AMERICAN LUMBER IN FOREIGN MARKETS. 139 



most felt, for, as the winter and spring rains cease, they become dry 

 and hot and unfavorable to the growth of many plants which belong 

 to cooler countries. On the hills almost all the fruits and vegetables 

 which grow in Europe and in the more temperate regions of Asia, as 

 well as many that are indigenous to Africa and America, thrive splen- 

 didiy. The productiveness of the colony depends to a very great 

 extent upon the rainfall, and that varies remarkably, not only in dif- 

 ferent localities but in different seasons. Thus the rainfall at Mount 

 Lofty, 8 miles south from Adelaide, in 1889, amounted to 67.010 inches; 

 in 1859 it was 32 inches. At Parallana, in the far north, in 1888, it was 

 1.710 inches, and in 1885 it had been 20.405. In some parts of the 

 north, such as Lake Frome, only 5 inches were recorded. The average 

 rainfall in the whole of the agricultural districts of south Australia, 

 from Melrose to Cape Northumberland, in 1890 was 20.646 inches, the 

 mean from previous years being 21.476. The highest total was in 1889, 

 when 30.874 inches were recorded at the Adelaide observatory; and 

 the lowest in 1876, when no more than 13.434 inches were noted at the 

 same place. It is somewhat strange that the heaviest rainfall known 

 in the colony should not have been followed by something approaching 

 to a corresponding increase in the harvest; yet, in 1863, with a rainfall 

 in Adelaide of less than 24 inches, the yield was nearly double that 

 which was secured in 1889, when the rainfall was nearly 31 inches. 

 This noticeable discrepancy, however, may be ascribed to causes not 

 altogether dependent on the actual quantity of rain that descends, 

 The time of the year at which the rains set in, their duration, the tem- 

 perature which immediately follows upon the rains when they continue 

 late and come down upon the verge of summer, and the early visita- 

 tion of north winds, which in the summer are hot, have their share in 

 influencing the quantity of the yield. Other circumstances, not 

 meteorological, have also their effect on the harvest. 



The observations of the rainfall which occurs in the various parts of 

 the colony are recorded at 368 stations. At several of these the daily 

 range of the barometer and thermometer are noted, with all the partic- 

 ulars, which accurately describe the meteorological conditions of the 

 place. These are forwarded to the central station, where, under the 

 direction of C. Todd, esq., postmaster-general and government astron- 

 omer, they are collated, tabulated, and prepared for publication. By 

 means of the telegraph, which extends from Adelaide to the Indian 

 Ocean on the north, to Melbourne and Sydney on the east, almost to 

 the extreme north of Queensland on the northeast, and from Adelaide 

 to Northwest Cape in western Australia, the Government astronomer 

 is able to publish weather forecasts, which being generally reliable 

 are alike interesting and useful to the public, and are eagerly looked 

 for in the columns of the daily journals. 



From this it will be seen that this colony (as well as the other colo- 

 nies whose meteorological records are collected and made up on the 



