Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 3.djvu/221

 In 1886 the first serious damage was done to the crops of Iowa by a protracted season of drouth. The early part of the season witnessed the ordinary amount of rain. Crops made about the usual growth until July. The small grain was fairly well matured, producing an average yield in most parts of the State. Late in July the rains almost entirely ceased in the central and southern portions of the State and the corn began to suffer seriously. August passed without rain, pastures dried up and entirely failed. The hay crop was seriously injured, thousands of acres of corn were blighted and produced no ears and the stalks were cut for fodder to supply the place of pastures and hay. Wells that had always furnished an abundance of water and creeks that had been considered permanent, went dry early in August and stock suffered greatly for water. Ponds, marshes and sloughs on the unbroken prairies as well as on farms failed, and muskrats perished by the thousands. From this time for seven years came a succession of dry seasons in which most of the ordinary wells failed and farmers were compelled to have new and deep wells bored down to a permanent water reservoir. Creeks, ponds and springs that had never before failed since the first white settlements were made, dried up and hundreds of thousands of dollars were expended by the farmers in search of permanent water supplies. These dry seasons continued with barely enough moisture to mature most of the crops, until 1894. This year came a drouth which for severity and widespread damage to crops, has never been equalled in the State. Hay, pastures and com suffered to a most disastrous extent. Early in July pastures were as dry as though destroyed by fire. Hundreds of thousands of acres of com were withered by the hot winds and continued absence of rain, and no ears were formed on the stalks; hay was less than one-quarter of a crop, and the serious problem that confronted the farmers was how to keep their stock alive.

For several years there had been an over production