueeu the country generally, is at present suffering from drought. In England fourteen days without rain is, officially, a “drought,” and as for the past twenty-one days there has been no “official” rain in the metropolitan area, we reckon it to be quite a severe visitation. It is not an unprecedented occurrence for Jupiter Pluvius to go on a three weeks’ holiday during our summer, butJ*it is, to say the least of it, a most unusual procedure on the part of the rain-maker He has done so only five times in 54 years, his longest spell being in the year of Jubilee, 1887, when he absented himself for 25 days. And once in the early spring he allowed his watering can to remain idle for 29 days. This was in 1893, and is the record drought within the memory of even “the oldest inhabitant.”

Apart from the lack of rain, which is spoiling the beauty of the flowers and vegetation in our gardens, parks and open spices in town, and doing considerable mischief to the crops in the country, London is at present a place to get out of. The hot, muggy atmosphere has a terribly depressing influence on the mind and nerves of those tied to town. The mental lassitude and physical torpor, with the absence of appetite and lack of enthusiasm for action of any kind, which have been produced by hot, windless days, are felt even by the most vigorous. Indeed, it seems that the weather affects the strong more adversely than the weak, who seem to derive a certain amount of extra energy from continued heat and sunshine, whereas the average healthy Londoner seems quite unable to thrive and do his best . work with the temperature anywhere above 75 degrees in the shade. Tut it is an ill-wind that blows nobody good, and our “drought” should mean good times ahead for Antipodean producers of butter and cheese, and maybe for grain-raisers, fruitgrowers, apiarists also.

Almost everywhere in the country cows axe suffering from the lack of pasturage, and the supply of milk is showing a marked decrease; already they are being fed on eake. at a season when they should yield milk without it. Harvesting has started, and whilst oats and barley show a great deal of straw, the grain is small. The swedes are suffering from mildew, while the green fly and blaek spot that have eome to orchards and vegetable gardens in the past few days in myriads are an added danger. The honey dew is making its appearance on the trees, to the great disgust of apiarists, for the bees will accept it when nothing better offers, and the result is unsaleable honey.