The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1864-07-15
THE DRourH AND THE CRops.-The

THR pRoUrH AND THE CRoPs.-The
late rains, which of late may be called quite
plentiful, have ended the long drouth that has
SO much discouraged the farmers and all
classes of business men of our State. While
there has been sufficient cause for the fear that
all crops of this State would be greatly dam
aged if not entirely cut Off by the continued
hot and dry weather, it is now said land the
evidence to that effect accumulates in quantity
and strength, -that only the small grains have
been seriously injured, and that of these in the
larger part of the cultivated sections of the
State there will be fair crops. 1t seems that
the drouth has been most severe in the imme.
oats, rye and barley, we shall have in
Minnesota less than full crops, with a
smaller extent Of land sOwed than in previous
years. Corn is doing well. Since the rains,
the promise of grass is good. The drying up
of marshes has placed good grass on many
thousand of acres never moved over before,
and which will be cut this year. The grass
crop will be harvested late, but in weight and
quality it is believed may yet prove equal to
some of the best of preceding years. Veg
etables, even those that early in the season
were supposed to be already blighted by the
drouth, are doing so well the last two weeks,
as to encourage farmers to hope for good
crops. The drouth, then, has hurt the farm
ers of Minnesota, but yet they have every
reason to look for a fair return for their labors
in cellars, bins, cribs and mows full for next
winter.
We are told by gentlemen who have made
inquiry and observation on this point, that this
season has given remarkable proof of the profit
in subsoil and deep blowing. The small grain
that now looks the best in all the sections of
this State wnere the drouth has been severe, is
found generally to be on land that has been
deep and fallplowed. Farmers inform us that
fields plowed deep last fall, which were sowed
early in the spring, seem scarcely to have been
affected by the dry hot term. If our agricultu-
raj societies could collect evidence in this mat
ter of deep blowing and concerning fall plew-
ing, the experience of this season would be de-
cisive on both points.
Lest any one should forget that remarkable
seasons are common to vast extents of country
and not confined to single States, we may re-
mind the reader that the drouth of 1864 has
affected the crops of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan,
Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Wiscon-
sin, probably full as much as Minnesota, ex-
cept, perhaps in the south part of the States of
Indiana, illinois and Missouri; and at the pres
ent time in the Eastern States, Notwithstanding
their heavy rains early in the season, summer
drouth is checking all vegetation.
From conversation with intelligent and OBJ
serving men among the oldest settlers, one of
whom has spent the last forty-six years in the
country now included in the State, we learn
that so long continued drouth is not known
to have ever before occurred in this part of the
country. The fact that the soil, extraordinari-
ly productive in ordinary seasons, retains
through near two years of partial to complete
drouth sufficient moisture to give fair growth
of grain and other crops, is one OF the most en-
couraging to farmers as well as all others of
our Industrial classes.