512 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



IOWA CROP REPORT, SEPTEMBER 1, 1917. 



Following is a summary showing the condition of crops on September 

 1st, as compared with the average of past years on that date: Corn, 84 

 per cent; potatoes, 95; flax, 94; pastures, 80 per cent. On September 1, 

 1916, the conditions were: Corn, S3; potatoes, 58; flax, 88; pastures, 77 

 per cent. 



Corn is unusually backward. Practically all of the earliest planted 

 fields are only in the roasting ear stage and much of the crop is still in 

 the milk or dough stage. 



Preliminary reports indicate the average yield of winter wheat to be 

 19 bushels per acre; spring wheat, 21; oats, 50; barley, 37; rye, 20; 

 timothy seed, 5 bushels per acre. If these estimates are maintained by 

 final reports the State will produce about 2,500,000 bushels of winter 

 wheat; 3,600,000 of spring wheat; 260,000,000 of oats; 9,500,000 of bar- 

 ley and 700,000 bushels of rye. The area of timothy cut for seed was 

 only 60 per cent of last year's acreage. Eighty per cent of the threshing 

 had been finished on September 1st. 



FINAL CROP REPORT OF THE STATE, 1917. 



Following is a summary of reports from crop correspondents of the 

 Iowa (Weather and Crop Service, showing the average yield per acre 

 and total yields of staple soil products, and the average price at the 

 nearest station, December 1, 1917. This report does not include or take 

 into consideration live stock, poultry or dairy products. 



The crop season of 1917 was an exceptional one; most of the crops 

 being produced under great handicaps. The winter of 1916-17 was cold 

 and the precipitation was generally deficient, particularly in the southern 

 portion of the State. The snowfall was about normal in the northern 

 counties, but very deficient in the southern sections until March and 

 April, when in the latter month it exceeded the total amount for the 

 three preceding months. A glaze storm on the night of December 25-26 

 covered nearly the entire state with a heavy coating of ice; and another 

 on March 12-13 covered the region from the Des Moines to the Missis- 

 sippi Rivers. April, May, and June were abnormally cold, and April and 

 June were excessively wet. Cold weather continued until July 20th, after 

 which it was hot and relatively dry till August 4th. The remainder ot 

 August was cool and the showers were light and scattered. Drought 

 and grasshoppers became serious in some of the south-central and south- 

 eastern counties. September was cooler than normal with heavy frosts 

 on the 11th, on the lowlands in the northern and eastern sections; there 

 was, however, a warm period from the 13th to the 18th. Killing frosts 

 occurred in some sections of the State on October 1st, in all but the 

 southwestern portion on the €th, and throughout the State on the 8th; 

 and the entire month was cold, being the coldest of record, and 3.1 de- 

 grees colder than October, 1895, which heretofore held the record. Sun- 

 shine was unusually deficient, particularly in the northeast portion 

 where it was less than one-third of the possible amount. November was 

 much warmer and drier than usual with about the normal amount of 

 sunshine. 



