| Summary: | Rain Aids Wheat. RAINS AIDS WHEAT Rainfall In Last Two Days Shows .68 In.-Farmers Cheered TO AVERT SOME RESEEDING Near Record Planting of Winter Grain Sown in Idaho-U. S. Total Sets New High Figure. Santa Claus, or someone who had the interest of farmers of the central Idaho region at heart, provided a bountiful Christmas for them in the form of .68 inch of rain which fell on parched grain lands Wednesday night and yesterday morning. The moisture fell during the combined months of November and October when fall sown grains usually get their start. Grainmen here yesterday predicted that the long sought rain would present much reseeding which threatened to be wholesale throughout the region and most of the Inland Empire. As it is, some fields will have to be reseeded, but the feeling here was. that most had been saved by a thorough soaking of the soil. The almost unprecedented drouth of the Lewiston region was broken December 5 and 6 when a trace of snow fell, wetting the top soil. On December 6 most of the region received a generous supply of moisture, .44 of an inch being recorded at the government weather station here. During November the total was only .15 and during October .09 inch. Both months usually bring enough moisture to sustain grain growth but farmers scanned the skies day after day without encouragement. Heavy rains during the summer thunderstorms were the last until early this month which aided the crops to an appreciable extent. Plantings Show Gain About 791,000 acres have been seed to winter wheat in Idaho this year, it was reported yesterday by the department of agriculture, Boise. represents an increase of about per cent over 1935 and is by far the largest in other recent years. Records going back as far as 1923 show that the record planted acreage prior to this year was 761,000 acres seeded in the fall of 1929. Condition of the crop on December 1 was reported a 64 per cent of normal, the lowest on that in the period beginning with 1919. Lack of rainfall during the preceding months was the most un-favorable factor. In the United States a record-breaking planting of 57,187,000 is reported. The previous greatest acreage was in the fall of 1918 51,391,000 acres were planted. Seven States Decline Increases over last year are quite general, with only seven states showing decreases. The greatest, percentage increases are in the north central states. These, as a group, show an increase of about 23 per cent. An increase of nearly 10 per cent is reported in the south central states. The north Atlantic group shows an increase of about 7 per cent and the south Atlantic an increase of about 2 per cent. A slight decrease is sown acreage is reported in the western states. The condition of the winter wheat crop on December 1 throughout the U. S. was reported at 75.8 per cent of normal, compared with 78.2 per; cent on December 1, 1935, and the 10-year period (1923-32) average of 82.4 per cent. Condition is below average in most areas, with the greats est departures from average in Nebraska, South Dakota, Oklahoma,Texas and the western states. Conditions are especially poor in the Pacific northwest where shortage on moisture has been severe.
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