HOW THE FARM STARTED 53 



begins to warm up, May and June are called the "hot 

 weather" months and have a shade temperature from 

 105 to 118 F., sun temperatures from 160 to 180 F. 

 There is a hot wind from the west known as the ' ' Loo. ' ' 

 It is dangerous to be out of doors in the "Loo." The 

 Indian is afraid of it, many die from its effects. About 

 July first the "monsoon bursts" or "the rains break" 

 and Allahabad is due to receive forty inches of rain in 

 the following three months. The rain seldom comes in 

 gentle well-timed showers, but often in a series of cloud 

 bursts. On August 9th, 1919, fourteen inches fell in 

 eight hours at Sutna which is about a hundred miles 

 south of Allahabad. On August 13th, 1919, an area of 

 over forty thousand square miles in extent received over 

 four inches in twenty-four hours. On July 9th, 1920, 

 Allahabad had eight and twenty-four hundredths inches 

 of rain. I have measured on our farm a fall of four and 

 a half inches in forty-five minutes. All roads, bridges, 

 culverts, railway enbankments have to be built with such 

 abnormal rainfall in mind. Between these heavy down- 

 pours we are apt to have "breaks" in the rains. Sev- 

 eral days perhaps, sometimes several weeks, as in 1918, 

 may pass without a drop of rain falling. The air is 

 often saturated to such an extent that linen after ab- 

 sorbing moisture from the air can be wrung out as 

 though it had been dipped in water. Humidity at Al- 

 lahabad : 



1920 



July 9th 10th llth 



96 93 98 



Saturation 100 



