Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-06-18
OUTSIDE POINT OF VIEW
The Moon Weather Prophet.

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The Moon Weather Prophet.
i This would seem NEST appropriate
time to call the weather propher
tc order, to ask him lew questions
In fact, now Is the time &c put all of the
weather prophets on the witness stand
Conditions, rather than theories. con
/ front us now. For instance. at this
writing 1t has not rained in Boston fol
| fory-Seven days. a recent press dis
| patch from that city says that with the
exception of two or three very brief
| showers no rain has fallen in New En-
STAND in forty eight days and the losses
to the agricultural interests OF the en-
| tire section are enormous. AT the oftice
OF the Massachusetts board of agricul-
ture it was said that unless copious
rains aud warm weather come at once
| the previous estimate Of loss to the
farmers of New England of SO 600, 900
! will not prove too large. This estimate
! is based on the value of the agricul-
tur,tl products in a normal year OF
Sl35, 000, 600. divided as iullows:
| HAY and forage ........ $4,000 900
.''''''''' ''oVo'VVu
' e2etabieS ............... S4 900. 900
The loss on these crops is already 30
per cent. and the probable loss on live
stock and live stock products owing to
the failure of hay and forage brings the
total up 10 considerably more than So
100000.
Drought conditions thruout New En-
gland are about equally bad. In Yer
mont the hay crop is already so far
gone that hay is selling Al retail in the
country al $50 a ton, an unprecedented
price. In New Hampshire hay and
grain promise TO be almost complete
failures. and in Maine. where great
quantities of potates are raised, ruin
faces the farmers.
In Massachusetts the tobacco crop
will be failure and truck farmers are
already blowing up their crops to get
the land ready TO plant again when rain
does come. Rhode Island and Connects
cut are slightly better off, owing to the
character of the soil. bu, there the loss
cs will be enormous. Hay in Boston has
jumped from SIS to So. ton, and is
very scarce at that. In al sections fruit
Will be very short and poor crop.
Added to the drought losses the for
est fires OF the last month have been
very severe. On Cape Cod are i'm
mense tracts of burning woods and
Boston for three days has been densely
overhung by the clouds of smoke.
Maine and Vermont have lost many
thousands of acres OF forests. and the
fires are still raging. Several small
villages In Maine have been almost
completely wiped out by fires.
Local weather indications do not
promise any relief.
OF the conditions in iowa, Kansas.
Missouri and Nebraska there is no
need of mentioning. Here in Iowa,
while outside of the river towns but
little damage has been done TO prop
erty, 'The wet season." he continuous
rains, have silenced the oldest inhabi-
tants. While New England is burn
ing up" we are drowned OUT And
has ii occurred TO our moon weather
prophets that it's the same moon that
is responsible for the conditions in the
east and in the west. That each month
ii we have wet moon in Iowa they
90 in Connecticut. That if it's !, dry
moon in Rhode Island its the same in
Kansas. Star gazers loo.l up into the
shy tDilSIt anu IoliCc tiS Hlbpl4.lS ~
located that water spills out" The
moon to the observer in Maine looks
just the same as it does 10 an observer
in Kansas. Again assuming that the
weather here in the United States is
affected by the moon, ii is a well
known fact that such influences must
have started months ago from the SUR
face of the moon, and how is it after
so long a trip that this Influence" ar
irving here gives us floods in Iowa and
a terrible drought in massachusetts. !
The whole tribe of planetary and star
gazing weather prophets escape the di-
rect charge now brought against them.
for they will not localize the storms or |
dry weather we can expect about this
time" We've got a weather prophet
in this state who is going to have a wet
June. Where? In Iowa or Pennsylva-
MIA?
Here's something to be remembered, |
and that is after thirty years expert
ence in the United States signal serv-
ice men Certainly we'll qualified by ex
perience) will not prophecy the weather
over thirty-six hours in advance. And |
even these men fail to locate spots. The |
writer was in Creston one night a few |
years ago and a warning from the
weather bureau of a coming tornado
kept the people of Creston out of bed
half of the night. There was only an
ordinary thunderstorm thare that night.
but East ST. Louis did have disastrous
that very night with loss of life
and property. And if our best posted
signal service observers make such
mistakes and admit their inability to
forecast the weather over twentyfour
hours in advance what shall we say of |
tie moon weather prophet.