NINETEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART II 101 



The President : We will now listen to the report on the final 

 crop estimate for 1918 by Charles D. Reed, Director of the Iowa 

 Weather and Crop Service Bureau. 



FINAL CROP REPORT OP THE STATE, 1918. 

 By C. D. Reed. 



The winter of 1917-18 was one of the coldest, averaging 5.4° below normal 

 and only 0.5° warmer than 1892-93, the coldest of record. Snowfall averaged 

 3.4 inches more than the normal and because of the continuous cold 

 weather and the absence of sleet and rain the snow covering was generally 

 porous and continuous, except in some west and southwest counties. Win- 

 ter wheat, except where seeded in cornfields, was generally blown bare of 

 snow. 



March was abnormally warm with deficient precipitation, except in the 

 northern tier of counties. Frost left the ground early in the month; the 

 soil worked up in fine condition; seeding of spring wheat and oats was 

 completed in the south and made rapid progress in the north portions; 

 and husking of the 1917 corn crop which had been delayed by the soft con- 

 dition of the corn and by the severity of the winter, was about finished. 

 Winter wheat came through the winter in good condition, especially in the 

 southeast counties. Some that had apparently not germinated in the fall 

 of 1917, germinated in March and, though there was considerable difference 

 of opinion among farmers and others as to whether this would make a 

 crop, it is now known that in many instances it did make a crop of 15 to 

 25 bushels per acre. The drouth of March continued till the middle of 

 April, except scattered showers* or snows during the first week. The 

 drouth, high winds and low humidity killed much of the winter wheat and 

 young clover, timothy and alfalfa. On March 18, a number of stations re- 

 ported the lowest relative humidity ever recorded. At Des Moines it was 

 5 per cent at 2 and 3 p. m. A large acreage of winter wheat, hay and 

 pasture land was plowed up. Considerable early spring wheat was 

 drilled in with the winter wheat where the stand was thin and patchy. 



Iowa's hay and pasture land was decreased by about three quarters of a 

 million acres, the acreage of other crops, mainly spring wheat and barley, 

 being correspondingly increased. The acreage of spring wheat would have 

 been much larger if sufficient cars had been available to transport the 

 seed. The dry weather of the early spring and the cold weather of April 

 made germination of spring grains very irregular. They depended largely 

 upon subsoil moisture till the middle of April. Warmer weather with 

 copious showers toward the close of April improved grains; some that had 

 been selected six weeks previously had just begun to show green at the end 

 of the month. A heavy snowstorm extended across the State from south- 

 west to northeast on April 19th-21st. In Taylor County this snow accumu- 

 lated to the ususual depth of 2 feet or more, exceeding the total fall of 

 the winter months preceding. 



