The Washington bee., 1907-02-23
WEATHER IN CYCLES
MISSOURI PROPHET PREDICTS sY
DATA OF YEARS.
Each Decade Much Like One Before
Mild Winter Means Big Wheat
Crop. But Visitation Of Lo-
Gusts is Due in Summer.

Gusts is Due in Summer.
Macon, MO-MacOn has a weather
prophet whose forecasts seem 10 hit
the bulTs-eye. In the latter part OF
August, 1906. he made this statement,
and files of the local papers verify 1t:
This viii be a fine year to SOW
wheat But it must be in before the
goth Of September; it will be useless
to do any planting after that We are
going to have a mild winter, and that
means big wheat yield"
This weather soothsayer's name is
August T. Claim. He is about So, and
operates a 2OO-acre farm east of Ma
con. Such confidence have the farm
ers of Macon and Shelby counties in
Mr.. Claims forecasts that they plant
ed many thousands of acres of wheat
in excess of the normal acreage.
And so far the weather has borne
oUt Mr.. Claims predictions to the let
ter The winter in these parts has
been one of unusual mildness. with
frequent spTinglike rains. The ther-
mOmeter has rarely gone lower than
25 above zero. and has more often
lowered about so.
Mr. Claim uses no wizards wand,
no crystal globes, and no occult aid
of any sort to tell a year in advance
what Uncle Sans weather observer
will report. He carries with him lit
tie book, well-thumbed with the pass
ing years, and full of interesting data
compiled from 66 years back on down
to date.
Mr.. Claims father was the first his
torian. He took a notion that the
weather came in cycles. and his OBJ
ject was to learn the extent of those
cycles. After IL years of close OBJ
servation of his weather diary, he
came to the conclusion that the sea
sons repeated themselves every dec
ade; that each year in a decade had
a brand of weather peculiar to itself.
Now and then, in long while. there
was a break-a cog slipped some
where in the universe. But such
things were rare. The harmony Of
the years was as the assurance of the
salvation to the just. What happened
in 1845 was bound to happen in 1855.
There was no getting around it. The
diary was continued on until the
twentieth century, the son taking up
the work when the father passed into
a land where the storms of life do not
trouble Now the younger historian,
getting well along in years, has, he
claims, demonstrated his fathers the
Ory beyond any sort of doubt, and he
is giving his farmer friends the bene-
fit of it.
THE harvest of this year will be
dry" said Mr.. Claim. THE sevens
have been almost uniformly dry since
1910, and are hne years for small
grain. This year viii be good for
peaches, and also the year following.
Including 1906, this will give US three
good peach years in succession. The
sevens and eights are always fine for
this fruit.
. But there is one ominous fight for
us this year. There will be a vista
ton of locusts. which will last about
six weeks. The lOcusts come every
13 years without fail. The record
shows that they were here in 1892,
1855, 1868, 1881 and 1894 That puts
them due in 1907.
Being forewarned, however, the
farmer can turn his hogs and chick
ems into his orchards, and they will
eat up the pests nearly as fast as they
germinate. The locusts have never
done near as much damage in this
section as the grasshOppeT and are
not to be dreaded as much.
Unless in unusually large numbers
they will not eat small grain. They
deVour the slender stalks of wheat,
but don't touch the stronger stalks.
They will appear in the latter part of
May and disappear about the 1st of
August The hogs should be turned
into the orchards during April. The
locusts make fine feed for hogs and
chickens. They like them and thrive
wonderfully on the insects.
Corn will do fairly well, but may
not be quite up to the average, Next
September will be a little too dry for
that grain. Wheat is the thing for
the husbandman to stick to in 1907
if he has the right character of soil to
develop it. The season is bound to
do the rest"