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DROUGHT RESISTING PLANTS IN THE DECCAN.
By R. K. Bhide.
Assistant Economic Botanist, Bombay.
The drought of 1918-19 in the Bombay Deccan was one of the most long-continued and severe on record. While the normal rainfall over most of the area lies between 20 and 30 inches per annum — though it is much higher than this in the west — the actual rainfall for 1918 was in most cases between one third and one half of this amount, and of the quantity received a very considerable proportion was received in one or two fitful storms in May and August or September J 918. The actual condition of things in five typical centres, given in order from west to east is shown in the following table : —
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The result of this long-continued drought was that in 1918 the usual wild monsoon plants did not grow well, or if they grew at all most of them died before seeding or seeded before they were half grown. The country never looked green, and, except for the trees which remained green, was a desert-like waste in the latter part of 1918 and the earlier part of 1919. Even the most resistant plants suffered. In
