TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VIII 669 



month of April was the coldest since 1907 and with that exception the cold- 

 est in more than 40 years. The week closed warmer. 



Field work has been almost at~ a standstill due to wet soil and frequent 

 showers. Plowing for corn is probably not one-fourth done and no 

 planting- has been done. The soil has been so wet that where plowing- has 

 been done it will become cloddy if dry weather comes soon. Toward the 

 close of the week the soil dried more rapidly and worked up better. With 

 normal weather conditions planting of corn and sugar beets will begin 

 within a week. 



Oats and barley seeding has progressed slowly. Considerable more 

 barley -will be seeded, but it is becoming too late for much further oats 

 seeding. Reports of oats rotting are numerous. Early seeded fields are up 

 and showing green, but the stand is thin and patchy. 



Spring wheat is up and doing nicely, but slow. "Winter wheat is making 

 fair progress. 



Gardening has scarcely begun. Potatoes in the ground more than a 

 month are just beginning to come up. The high price and poor quality of 

 potato seed and the backward season will considerably reduce the potato 

 acreage. 



Fruit is believed to have benefited from the lateness of the season. 

 Only in the extreme southern counties are plums, cherries and strawberries 

 in bloom, though in the central portion of the State, buds are just ready to 

 burst into bloom at the first warm, sunshiny period of two or three days. 

 Fruit was probably unharmed by the severe frosts of April 27th and 28th. 

 The first spray is being applied in the central districts. 



Losses of young live stock have continued as a result of the cold, 

 damp, dark weather. 



Bulletin No. 5, May 11, 1920 — 



Farm work made rapid progress during the past week under the most 

 favorable weather conditions of the season. Showers were light and 

 scattered till the night of the 10th, when heavy rains fell in the northeast 

 and north-central portions. The soil was dried rapidly by the increased 

 sunshine and decidedly warmer weather toward the close of the week. 

 Ground that had been plowed too wet became cloddy. 



Corn planting is furthest advanced in Palo Alto, Pocahontas, Calhoun, 

 Webster and Humboldt counties, where it began about the 4th, and now 

 amounts to 20 to 50 per cent of the acreage. That planted on the 4th and 

 5th has sprouted. Planting is most backward in portions of Union, Clarke, 

 Madison and Warren counties, where it has scarcely begun. 



Early oats are 2 to 3 inches high. Though remarkably late, a consid- 

 erable acreage was seeded to oats in the southern and northern districts 

 during the week. In the central counties seeding was generally com- 

 pleted the preceding week. 



The first planting of sugar beets is over in Kossuth county and about 30 

 per cent of the sugar beet acreage has been planted in Wright county, 

 with fair conditions of soil and weather. Onions are all planted in Mitchell 

 county, where the acreage is slightly larger than in any former year. 

 Some cabbage has been planted. There was considerable potato planting 

 this week, but the acreage will be smaller than last year. Gardening 

 made rapid progress. 



Pastures are sufficiently advanced in many sections so that stock has 

 been turned in, affording much relief from the scarcity and high price of 

 feed and diverting labor from the care of live stock to urgent field work. 



Winterkilling of winter wheat amounted to about 6 per cent of the 

 acreage seeded last fall, as shown by the May 1st report of the Iowa Co- 

 operative Crop Reporting Service. The condition of the surviving winter 

 wheat at that time was 85 per cent. This crop has made good progress 



