Omaha daily bee., 1921-08-22
Progress Of the Crops.
Weekly Crop Bulletin Of the Agricultural
Bureau Omaha Chamber OF
Commerce.

During the last week no adverse eondl.
tions have developed In the progress OF
crops and interested persons nave oeen
concerned mostly in observing how far ma
ture can go in retrieving her own mis-
takes. The below normal temperature OF
the entire corn belt, which gave light put
not killing frost in northern North Dako-
ia on August IA and gave something OF
scare, in various other localities. has
been due mainly to night temperatures:
The warm and for the most part sunny
days were very favorable for development
OF corn and In tke Mississippi and onlo
valleys, where drouth was very ,s seVeee sot
UP to August /, the conditions couid not
have been better except in the western
part of that territory, where more moist
ure would have been beneficial. EarLy
corn is very materially injured in the dls-
trict of July drouth, but late corn IS
promising. The improvement Is most
notable in the lower Missouri. ONO ana
Tennessee valleys where the later matut-
ing varieties OF corn are grown. But IN
the upper Mississippi river district "nere
the corn is now maturing, the crop Is ma
terally damaged. =
Tire crops which show the largest loss
this season are oats. hay and potatoes;
The oat crop was given an lncreaseo
acreage in almost all districts TINS sea
son, It was seeded early and under IA
vorab,e soil conditions, but adversity over
took it at every critical period OF oevei-
opment-killing freezes in the seeding
stage, excessive heat at the stooling stage
drouth and feat at the filling stage.
The result is the most generally o'sap-
pointing oat crop in several years.
The hay crop was adversely affected by
the same conditions which brought the
oat crop to the verge of ruin: Ine m
tense heat Of the last half OF May great
ly reduced the clover and first aifalfa
crops by urging them to early maturity.
The second crop of clover Is very hght
and in a large part of the country has
been pastured. The mixed hay timothy
and clover) produces but one crop. Wnich
ia quite below average. The partlai iall-
ure of hay is very serious loss IN the
dairy districts of the Mississippi valley:
and since by reason of the E1gh ran
| freights bulky farm products ike nay
cannot be shipped long distances ana SOLO
at a price farm consumers can AFFORD 10
| pay, the short hay crop will probably re-
| suit in a partial milk famine in eastern
| cities Many Of the tenant farmers are
| in process of selling out their equipment
rather than to go into the winter int VII WIZ
Reports from the southern. states are
| essentially repetition of last week
conditions. Cotton picking is getting un-
| der way all along the gulf coast. The
| crop Is spotted in all states, returns vary
| ing from very poor to good and from
| varying causes. TIE eastern uplands In
North Carolina and Georgia and the west
ern districts Of Texas and Oklahoma
| where drouth nurt Ine crop, are All lne
| same class with the Atlantic coast plain
and parts OF Alabama and Mississippi
| where the rains were excessive. Unusua
| insect damage seems to have occurred lr
nearly all districts. These adverse con-
| ditions, coupled with a 10000, ,OOO-acre es
timated reduction in the area planted tt
| the cotton crop, seem to justify an estt
mate of an abnormally low total OF pro
| duction.
The New England and North Atlantic
| states kave had nearly ideal weather con
| ditions for some time past. Farming oper
| ations are well advanced and with salts
| factory returns in the leading crops. TIT
| grape crop in the lower lakes district II
| not meeting earlier expectations and th'
| early varieties of spuds give disappoint
| ing Yields. Late varieties OF potatoes
promise fair crop in several districts
however. -t
The Pacific coast and intermountai,
states are harvesting their crops unde
favorable conditions, though there is re
part of damage to apples from drouti
and sunburn in eastern Washington
| While the Puget Sound country has hat
low Temperatures the California coast ant
| muck of the interior has had consider
able excess Of heat. The peach and pea
crops of nearly all the intermountain dis
tricts are now going to market. the heav
lest movement of peaches from Colorad
orchards now just beginning. The crop !
| OF high quality. Irrigation water is hold
ing out well and in all irrigated district
beets and potatoes are developing favor
ably and the third crop Of alfalfa is re
ported as very promising