The Wind Came

In the rolling heartland of the U.S., the corn stood brown and brittle in the bright October weather. Farmers tinkered over their mechanical pickers. It was harvest time, and some had started bringing in what early forecasts had predicted would be the second largest corn crop in U.S. history.

But there were already signs that the crop, while large, would not be as big as forecast. In Iowa,the nation's biggest corn producer, the corn borer had done more damage than ever before. A dry summer had also hurt a bit. The Department of Agriculture lopped off almost 80 million bushels from its original lowa crop estimate of 662 million bushels. Then one day last week, the wind came.

Crashing through the state from the south, it blew for twelve hours, in Mason City reached a velocity of 90 m.p.h. Trees and chimneys toppled, barns and cornbins tumbled.

The cornfields got the worst of it. In rich Wright County, more than half the stalks were flattened. Said Farmer Leo Woodley: "I looked at my field about 10 a.m. when the wind began to blow. When I came back at noon, she was almost all down. Last year we got 80 bushels to the acre, and this year all we can hope for is 35."

Few escaped the battering. This week, the Des Moines Register's farm editor reckoned that upwards of 50 million bushels was on the ground in Iowa. In Minnesota an estimated 25% of the crop was leveled.

Not all the grounded corn would be lost, but it would take a long time to harvest, and farmers would have to hurry before rain or snow ruined the corn. Some farmers this week were turning their livestock into the fields to do the gleaning for them; many were hiring schoolboys to do the backbreaking picking by hand. In some localities, schools closed.

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