This year greater care has been exercised in the construction of the the dykes. They are set back farther j {from the river, built higher, made wider, and more sloping on the inner side. "The weak spots, responsible for mich of last year's disaster, have been specially reinforced with piles. In other places, a second dyke has been Constructed in case the inter one gives way. The weakness, however, im these dykes lies in the fact that most of them have been only recently built.
This means that they haven't had time to settle and harden. To make them really secure they should have been built last winter when the w: ters receded. This would have been an excellent time for then the farmers are idle. As it was, they were left until this spring just a few weeks beuf}fore the wheat harvest when every-,|body was too busy to think about anything but getting in his wheat.
Up tọ the present the dykes have held, so that only the area inside the dykes has been inundated. This is a area compared with last year. The floods have now been here two and have in all probability ed their height, which is stil
mark.
teat under last year's high water Great Damage Done The floods, as well as the war, have tremendous effect on the life fairly well built, and no doubt would have withstood the terrific been for the typhoon at the end well as shu-chiai which is used up here extensively for fuel. Last year everything had to be carried in from places outside the flooded areas. This alone was sufficient to send the prices soaring, so that fuel is now five times what it was three years ago. So hard up are the farmers, that in the flooded areas they have been obliged to sell or Kill their cattle because feeding them is quite beyond them. Last winter when making a trip through these areas I didn't see one head of cattle. The whole district presents a sad picture of devastation.
But it is an ill wind that blows nobody good. As soon as the floods leave the plain in December, the fár-mers get busy and plant their spring wheat. Favoured with plenty of rain and good weather, this wheat can be reaped just before the floods descend upon them in all their fury the following June. In this way, they manage to eke out a precarious existence.
Layer of Rich Sediment When the floods subside they leave behind them a thick layer of rich sediment, in some places as much as three feet. This is good for the wheat; with the result that this year's wheat crop was something like 20 per cent. better than previous good years. Some farmers, it is said, have reaped enough this year to do them for eighteen months. In some places the yield was five and six teo to the meo; in one place it was almost one tan to the meo—an unusually good yield, "While the flooded areas are suffering from too much water, the other districts are praying for rain. The country is so dty that wells and ditches have long ago dried up, and the country people have had rain parades when they take the rain god out. for an airing, and leave him in the broiling sun until he is obliged to send the desired rain. Local rains have fallen in some places, but in others the fall crop of beans has already perished, so that-while one district loses its harvest on account of the floods, another loses its Rarvest because of the drought.
Of Air Raids
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.