Evening star., 1932-09-01
DROUGHT HAVOC
AGAIN THREATENS
Six Eastern States in Grip of
RainIess Period of Last
Three Months.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

Another great drought Is threatening
the Eastern United States.
An area roughly including Maryland,
Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey,
Eastern Ohio and Northern North
Carolina now is in the grip Of a rain
less period which has extended for
three months, and which is beginning
to produce conditions comparable to
those of the record drought Of 1880.
Late corn Is burning" Wells and
streams are going dry. Many truck
crops are in bad shape. Pastures
throughout the area are burned up and
cattle are beginning to suffer. In parts
of Pennsylvania, it was learned at the
Weather Bureau today. farmers have
begun to cut their ruined corn and
feed it to cows which no longer can
find grass on the pasture land.
Like the 1880 drought, which gripped
q considerably larger part of the coun-
try, this cry spell has crept up insidi-
ously. 1t has been in progress since
the first of June Today marked the
beginning Of meteorological Autumn"
in the calculations of the Weather Bu-
reau. The records showed that in the
District during the three Summer
months there has been only So per
cent of normal rainfall. During the
Summer of 1880 there was 4S per cent.
There has been a total of 66 inches of
rain. compared with 81 inches for the
corresponding period Of 1880. Approx
mately the same figures obtain for all
the drought-affected area.
Grows Progressively Worse.
All Summer the drought has been
getting progressively worse. Rainfall
Of H,rv;rn
81 per cent during July and only 35
per cent during August. A striking
difference between this Summer and
the Summer of 1890 is that this year
there was a plentiful supply of mois-
ture in the soil to start with. During
the three Spring months there was a
total precipitation of 1876, compared
with 72 in 1890. Thus the crops we're
able to get good start.
The heavy rains this Spring led
Weather Bureau experts to hope that
the great drought finally had been
broken. But today very similar condi-
tions obtain to those which were
directly responsible for the 1880 dry
ness. There is stagnant high-pres-
sure area over the South Atlantic Coast
and the Appalachian region. 1t was
centered yesterday over the mountains
Va EzSIClA 1CIllCS6CC
1ow-pressure areas, sweeping down out
of the Arctic by way of the Mckenzie
River Basin and crossing the Canadian
line east of the Rockies, turn eastward,
but bump into this stagnent high. As
a result they are turned North, bring
ing plentiful rainfall to New York and
New England but leaving this section
untouched.
Ordinarily Wet Months.
Ordinarily the three Summer months
are the wettest of the year. The three
Autumn months are by all odds the
dryest A drought, 1t was explained at
the Weather Bureau, is a progressive
phenomenon. The longer 1t continues
the less chance of rain. This is espe-
cially true when ordinarily dry Autumn
succeeds an abncrmally dry Summer
Whatever reserve supply of moisture is
left in the soil is being used up rapidly
by thirsty vegetation. The drought
area seems likely to 60 into the Winter
with the moisture in the soil at low.
level
Perhaps the worst economic effect at
present, it was explained at the Weather
Bureau, is the burning of the pastures.
Sod land does not take in moisture
as does ploughed land, and cultivation
tends to conserve the moisture In the
soil.
The Weather Bureau can make no
predictions as to the probable duration
Of the drought. The stagnant high may
break up at any time, or 1t may con-
tinue Indefinitely, as 1t did In the dis
astrous 1880 drought
Behind the immediate cause there is
believed to be some deeper reason for
the drought which is not understood.
Generally this part Of the country Is in
what was characterized as dry
trough" a succession of abnormally
dry years, which probably will be sue
ceeded by a succession Of abnormally
wet ones.
This condition is even more apparent
in temperature records when subjected