The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-05-27
CROP OUTLOOK GRAVE
There is a Practical Suspen-
sion of All Farm Work.
Raleigh Had the Longest Period Of Drought on
Record Tais Being INVENT, Three


The Weekly Crop Bulletin, of the North
Carolina Section of the Climate and Crop
Service of the Weather Bureau for week
ending Monday, May %, 1903, says:
Over large portion of the State severe
drought continued to prevail during the
past week, and the prospects for crops has
become extremely grave. In many coun-
ties, especially in the central-west portion.
no appreciable rain has fallen for nearly
four weeks. and on account of the small
size of the plants and their inability to
Withstand drought, present conditions may
prove to be very disastrous. At Raleigh
the number Of consecutive days without
rain was 20, the longest period of drought
on record. Where no rain occurred the
great increase in temperature which 9TH
erwise would have been very favorable.
served only to intensity the drought. Con-
ditions began to be favorable for local
thunder showers about the 21st, and since
then in some dozen chiefly eastern coun-
ties irregularly distributed showers have
fallen, generally in amounts quite made
quate, only two places, Lumberton and
Raleigh, receiving over an inch. The
small amount of rain that did occur was
very beneficial. The temperature averaged
over 10 degrees above the daily normal,
the maximum exceeded 80 degrees during
the last half of the week. reaching an ex-
trme Of 80 degrees at Marion. Every day
was warm and sunny. The drought has
caused the practical suspension of all farm
work, as the soil is in bad condition. For
the time of the year crops are generally
quite small and inferior
\ Il Il, -
out and this work is nearly completed in
the south portion; much cotton is not yet
up. and it is feared that seeds have start
ed to terminate and have subsequently
persisted in the hot, dry soil; planting is
not finished, and necessarily stands are
poor the growth of cotton that is up
has been slow, and in some sections plants
are dying. Corn is in somewhat better
condition, early planted and well culti-
waited fields are doing very WELL though
suffering for moisture; late planted Is r.
regular, much is not up, and considerable
replanting must still be done; worms are
doing some injury; growth of corn is also
slow. Tobacco could not be transplanted
this week except by watering, and very
little of that work was done. Early trans
planted tobacco has fair stand, but many
pIdhCs are puIIohins low, anu the uIoushV
has caused some plants to run up to seed.
Wheat and winter oats viii give a fair
yield in many counties, in others both
crops are nearly failure; spring oats are
deteriorating rapidly; cereals are now in
bloom but heads cannot fill well without
more moisture. Digging and shipping
Irish potatoes are under way in the east,
with short yield Of fair quality; in the
west potatoes are up and being injured
by the Colorado beetle; sweet potato slips
are not growing we'll Pastures are be-
coming parched; gardens are suffering and
the outlook for fruit is less promising.
Rains reported lin inches): Moncure,
05; Settle, OF; Marion, Trace; Colds
boro, OFF,; Lumberton, 1.S0; New Bern,
0.62; Weldon, O.6S; Raleigh, 1.O1; Char
lotte, 010.