METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS 123 



accidental, due to the fact that the observations apply only 

 to one particular time of the day, the sun having by 9 a.m. 

 gained sufficient power to cause a greater evaporation from the 

 surface of the soil at the higher than at the lower station, though 

 not having had time to have produced any effective drying of the 

 soil and of the air above it. Observations taken at other times 

 of the day might settle this point. Explanations based on the 

 relative position of the two stations in relation to the direction 

 of the prevalent wind (S.W.) appear to be unsatisfactory. 



The values for the rainfall entered in Table II, show that the 

 average monthly falls during three of the four divisions of 

 the year are very nearly equal, 2*07 to 2*16 inches, that in the 

 spring months alone showing any marked difference (176 inches) ; 

 though when the year is divided into the ordinary four equal 

 quarters, the falls exhibit a fairly regular increase throughout the 

 year : ist quarter, 1*82, 2nd quarter, i'86, 3rd quarter, 2*01, and 

 4th quarter, 2*47 inches. The average rainfall for the twenty 

 years during individual months gives the following order for 

 these months when arranged from the driest to the wettest, 

 and the arrangement is, in several respects, not that which 

 general opinion would anticipate : April, February, September, 

 January, May, July, March, November, June, August, October, 

 December. 



The annual rainfall for the twenty years, as set out in Table IV, 

 shows that the driest year of the series was 1902, and the wettest 

 1903. During the latter year the rainfall was nearly 50 per cent, 

 in excess of the average, and much of this fell in the summer, the 

 result of which was a water-logging of the soil, followed by root- 

 asphyxia of the trees. Much damage was done to the trees at 

 the farm, as well as in other parts of the country, in this way, 

 though the full extent of the injury was not manifest at once, the 

 trees gradually dying off during many succeeding years, and it 

 is questionable whether the evil results have yet been exhausted. 



