HEAT WAVE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1653, 21 January 1913, Page 5

HEAT WAVE.

BAD EFFECT ON CANTERBURY , CROPS. (Ey Telftrraph.-Bpcclal Correspondent.) ■ Christchurch, January 20. .Everybody is talking about the weather. There have been an unusually large nutu- , .bor of scorching nor'-west days during, the Jast month, and we would probably' have to go back many years to find a parallel to tho heat wave of tlio last . three'days. : Tor three days it has been .blowing from' the north-west & .hot blast that shrivels and raises elouds'of dust. With' . oust ' Everywhere, . ond i a'- temperature ,touohing-90-for hours at a .time, Christtehurch has been a'very unpleasant place to .live in. This evening it grew cooler, . but at the time of writing the eagerlyAwaited southerly, has not .put in an cppearance, and the'temperature of the-room in which this is written- is stifling. Auck- ■ landers state'emphatically that the much ; Ureaded 'heat' of is a .circumstance .to this heat .wave. The dry spell and hot winds are interfering seriously with -farming in. some of .the .North Canterbury districts: 1 Crops are ripening too soon, and the weight of tho . harvest is likely" to be much below what it should be. Ihe winds.'too,; are interfering with the lighter seeded crops.: Growth seems almost ■ to have. stopped, and even -where-'things ..Eeem brightest.the eye is deceived.■<.A reporter went over" what was apparently a marvellous 6trike of turnips. s It!-proved wonderful in leaf only,'for the' roots were emaziiyny; small in;;, proportion to the I?reen. Of course food values have lessened, and in somo cases all tho rape has al*eady had to bo eaten off. If tho Tain iloes not wimo within the next little while there will remain little for tho farmers except. t<r make tho best of things, and iwnto off the season, whioh began so well '-£s ono of disappointment.- - - - •'