26 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



to permit further cultivation and many fields were laid by in a weedy 

 condition. The third decade was the v.armest part of the moiith, the 

 29th. being the warmest day, when the maximum temperatures ranged 

 generally from 90° to over 100°. During this period the showers con- 

 tinued light and scattered, and at the close of the month the surface of 

 the ground was dry over the larger part of the State, and the crops in 

 the eastern districts were beginning to feel the effects of the drouth. 

 Exceptionally rapid progress was made during the latter half of the 

 month in haying and harvesting, and most of the hay and grain crops 

 were secured in excellent condition. Clover made rapid advancement, 

 and nearly all of the early planted fields were in full tassel and earing 

 nicely at the close of the month, and the late planted fields were improving. 

 Some threshing was done before the close of the month. Pastures and 

 potatoes were still in good conditioB at the end of the month, but they, 

 as well as corn were needing more rain. 



August, 1909, will be noted for its uniformly high temperature, the 

 small number of cloudy days, and, over the larger part of the State, the 

 small amount of rainfall. Both the day and the night temperatures were 

 high until the 2Sth, when a cool wave passed over the State, re- 

 sulting in light frosts on low ground on the morning of the 29th over the 

 northern and, in a few localities, in southern districts, but no damage was 

 done to vegetation. The maximum temperatures were up to or above 90° 

 on ten days in northern and twenty-one days in southern counties, and 

 the average of the monthly maximum temperatures was 96°. The rainfall 

 was deficient in all but the northeast and extreme north central counties; 

 yet at least a trace of rain fell in some part of the State on every day 

 of tha month except the 19th and 20th. During the second decade, showers 

 were frequent and the rainfall heavy over the northeast and north 

 central districts; but over the remainder of th^ State, the showers were 

 extremely local, and the rainfall generally very light. The monthly 

 rainfall ranged from a trace in Jefferson County to 8.21 inches in 

 Chickasaw county. Drouthy conditions prevailed during the entire month 

 over the southern half of the State, and the condition of the corn crop 

 deteriorated from 10 to 25 per cent; but the early planted corn, on rich 

 soil and well cultivated fields, withstood the drouth remarkably well 

 and much of it was w'ell up to the average of past years at the close of 

 the month. The dry, cloudless weather was, however, favorable for 

 stacking and threshing grain, and that work progressed rapidly. Shock 

 threshing was practically completed at the close of the month. 



The hot and drouthy conditions prevailing at the close of August 

 were broken by lower temperatures on the 1st and copious and general 

 showers on the 2d of September. The average temperature was below 

 normal, but the maximum temperatures ranged from 80° to 87° over the 

 northern, and from 85° to 94° over the southern districts, between the 

 9th and 13th and from the 17th to the 21st. The lowest temperature 

 occurred on the 27th, when the minimum was below the freezing point at 

 several stations in the northern counties. Light frost occurred on low 

 ground in the extreme northern part of the State on the 1st and 5th and 

 in all parts of the State on the 23d, 24h and 27h. On the 27th the frost 



