agricultural bulletin 
OF THE 
STRAITS 
AND 
FEDERATED MALA/ STATES. 
JUNE 1911 . [Voe. X 
THE DROUGHT SPELL 
The remarkable spell of drought during the present year has 
attracted the attention of most people in Singapore. In the Botanic. 
Gardens the rainfall ceased on the 19th of January, and with the 
exception of half a dozen falls at long intervals no rain has fallen till 
May. At the same time the heat has been very great. Such a period 
of rainlessness, though not unprecedented in the Colony, is of very rare 
occurrence, for Mr. Knight, who has a good record of the rainfalls 
for many years, shows that similar occurrerfces have been known 
before. 
As usually happens in our dry spells, the skyhs rarely cloudless 
for more than a few hours at a time, but the clouds instead of collect- 
ing and producing rain, pass on usually north w.ards. Dining part of 
the time when the drought in the Gardens was at its worst, heavy 
clouds with thunder and lightning were seen each afternoon on Bukit 
Timah, our only wooded hill, with an altitude of five hundred feet, 
and heavy rain fell there, and it was probably due to this that the 
reservoirs showed during this period no great falling off in water 
supply, giving an illustration to those who need it of the importance 
of conserving forested hills in the tropics untouched. 
In May, travelling up through Johore, 1 was told that about 
Sedenak they had no rain to speak of since January 14th. but at 
Labis I met rain and evidently it had been regular, and at Batu Anam 
rain had been falling well every day or so. A theory had been started 
