Dry Spell Hits Farmers of District Nanking, June 27.
Districts round Nanking are facing serious drought and ho autumn harvest are likely abandoned if there is no rain during the next one or two weeks, Farmers can be seen burning in-conse and praying for rain under the broiling sun. A few days ago the farmers staged @ procession to please the gods and, by a happy colneld~ fence, some rain began to fall, though far from sufficient to relieve the drought. Encouraged by their initial suees, the farmers are planning 10 hold another procession to implore greater generosity from the rain ods.
Paddy fields in the Kiangning District, adjacent to the Nanking Munlcipality, are parched by the long dry spell. Three-fourths of the acreage generally under cultivation ave been left unsown, while most of the young plants have died for lack of moisture, Many farming households likely to be completely ruined should the dry spell last one or two Weeks longer. "The Kiangning di {rlet government has bought a number of water pumps with the assistance of which, it is hoped, water can be pumped from the rivers 10 save a portion of the crop.
While the spectre of ruin and starvation is haunting rural house holds, city dwellers are far from being in" a comfortable position, During the last few days the thermometer has registered over 98 degrees, and though no records are broken, the heat' has been made doubly' uncomfortably by the humid-Hundreds of people are sleeping on sidewalks and so great is the obstruction to trafic that the police have issued an order strictly' prohibiting people from sleeping'
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.