Show AREA OF DROUTH GETS SMALLER WASHINGTON April 19 UP UP- UP The drouth area is shrinking From an area of nearly three three- fourths of or the nation last year the blight now extends over a comparatively narrow strip of the western fringe of or the nations nation's midsection Government officials were encouraged encouraged aged today to believe the national disaster of 1934 1034 would be only local loca in scope this summer Weather maps gave little immedi immediate ate ale hope to the land of western Nebraska and Kansas the Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles anc and eastern Colorado New Mexico anc and Wyoming But to the north and east spring sprIn rains gave ave promise of gooc good planting conditions for spring wheat and corn Precipitation records indicated the thc zone of if drouth was growing smaller North Dakota one of the worst drouth regions of 1934 experienced experience 49 per cent above norm normal l rain or snowfall last month March tallon in South Dakota was 12 per percent percent cent above normal and in Montana 38 per cent above A repetition of the calamitous 1934 1034 drouth however was threatened in Kansas with March precipitation only 56 per cent of normal New Mexico 53 per cent Colorado 77 per cent Nebraska 69 69 and Texas 91 In western Oklahoma precipitation last las month was 76 per p-er cent above nor nor- mal If It the drouth persists or returns to lo the spring wheat regions of the Dakotas Montana and Minnesota and the corn acres of Iowa and Missouri danger of a n national food shortage will be real officials conceded Stocks of corn on farms April 1 totaled bushels compared to bushels on April 1 1933 1033 Wheat stocks were only bushels compared to bushels two years earlier Soil erosion service officials said more than acres had been ruined for Cor further cultivation anc and feared cared these would be productive of until enough grass has been raised to hold the earth in place The loss of crops from stripping is relatively unimportant from a national standpoint the thc department department department de de- de- de of agriculture said in a special drouth report The feed situation situation situation sit sit- is so 50 bad however that cattle will have to be bc transferred to greener green green- er pastures or nourished on imported feed |