July i, 1884.J 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



tain ranges, and isolated hills. The Aravulli ami Ohittore 

 hills, the Vindyah chain, rising to over 2,000 feet, covered 

 with forest vegetation, with its off-set the Satpooras, tra- 

 verse the continent connecting the Eastern and the West- 

 ern Ghats. 



The rainfall varies according to latitude, elevation, and 

 physical characters of the country. Northern India heiug 

 less influenced thau the Deccan by the south-west monsoon. 

 The climates also vary; but in the plains of Hiudoostan 

 and the tab'e-lands of the Deccau, the heat isiutense, though 

 often greatly modified by moisture. The effects of a dry 

 or damp atmosphere at the same temperature, however, are 

 very different. Dry air, in motion, at a temperature of 100 ° , 

 is more tolerable than stagnant air loaded with moisture 

 at SO ° . The hot dry winds of Northern India are more 

 endurable than the cooler but saturated atmosphere of 

 Lower Bengal or parts of Southern India, [and Ceylon. — Ed.] 



The mean temperature of a few well-known stations is as 

 follows : — 



Calcutta, 8 feet above sea level, is in May (hottest month) 

 89° ; in January, 70° ; but it ranges between 45° in the 

 coldest and 92 ° in the hottest months. 



Madras, sea level.— June (hottest), 88°; January 76°. 

 Range, 72 ° to 92 ° . 



Bombay, sea level. — May (hottest), 86°; January, 74 s . 

 Range, moderate. 



Peshau'iir, 1,058 feet above sea level. — June and July 

 (hottest), 91° ; January, 52°. Range, great. 



/'tiHJaith, 900 feetabove sealevel. — June (hottest), 89°; 

 January, 64 ° . Range, from frost to intense heat — 110 ° 

 and more. 



Bangalore, 3,000 feet above sea level. — May (hottest), 

 81° ; January, 09°. Range, moderate. 



Poonah, 1,089 feet above sea level. — May (hottest), 85°; 

 January, 70 ° . 



Selgaum, 2,200 feet above sea level. — April (hottest), 81 ° ; 

 May, '78° ; June, 75°. December (coldest), 70°. 



The coldest mouths are December and January ; the hot- 

 test, April, May, aud June. 



There are fluctuations in temperature owing to hot, dry 

 winds, sea and mountain breezes, great river basins, the 

 presence of forests, tracts of jungle and vegetation, arid tree- 

 less rainless deserts, which give local peculiarities of climate; 

 but it may be said, generally that there are three distinct 

 seasons in India — the hot, the rainy, and the cold, — which 

 vary in duration and times of setting in ; but approximately 

 the cold season extends from November to March, the hot 

 from March to June or July, and the rainy season from that 

 to October and November, these seasons being greatly in- 

 fluenced by the monsoons. The south-west monsoon com- 

 mences with storms of thunder and wind, which are soon 

 followed by the bursting of the rain on the Malabar coast, in 

 May, but reaches regions further north later in the year. Its 

 force and influence, indeed, are well-nigh spent ere it passes 

 the twenty-fifth parallel of north latitude. The Carnatic aud 

 Ooromendal coasts, being sheltered by the Western 

 Ghats, are exempt, when the west coast is deluged with 

 rain. 



About Delhi and in the north-west the raius begin towards 

 the end of June, and fall in diminished quantity. In the 

 Punjab, near the hills, the rainfall again increases ; bnt in the 

 Southern Punjab, and in the Great Desert regions, there is 

 very little rain. — in some parts none. There are belts or tracts 

 of country commencing in Sind and the north-west, almost 

 rainless, or with a rainfall as low as two inches ; whilst the 

 highest fall is at Cherra Poonjee, in the Khasia hills, on the 

 north-east frontier, where 600 inches fall in the year. Next 

 to this, the Western Ghauts have the greatest rainfall ; at 

 Mahableshwar 253 to 300 inches, and on the Tenasserim 

 coast 180 inches fall yearly. The provinces in the North- 

 east receive rain in rather a different manner; the wind 

 which brings the rains to that part of the continent blows 

 from the south-west, over the Bay of Bengal, till, meeting 

 the mountains it is deflected. The prevailing wind, there- 

 fore, in this region is south-easterly, and from this quarter 

 Bengal and the Gangetic valley receive their rain ; when it 

 reaches the mountains in the north-west, it is compelled 

 to part with more of its moisture. 



Near the sea. where the land is low and the temperature 

 high, very little rain falls ; at Kurrrachee it was, in lb79, 

 1*92 inch. Iii inland districts, as at Teshawur, in 1879, only 

 1/84 inches fell ; whilst the rainfall in Calcutta averages 63 ; 



in Madras, 48-50 ; in Bombay 74 ; in Delhi, 27'5 ; iu Meerut, 

 27; in Lahore, 21 ; in Mooltan, 7; in Benares, .37; in 

 Bellary, 18 ; in Bangalore, 35 ; in Poonah, 27 ; it; Belgaum, 

 49; in Kamptee, 22 j in Akyab, 198. The amount of humi- 

 dity in the air also varies greatly. Flat hot plains, like 

 Scinde, where there is little or no rain, have an atmosphere 

 almost saturated, aud on some of the lower mountain ranges, 

 in Bengal, and in many districts near the coast in Southern 

 India, the air is very damp. But the elevated table-lands 

 of the Deccan and Central India, and the hot sandy 

 plains of North-west India, have a dry air during the 

 months of May and June, which blows like a furnace blast, 

 heated and desiccated by the burning country over which 

 it has passed ! 



The north-east monsoon commences gradually in October, 

 aud is attended with dry weather throughout the Peninsula 

 generally, except on the Coromandel coast, where it briDgs 

 rain from the Bay of Bengal, between October and 

 December, after which it is dry until March, when it gives 

 place to variable winds, which last till about June, when 

 the heat is great and the tendency is then from the south. 

 About the end of May the south-west monsoon again sets 

 iu, bringing a few showers, known as the lesser rains, 

 before the regular rains set in. In the hill stations of 

 Darjeeling, Mussoorie, Naine-tal, Murree, Simla, and 

 generally in the elevated provinces of the lower ranges of 

 the Himalayas, also at Ootacamund, Oonoor, Wellington, 

 Mahableshwar, in the Neilgberries, and Ghauts — stations 

 at elevations of 5,000 to 7,000 feet — the climate is genial, 

 the rainfall moderate, it is healthy in summer, and almost 

 as bracing iu winter as Europe. These are favourite health 

 resorts, and may, perhaps, become the sites of future 

 colonization, for it seems probable that there the European 

 will thrive and continue to reproduce his race, which it is 

 said would cease to exist in the plains after the third 

 generation. 



After quotations, from old travellers about the equally 

 fierce summers and winters of India, Sir Joseph Kayrer 

 proceeds thus : — 



A glance at a hyetographical map of India shows 

 that there are areas of rainfall of various degrees of 

 irregular form and extent, corresponding to the latitude, 

 physical characters of country, and proximity to sea or 

 hills. Let me briefly describe them. 



In the north-west corner of Iudia there are arid 

 regions, which have a rainfall of less than 15 inches ; in 

 many parts of it, indeed, it is much less; whilst the 

 desert tract of the Thur is to a great extent rainless. 

 This area includes Sind, part of the Punjab, and R»j- 

 putana. Then there is a zone with an annual fall of 

 between 15 and 30 iuches, surrounding the arid region 

 on the north and east in a belt of 100 to 200 miles wide, 

 which includes Delhi and Agra. This is the northern 

 dry zone. The upper parts of the valley of the Ganges, 

 Central India, and the eastern coast of the Madras Pre- 

 sidency, have a fall of between 30 and 00 iuches. 



There is a southern dry .zone, which extends from 

 Nassick to Cape Oomorin, at a distance between the 

 two seas. The deltas of the Mahanuddi and Ganges, 

 and the lower part of the Gangetic Valley, have 

 a fall of between 60 and 75 inches. There are 

 two belts of excessive rainfall,— one, extending along 

 the Aracan coast, from the mouth of the Irawaddy 

 uji the valley of the Burhampodtra. The other, on the 

 west coast of India, from Cape Comorin to the Tapti — 

 from the seashore to the, summit of the Ghauts ! It is 

 in these regions that the most remarkable falls occur, 

 for the reason tbat they are placed in the direct course 

 of the south-west monsoon, catching its first impact at 

 heights where vapour is most readily condensed into rain. 

 Mr. Bateman told us that at 2,000 feet the greatest con- 

 densation takes place in our islands ; it is at a greater 

 elevation in India, and the most striking illustration is 

 found at Cherra Poonjee, in the Khasia hills, where, at 

 4,000 feet above the sea, 600 inches of rain fall in half 

 the year. Here the locality is on the edge of an abrupt 

 mountain ridge and plateau, situated about 200 miles from 

 the Bay of Bengal, the intervening country being Hat 

 alluvium, covered with rivers and swamps. Over this the 

 south-west monsoon blows, laden with moisture from the 

 ocean, which is increased by absorption from the wet 

 country over which it passes. On the plateau of Oherra 



