Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 October 1897 — RAIN FALLS AT LAST. [ARTICLE]

RAIN FALLS AT LAST.

SHOWERS GIVE ENCOURAGE* MENT TO FARMERS. A- . : v •. ' 7' '7 1 ; Nine Parched Western States Are Well Sprinkled How the Crops Will Be AffectcA- Is Uncertain, but Good Pasturage Is Assured. Baked Soil Is Soaked. The first signs of promise in many weeks appeared to the farmers Sunday throughout the Western States. A general opening of the clouds moistened the parched earth just enough to awaken the belief that Providence still reigns, and that the end of the almost unprecedented drought is at hand. In nine of the dozen or more States afflicted by the blighting dryness showers fell with a gentle force sufficient to soften the hard crust that has been baking for weeks on the fields and prairies. A hymn of thanksgiving mingled with the falling of the rain in hundreds of localities. Countless numbers of farmers hailed the showers that visited their acres as their salvation from heavy misfortune. For days and days they have been waiting for a favorable time to put in their winter wheat. Such ground as would permit plowing at all was so dry that clouds of dust followed the plows across the fields. The fields that had been planted early in the beginning of the drought with winter wheat promised nothing for lack of water on the tender sprouts. It is now believed that much of the ground can be put in cultivation in time, taking it for granted that the drought is broken. Reports received from the Government signal service show that rain has fallen very generally in Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, lowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Upper Michigan and Illinois. The visitation in Nebraska is the first rain of any consequence that has fallen for six weeks. Suffering Kansas got her first wetting in two months Sunday afternoon. lowa received her share of rain at the same time. In its effect upon the future crops the damage wrought by the drought cannot be estimated for many days, in the opinion of experienced observers. On regular cultivated soil, grain men declare, the contracted wheat area merely means a larger corn acreage next year, but this does not apply to the vast acres of prairie ground that have never been touched by a plow.' Much of this virgin prairie sod was to have been turned over this fall in Nebraska arid Kansas, but the drought has made it necessary for this work to be left over. To make such land available for next year’s use it must be plowed in the fall and left to the elements until the next spring. It is too late now for such work to be carried out to completion. One consolation has been found in the drought by the stock growers, while the farmer has found nothing to compensate him for the loss of bis winter wheat prospeet. The cattlemen declare the prospects for abundant and fine grazing on the ranges have not been so good in years. The grass lias been extremely well cured by the protracted dry weather, and this fact is encouraging to the men who count their wealth by the head. Their only anxiety lias been to supply their cattle with water sufficient to keep them alive. Now that the rain has begun falling their cup of joy is full, as they see the ponds and creeks and wells once more available.