Before referring to the products regularly cultivated for food, it is necessary to mention that the seasons, which in the temperate zones are closely associated with a rise and fall in the temperature and its effect upon vegetation, are in West Africa determined to a much greater degree by the advent and cessation of the rainy period. The year is therefore divided into two seasons, roughly described as (1) that in which the conditions are hot and dry, and (2) that in which they are cooler and wet. The vegetation is so directly dependent upon the timely appearance of the rainy season and its normal distribution, that a failure of these conditions, even in a comparatively small degree, may have serious consequences and perhaps produce famine. In no part of British West Africa is a shortage or irregularity of the rainfall so severely felt, nor does it affect such a large number of people, as in the northern districts. A table is given below showing the distribution of rain in Zaria for five years, and of that in Kano for three years. In each of these it will be seen that the fall in the year 1907 was far below the average, and that during the most important months for the growth of the staple grain crops—July, August, and September—there was a severe shortage of rainfall. The effect of this in Kano was to produce a condition of famine, which lasted for about six weeks. In a congested locality, such as exists in the vicinity of the town of Kano, the difficulty of importing sufficiently large supplies to afford relief at such a period was great, on account of lack of transport. The chief crop in this year, namely Guinea corn, was an almost complete failure in many places, but the millet TABLE SHOWING THE RAINFALL AT ZARIA FOR FIVE YEARS (1905 TO 1909) -----------+-------+-------+-------+-------+------- Month. | 1905. | 1906. | 1907. | 1908. | 1909. -----------+-------+-------+-------+-------+------- January | nil | nil | nil | nil | nil February | nil | nil | nil | nil | ·36 March | nil | nil | nil | ·09 | nil April | ·76 | ·85 | 2·20 | 1·84 | 3·56 May | 5·90 | 9·50 | 3·69 | 1·91 | 5·79 June | 7·24 | 5·95 | 7·05 | 6·94 | 6·51 July | 7·19 | 14·49 | 3·75 | 7·42 | 13·11 August | 15·04 | 16·39 | 4·46 | 14·36 | 16·62 September | 13·28 | 9·90 | 6·33 | 12·08 | 6·61 October | 1·40 | 3·93 | 2·32 | ·84 | 1·74 November | nil | ·04 | nil | nil | nil December | nil | nil | nil | nil | 1·50 -----------+-------+-------+-------+-------+------- Totals | 50·81 | 61·05 | 29·80 | 45·48 | 55·80 -----------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------