The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1915-08-05
Did You Ever?

Did you ever see such a cold sum-
mer? Did you ever see such wet
one? Did you ever see such bad
weather for curing hay? Did you ev-
er see corn so backward? These are
questions we hear pretty much all
the time, and we can answer, yes.
Solomon long since remarked, THAT
which hath been is that which shall
be; and that which hath been done
is that which shall be done; and
there is no new thing under the sun.
The only thing in the way OF
weather that we have not seen re-
peated was a frost on the fifth day
of June in eastern Ohio and western
Pennsylvania, in 1859, we believe
that killed all the wheat and serious
ly damaged the oats, that killed all
the corn, then almost knee high, and
made the inhabitants SILVER for fear
of famine. And yet, if We live long
enough, we will see just that thing
again in some part of the country.
There is no season, however much
out of the ordinary it may apper, that
has not had it's counterpart some
time in the past On the other hand,
there is no season that is exactly like
any other season in every respect.
The only thing that is absolutely
certain about the weather is that it
is uncertain. This is one OF the
great drawbacks to farming. The
farmer can not possibly figure in ad-
| vance as to what the weather Will be'
and vet it conditions all his WORK.
| He is man of the open ar, man
of the fields, and his work is greatly
Influenced by the weather. That
part of his business. All that he can
do is to figure on the average or
what is called normal.
We sometimes think that mas
much as we have had about tive
years Is iii COZ e5ffl }beit WITH average
rainfall below the normal, we may
reasonably expect to have several
years in the near future in which we
shall have rainfall above the normal,
! about as much above normal as 1t
has fallen short of it.
In many respects this year is like
the year 1912. The first six months
of 1911 had an average rainfall be-
low the normal and heat above the
normal. In the fall we had bundant
rains, and these followed by heavy
SHOWS. We had cool May and June
in 1912, which gave us great wheat
crop, We were fearing that we would
not have much of corn crop that
year; and yet the excessive heat fol-
F.! lowing gave us a bumper corn crop
after this bumper crop OF wheat,
which we said at the time would not
| likely occur again for some fifteen
years.
A good many farmers are now pre-
dieting a short corn crop. 1t is too
early to predict that. 1t may not be
as large as last year, because there
| was much land that was cultivated
last year that could not be put in corn
this year, much that is overfloWed,
much that is too wet. Some has been
planted too late. In the country be-
tween the two rivers, the west OF the
Missouri and for some distance east
of the Mississippi, we have Just TINS
condition. This takes in the greater
portion of the corn belt; and yet 1t
won't do to figure that we are not
going to have a good crop of corn
this year. We don't expect the corn
crop of 1912. 1t may be that we
shall have great deal of soft corn;
and vet that may be corrected, pro-
vided we have heat enough during
August. We are very apt to under
estimate the possibilities of the corn
crop in the way of repairing what ap-
pears at first sight to be almost hope
less damage. There have been such
wears as this before, and there Will
be again.-Wallaces Farmer.