The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-07-13
Crops Everywhere
 Crying For Rain Dry Spell Dealing Death
 Blows in This State ~
 Peas and Other Vegetables Severe Sufferers Hay, Corn and Tobacco Are on thetSick List.
(Kartford Tim es.)

Prolonged drouth will socn mean destruction of crops throughout the -etate, as we'll as locally. The crops = haven't had half chance, anyway, and a large proportion of the seed didn't germinate and so il won't be very difficult to answer the question, What will the harvest be-" if the present conditions prevail long. Fear for the. crops is almost countrywide e and tEe soil seems turning to baTch- -ment The n7oat promisin places are the low and moist lands. which, n ordinary seasons. are the least pro ductive
 The pea and ether leguminous crops seem to suffer the most locally and the vines are. drying up. This luxury of the Fourth" is scarce and the prices are high It i9 the season land prices low. but the contrary is the case. All the early vegetables are scarce The cucumber vines are barely alive and the most the local dealers get are raised under cover upon frames. Potatoes. too, will be @mah and few in q hill, unless the sweat ther conditions change.
 Corn IS beginning c cuTf and the -outloOk is very unpromfSing for the Connecticut farmers, if relief, in the form of rain. does not come speedily Tobacco in some places, which took "a good firm grasp in the soil early. z-lS lCoklnS Weil, but plaDtS WHICH one -attempts to set out now are burned almost as soon as they are planted There $ but little chance for cab bage and the root plants, for it is useless to plant them now as they wilt and burn nearly as fast as they are put into the soil. This is true also of the celery. plants, SO much in demand by the home planter, or the proprietor of the littIes exercise plot at the back of the house. They are
 
 chance. unless the soil can be kept artiticially moist, or naturally so by frequent rains.
 The truck farmers are no less anN- ious than the field farmers. Wet pr dry, plant your cabbage by the 25th Of July" is the maxim of many of the farmers. but with the soil but little else but fine, red powder, whats the use of it all? Oats have recent ly taken a jump of 10 cents a bush el and with a further increase in price of 10 or 15 cents bushel, which many are Xpecting this fal~ they will be almost prohibitive for horses and other livestock. So intense is the heat and so parched is the soil that the new-mown fields in the vicinity of Hartford look like anything ex- 4second crop will be the result, if rains do not rescue it. The hay fields have yielded only about two thirds of a crop. anyway. and prices range between S30 and $40 ton. Springs and streams are drying up and pasturage is becoming scanty for the herds.
 Locally, however the small fruits, for some reason. do not seem to have felt the effects of the severe dry spell, and the berries have been reasonably plentiful and look promising. Toma- toes have set well on many vines, but the plants are beginning to indicate the desire for moisture. Timely rains may save the crops and any rain will help them, but what is need ed is not the heavy copious showers. which leave the soil as soon as they come, but the drizzling, soaking, pen etrating rains, at intervals, which