146 
JOUENAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
SAVING AND USING THE RAIN. 
By Mr. Peter E. Kay, V.M.H. 
[Read September 25, 1900.] 
Of all the bounties of Nature the rains from heaven are the most valuable, 
as without them all man's toil would be useless, and nothing affects a 
country's power to support man and beast so much as sufficient rainfall to 
fructify his labours. When those times occur that the rainfall is deficient, 
or altogether absent, as is sometimes the case in India, Australia, and 
other parts, such calamities follow as we in this part of the globe can 
scarcely realise. The periodic droughts in India and Australia especially 
are the most outstanding results of a deficient rainfall within a certain 
period of time over large areas. As it is true that the characteristics of 
the natives of any country are through the generations determined by 
their physical surroundings, so are the kind and quantity of the crops of 
any country determined — taken, of course, in conjunction with the zones 
in which they are situated — by the amount of rainfall. 
The collected observations of the rainfall are very remarkable for their 
wide differences in various continents, and great disparities exist within 
the area of the British Isles. In all parts these variations can be scienti- 
fically accounted for, and result from the physical character of the districts, 
as, for instance, a mountainous contour or proximity to the ocean. In 
Europe the rainiest regions are found to be in the west. The annual 
rainfall exceeds 80 inches over a large district, including Inverness-shire 
and Argyleshire, in the Lake District of England, and most of North Wales, 
and these parts are recorded to be among the wettest in Europe. 
In England the highest mean annual rainfall is 177 inches, at Sea- 
thwaite in the Lake District ; in Scotland, 151 inches on Ben Nevis and 
128 inches at Glencroe in Argyleshire. In Ireland the largest is 78 inches. 
The driest part of the British Isles is the district south of the Wash, 
with a rainfall of about 20 inches. 
Generally speaking, the greater part of the annual rainfall takes place 
in the winter half of the year. The British Isles exhibit none of the 
extremes that are found in otber parts of the globe ; for instance, there 
are what are termed the rainless regions in Peru, Sahara in Africa, and the 
desert of Gobi in Asia. On the other hand, it is said of Patagonia that 
it rains every day. The heaviest rainfall recorded is 464 inches at Cherra 
Punji in the Khasia Hills, and is due to the steepness of a mountain range 
facing the Bay of Bengal. In the great and lasting work of collecting 
and systematising the data of the rainfall over the British Isles no name 
is more conspicuous, and no man deserves more gratitude, than the late 
George James Symons, F.R.S. Before Mr. Symons so definitely began to 
observe and scientifically record the rainfall in England in 1860, there 
were no sufficient data for comparative and practical purposes available. 
The British Rainfall Organisation, founded by Mr. Symons in that year, 
