Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1882-09-16
Dailg krnneht1 3ournal.
The Effects of the Drouth.

The Effects of the DrOuth.
At last the drouth is broken. but too
late to save the crops. From July 18th 10
Sept. llth, nearly two months, hardly rain
enough fell in this section to lay the dust
and as a result late planted crops have
suffered terribly. We have had drouths
in other years but seldom if ever one
which has been so disastrous to vegeta-
tion as the one just past. Field corn which
very seldom has failed in other years. this
season in almost every instace has proved
either partial or total failure. Where
there are any ears they are small and short,
and many farmers are cutting up their corn
and feeding it out. regarding it as not
worth husking. The sweet corn interest
which last winter received blow through
the failure OF J. Winslow Jones. has
received another setback from the
drouth. In some sections upon the An
droscoggin, in large portions of Cumber-
land and York counties. and generally on
light lands all over the State this crop has
suffered, and the factories are canning
reduced quantities. The Portland Pack
ing Company. though operating eight
factories this year against six last, will
pack but 10000 cases-a falling off OF 25,-
600 cases from last year. Prior to this
season, for eighteen years the farmers
who have planted for the factories
have not had failure. 1t is safe
to say that the yield has fallen off so per
cent in the State outside of few favored
sections.
The late planted potato crop is also
well-nigh worthless and almost invariably
the tubers are small and few in number
The yield is so small in some cases,
that farmers are blowing up their
potato fields without digging Late
sowed grain hardly paid for cutting, the
stalks quite often not being over six inches
IN height and the heads growing very short.
while the kernels are found to be small
and pinched. The first of the season
there was prospect of good apple crop,
but owing to the dryness much of the
fruit has fallen off and what is left is gen.
orally small and wormy. Feed in pas
lures which was abundant in May and
June has almost entirely dried up, many
farmers being obliged to feed their
stock in their barns. This death
of pasturage has shown itself in
the scarcity and high price of butter.
Vegetable gardens as well as field crops
have suffered. and the supply of garden
truck, which when abundant is quite a
help towards living in many families,
has been small. The dry weather has
had bad effect in another direction. 1t
is well known that unless grass "starts
well' after haying. the next years hay
crop will quite surely be a light one. Now
this season since haying, grass has not
made any growth to speak of, and accord
ingly small hay crop must
be looked for next year. AS another re-
suit of the dry weather thousands of acres
of valuable woodland have been burnt
over, the growth being killed.
The drouth has prevailed pretty gener-
ally throughout the State although there
have been favored localities where a suf-
ficient amount of rain has fallen, notably
n the upper Kennebec and Sandy River
valleys and in parts of Aroostook coun-
ty. In those sections good crops
have been raised. The other New Eng
land States in common with Maine have
suffered severely from the drouth. New
Hampshire has sustained even more in
Jury than Maine if possible. One farmer
in that State lost IL head of cattle in one
pasture. the animals dying for want OF
water. Vermont has been effected the
least of any of these States, yet much dam
age has been done there.
The loss to farmers in the Eastern States
has been immense and cannot be estimated
al less than S3,OO0.0 900. But it will not
answer for our farmers to be disheartened.
Last year was one of the most prosperous
ever known in the annals of farming in this
State, and it could hardly have been expect
ed that this year would prove equal to it.
Farmers like other men must meet with
losses in their business and should take
I