The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1913-09-18
Another Great Drouth.


cling to that delusion that "cultiva.
ton increases RAINFALL" that, to use
favorite phrase, "the east moves
the west" whenever the farmer
moves west and begins to cultivate
the soil, the lesson of this year
should cure him of that delusion. A
great calamity has fallen upon con.
siderable section of the Mississippi
valley, and from all reports the corn
crop of Oklahoma and Kansas is
practically wiped out, Missouri has
been severely scourged, and even
parts of Iowa are not wholly exempt.
AS if to show that this calamity
reached beyond the valley of the Mis-
souri,, the corn crop of southern IL
linois, from all reports, has been SER
iously cut short.
Few people who have not had eX-
perience know the appalling conse-
quences of such a calamity. 1t is a
sore loss to the tenant farmer, who
is renting on share of the crop, at
least the corn crop. When renting
on the shares the owner loses as
much, but he is usually better able
to stand the loss. Nor is the
landlord exempt when he is renting
for cash; for if the tenant can not
pay, the landlord cannot collect.
Nor is the calamity confined to the
loss of the corn crop; for the loss of
that disarranges all the farmer
plans and calculations. When we
have a drouth which kills the corn,
it goes without saying that the
spring sown grasses will perish. If
60 hn n
many farmers are beginning to de-
pend on the corn crop for forage for
their live stock-then he must dis
pose Ct his live stock. Nor is the
farmer himself, nor those of his own
state, alone affected, because the
rush of partially matured hogs and
cattle to market affects every farmer
in any part of the country who has
live stock to sell in that same mar
ket.
Not the least effect of the calamity
is the moral effect it has upon the
farmer. He is apt to say: What's
the use Of trying to farm, when the
whole years work may be burned up
by drouth which no man can fore
see, much less guard against effectu-
ally? Our sympathies go out not
only to our subscribers, but to every
farmer who lives in the drouth
stricken sections.
We have been watching these
drouths for the last twenty years.
Our old readers will, testify that we
have warned people that the break
walton, however thorough, will not
increase the rainfall; that the rain
falls according to the will of an all
wise Providence.
AS matter of fact, lands long
cultivated are much less able to with
stand drouths than lands recently
broken up from the prairie, for rea-
sons which we have pointed out year
after year, namely, that when the
vegetable matter is worn out of the
soil by constant cultivation in the
growing of grain crops, the soil is
less able to use the moisture that it
gets, and hence suffers more from
drouth than lands plentifully stored
with vegetable matter. The soil runs
together in wet time, and bakes in
a dry time, and the plant can not use
the fertility that is in the soil be-
cause of lack of water. Evapora-
ton is more rapid, and hence the
supply of moisture less.
We have had in these twenty years
three very severe drouths, and one
other drOuth which very materially
lessened crops. In 1894, we had a
drouth that affected all the states
west of the Missouri, and also the
states of Missouri and Iowa. We had
another very severe drouth in 1901,
covering practically the same terri
tory. In the winter of 1910 and the
summer of 1911, we had another
drouth, though not so severe; and
now the drouth of 1913 seems to be
the elimination.
Why these drouths? Nobody real
ly knows. 1t seems that in drouth
years the low barometers which pass
from west to east take the northern
route. Why they do so, no one
seems to know, but this result fol-
lows. When the storms take the
northern route in the summer, the
hot winds from the semiarid region
seem to be driven north, and the re-
suit is drouth below the forty-second
parallel, and often above it, too.
On the other hand, when the lows
in winter pass to the south, we have
deep SHOWS and cold winters; while
il they pass to the north in the win
ter season, we have comparatively
open weather in the southern part
of the corn belt. Hence, during a
time of drouth in the southern part
of the corn belt, we have excessive
heat in the northern part, say north
ern Iowa and in Minnesota. Farm
ers in these sections then come to
believe that the climate is changing
and that the corn belt can be pushed
still farther north; only to discover,
when normal seasons return, that
they are growing soft corn instead of
solid corn in the northern sections.
What, then, can the farmer do?
Nothing in the way of preventing
these things; but he can do some
thing to ameliorate them at least to
some extent. The first and most i'm
portant thing for him to do is to ro-
tate his crops, and not trust to any
one crop. If the drouth begins in
the winter, as in 1910, say in October
and the soil is short of moisture at
the time of sowing grain, it is apt to
affect the wheat crop-a very SER
ious matter in such states as Okla