Show ke UP r V wi cien C e L S n er 1 C V science service service great pleat heat hurts corn more than lack of moisture meteorologist explains how drouth cuts crop detroit excessive heat in drouth years is a more potent cause of corn crop failure than lack of water senior meteorologist charles D reed of the united states weather bureau station at des moines iowa told the third dearborn conference of agriculture industry and science session here in support of his thesis mr reed cited recent drouth history in in his own state in 1934 summer precipitation averaged inches greater than in 1533 1933 in iowa yet there was a bumper crop in 1933 and nearly a corn failure in the southern counties in 1934 because of the excessive and prolonged heat with an average of days with temperatures degrees 4 or higher the greatest of record up to that time this cut the 1934 corn yield to bushels as compared with 14 in 1894 lost million bushels then came the calamitous summer of 1936 the heat of july and august averaged degrees surpassing by 32 degrees the record hot july and august 1901 with an average of days degrees or higher during the last half of july 1936 the iowa corn crop was reduced DOO bushels to an average yield per acre of about 17 bushels in small areas the destruction was even more complete than in 1894 whole townships in the south part of plymouth central part of woodbury counties report only two or three wagon loads of corn we used to tc say it cant happen in iowa but like the californians we must reluctantly admit that we had some unusual al weather deprecates deprecate cycle theory discussing the much debated question of weather cycles mr reed heed found ome difficulties but also offered sweltering erinc humanity promise of some relief considerable has been said about precipitation cycles but since precipitation is a resultant of many complex factors of which temperature i is s the major one the search for precipitation cycles is not likely to be very fruitful there is however a rough rhythm to the temperature graph for the state of iowa which can with a little imagination be divided into cycles or periods after eliminating volcanic and other influences fluen ces there is little doubt that we have just passed a historic peak in the temperature cycle that must be followed by a summer in 1937 much cooler than recent surn summers mers and probably averaging near or slightly below the long time summer average and the cycles that have gone before lead one to believe that there will be a tendency for the next 2 or 3 summers to grow cooler |