DAMAGE TO GARDENS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 48, 25 January 1938, Page 6

DAMAGE TO GARDENS

WIND ACCOMPANIES RAIN. RIVER AT HIGH LEVEL. A irustv wind which blew with con■itaStX* «t time, the rain of yesterday and last mglit. In the 24 hours up to 9.30 a.m. today, however, the fall of rain in the eitv was only 22 points. . Heavy rain in the watershed of the Manawatu River, both m Hawke’s Bay and the hill country through the Pohangina Valley ated the change in the iivei leve, and from the summer height ol IB inches yesterday afternoon theie was an exceptionally quick rise. Usually the gauge shows the change m evel in zig-zag fashion, but from 8.40 p.m. last night what was practically a straight line indicated the adv , a .““ the water up the gauge for a distance of nearly five feet. Continuing, river advanced to 9ft 3m at 9 a.m. t day and had then risen 6in since 8 a At noon the level of the Alanawatu River stood at 10ft and at 1 p.m. tire height of the water was AVhile the rain is appreciated in general by city and country residents alike commercial fruitgrowers suffered loss, some to a markedly greater extent than others. In one case, where the Irish Peach apples had been picked and there was a high hedge surrounding the greater part of tne orchard, the effect of the wind was negligible. Here also the tomato plants had not suffered damage to any inarkAnother grower pointed out that a late frost at the beginning of the season had dealt severely with nectarines, Chinese gooseberries and stone fruits, so that there was little in the way or stone fruits in his district which the wind could damage. His tomatoes wme carried on fences and hedes had protected tho fruit from swinging about and consequently becoming bruised. “Quite a large quantity of stone fruit is down,” remarked another grower, who explained that the late plums had suffered to some extent, a number of the trees having half tlieir .crop on the ground. The fruit now had to be sold as windfalls and at a much reduced price. Though hedges had afforded protection in sonie measure, the wind had come over the tops of ih?m and, with a whirlwind action, had swung tomato stakes round and about, doing much damage. Early apples, Gravensteins, Cox’s Orange, and pears suffered in another quarter, where the hurricane early in Febuary two years ago ripped out much of the shelter. Tall varieties of flowers in exposed places were battered and ruined, dahlias, in particular, suffering. Atembers of the City Council’s staff of electric linesmen did not relish the visitation of wind, for throughout yesterday and again last night they were called on to attend to a series of faults developing through the effects of the gale. All the members of the outside staff of the electricity department were enraged in the work. Had the wind come a little earlier there would probably have been a heavy loss suffered by farmers growing pasture seed. Alost of the ryegrass seed, which is the major crop of its kind throughout this district, has ]>een harvested hbre. Had the rain and wind caught seed still in the head it would have literally threshed it in the paddock.