Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1894-08-09
STAY BY IOWA.


The drought has been very injurious
to crops in Iowa this season. In some
localities corn will be very short crop
while grass and small grain, root crops
and vegetables in the same places will
yield only small fraction of an aver
age crop. This is the worst phase of
the matter. In the state as a whole
there is by no means total failure, al
though the aggregate of the Iowa
yield will be much below the average.
In many districts there has been con-
siderable, if not generous, rainfall at
critical times, so that there will be a
pretty fair return for the farmers Ia
Dor, when the whole circle of the crops
is considered. The small grains in
such districts have turned out much
better than the pessimists anticipated.
And not unlikely corn, the king OF
Iowa crops, will yet yield good deal
more than the estimates of the recent
past. Certain it is that recent rains
have saved an immense number of
fields that seemed destined to almost
complete ruin.
1t is, however, far from an average
yield. Feed for live stock will be COM
paratively scarce. 1t requires in the
aggregate an enormous amount of feed
to sustain the cattle and hogs and
horses and other live stock of Iowa.
SO it is natural that we should hear
many respondent expressions and
gloomy predictions. And indeed many
farmers will experience difficulty and
many be hard put to it to tide over till
next season, especially those who have
small reserve to draw upon.
But really the situation in Iowa, If
we accept the very worst possible face
of it ought to emphasize the agricul-
tural excellence of the state. We have
only to cast our eye outside the state
for remunerative and reassuring COM
parsons. This seasons drought is a
rare exception in Iowa. Not in de-
cades has there been anything like 1t
here. Through long series of years
Iowa farms have yielded magnificent
crops in variety, abundance and quail
lty rlvaled nowhere else between the
oceans, when drought, excessive rain
fall or leanness of soil in so many other
sections have so often caused disas-
trous failure.
And consider the drought farther
west this year, for example in the west
eru parts of Kansas and Nebraska and
over large area of Colorado. A lead
ing citizen of Sioux City, an intelligent
and competent observer, drawa a pic
ture which may we'll recall Iowa to a
sense of its good fortune. 81 saw the
worst and most desolate sight of my
life the other day." he says-"nothing
like it even in ravages of war. l rode
nearly 200 miles across part Of Colo
RADIO and northwestern Kansas, the
journey occupying nearly day, and
in the whole distance 1 did not see a
single stalk of corn, not sheaf of grain
not a harvested field, not stack Of
grass or any kind of grain, not a garden
nor a vegetable of any kind nothing
but one continuous scene of absolute
crop failure, desolation and dearth. The
towns and villages are dead and deser-
ted, There is positively nothing for
human beings and stock to live on, and
there are very few in sight. The worst
OF it is that they have not had crop
for years. Poverty and despair are
everywhere
The best crop in that region for years
is incomparably below the Iowa crop
this year, while the average there would
be counted almost as total failure
here. The worst crop known here
would there be welcomed as the highest
fortune 1t is true this is an extreme
case, and yet the region described above
is large enough to make more than one
state, while the area in the west sub
ject to similar if not to equal disap-
pointments is vastly more extensive,
and multitudes have attempted to
make their homes there.
Stay by Iowa. 1t is the grandeSt
agricultural section on the continent.
Don't sell the farm because it does not
this year return the heaped up meas
ure, the measure running over, of most
years. Don't be discouraged by one
seasons shortage among so many sea-
sons of abundance. Stay by the Iowa
farm and it will stay by you.-StouC
city Journal.