The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1913-11-06
The Drouthcof the Southwest
AND OTHER HAPPENINGS.

Portions of the Southwestern States,
i including some sections of Indiana, ILL
nois, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri have,
during the past summer. been in the
grip of severe drouth, the effects of
which are still quite keenly felt and
will yet be for months to come. For
m any weary weeks, extending into
months, day after day and night after
night we scanned the heavens for the
promise of a shower; read the weather
mans prognostications, fearing the
worst, but hoping for the best. Day
after day and week after week the sun
rose and set for the most part in the
presence of cloudless sky. Today, as
l write, few white clouds are floating
above our heads, but the promise of a
shower, or at least of general rain, is
far from assuring. In consequence of
this prolonged drouth the streams are
low, the land is dry, ard for the most
part vegetation is at standstil. In the
absence of moisture the heat of the sun
h as been intense. Day after day and
week after week the thermometer has
been nearing, and in some places reach
ing upwards beyond the hundred mark;
an d what does the 100 mark mean in a
period of prolonged drouth to suffering
h umanitv, to ANIMAL subsistence, and to
he growth of vegetation? Much vege-
tation will thrive while the thermometer
overs round the hundredth degree when
the earth is abundantly supplied with
moisture, but it will curl and cringe and
d roop and die if there is no moisture in
the atmosphere or soil. Such have been
the conditions by which we have been
confronted for three months.
Very fortunately the winter season,
t he spring time and the early summer,
were particularly favorable for the early
development and ma uring of the earlier
crops. Oats and wheat grew to perfec-
ION. The wheat crop in Missouri and
Kansas has probably never before been
equalled i'll quantity and quality. Through
out this region there is no damaged wheat
coming into market. 1t is all good. The
a bundance Of the crop and its quality,
oupled with the abundance of the crop
elsewhere, have made prices low; lower
proportlonately than corn, for while
wheat has ranged around eighty cents
per bushel corn has been worth ninety
cents. Under these conditions many of
the farmers have been storing their
wheat crop, holding it hoping. for higher
prices, while others are grinding it and
feeding it to their hogs and cattle. The
crop of Irish potatoes is very meagre,
but we have had an immense crop of
peaches. The quality as we'll as the
quantity has been fine. | am sorry the
solitar peach | sent you by parcel post
should have been squashed on the way. |
sent one to a friend in Houlton, Maine,
and he writes me that it arrived in good
co ndition and was very fine. Hope to do
bet ter next time. About fifteen hundred
car loads were shipped out of the Ozark
re gion during two or three weeks time,
w hich would make a train load about
sixty thousand feet in length, or seventy
five train loads of twenty cars per train.
The picking and shipping of this quantity
of fruit makes big business for all con-
erned for the locality in which the fruit
is grown, as we'll as for the railroads and
p reduce men to handle The variety
largely grown is the liberia, fine fruit,
beautiful in color, fine in form and de-
lici Gus in flavor Other varieties ripen
later. The one of which | mailed you
sa mple ripens in September, and others
at still later date.
Although the drouth was extensive
and prolonged for months, some sections
of this vicinity We're favored with fire.
quent showers. Here in Springfield and
for a few miles east, we had one shower
one day in the midst of the drouth, which
if it could have been repeated every
drouth stl.Iktn territory, would have
been worth millions of dollars. The
shower came upon US one day about noon
time. We were not looking for it when
it cane. Almost out of clear sky it
suddenly fell upon US. How it did rain
For hal an hour or more it poured itself
gu upon US, feeding the streets, stopping
car traffic and deluging the cutters; but
it came too late, left too soon and was
too limited in its area to be Of great
benefit
The situation in Springfield has been a
very serious one. Ordinarily We are
very we'll supplied with water, but for
weeks we have beer short of the neces-
sary supply. In consequence the leaves
on the trees have begun to wither and