IOWA WEATHER AND CROP REPORT 609 



WEATHER AND CROP REVIEW 



The winter preceding the crop season of 1922 was warmer and slightly 

 more moist than normal with snowfall of only 9.5 inches for the three 

 winter months, which is the least of record and 2.5 inches less than the 

 winter of 1906-1907 which has heretofore held the record. The storm of 

 January 4th-5th left a coating of ice over the southern and part of the 

 central counties that remained for several days. Another ice or "glaze" 

 storm February 21st-23rd damaged fruit and shade trees. It was feared 

 that these two storms would kill considerable winter wheat and tame grass 

 but for some reason only two per cent of the winter wheat was killed, 

 which is far less than the average. 



Considerable precipitation in February and toward the last of March 

 made the soil too wet to work until well into April. Scarcely a beginning 

 had been made in spring seeding during the first ten days of April, but 

 drying weather the rest of the month permitted rapid progress in seeding 

 and toward the close of the month there was some complaint in the drier 

 western counties that soil moisture was not sufficient to germinate oats. 

 Not much spring wheat was sown. 



The rather unusual warmth and moisture advanced vegetation rapidly 

 but did not swell the fruit buds to the danger point and no frost damage 

 to fruit occurred. 



Livestock in general wintered well. Sows bred for. spring pigs in- 

 creased 29 per cent over the proceeding spring, but the superabundance of 

 cheap corn and the scarcity of ready cash to buy supplemental feeds, caused 

 the sows to be fed an unsuitable ration. Cholera, "flu" and other diseases 

 weakened the sows so that the size, vitality and uniformity of litter were 

 considerably reduced, and the unfavorable weather of April caused con- 

 siderable loss of pigs. Though May did not warm up as rapidly as usual, 

 it was dry and sunshiny and with coming of tender shoots of grass, the 

 condition of sows and pigs improved rapidly. 



Preparations for corn planting proceeded without interference, except 

 in a few central and eastern counties where heavy local rains occurred 

 May 23rd-26th. 60 per cent of the acreage was planted by May 15th, and 

 96 per cent by June 1. 



Drouth continued in June, the average rainfall for the month, 1.82 

 inches, being as little as June, 1911, when one of the more notable drouths 

 of the State set in. Temperatures were very high, the warmest day of 

 the year in the northwest portion of the State being June 23, when tem- 

 peratures of 100° or higher occurred. Inwood reported 104°. Corn was 

 not materially injured though the leaves curled some on hot afternoons. 

 By the close of the month the earliest corn was more than waist high and 

 about half of the crop was laid by. Oats headed very short — too short to 

 harvest in some localities in the west central and northwest counties, yet 

 thrashing returns showed yields slightly above the 10-year average over 

 most of the State and the quality was much better than last year. Win- 

 ter wheat, spring wheat and barley were not injured as much as expected, 

 the yield and quality being generally satisfactory. 



In contrast with June, July was cool and wet, which went far to repair 

 rhe crop damage. In only a few northern counties did the temperature get 



