Washington, July 26.
'The drought which continues to! hold the mid-west in a relentless rip, taking a terrific toll of lives Gnd' causing incalculable damage to crops and huge live-stock " losses, Will eventually prove a "blessing in disguise."
That {s the opinion of the Secretary of Agriculture, Mr. Henry Wallace, Jr, who to-day asserted that nature is succeeding where the government was only partially suc~ Cessful. "Despite the crop reduction programme, we would still be strug-Gling with' large surpluses of most farm products, but for the drought," Mr. Wallace said.
The head of the Department of! Agriculture admitted, however, that the was worried over the corn crop, which, according to reports from the Grought belt, will reach only 25 per cent of normal in many" widely scattered "localities. "The situation ig not alarming at present, but it is Growing more serious every day, hho sald—United Press.
Kansas City, Mo, July 27 Based on present prices, the loss to the middle-west as a result of the drought has reached the stagger-Ing total of $1.436,000,000, according to an. exhaustive survey made throughout the drought area.
The losses were mostly in crops and live-stock, Total deaths now number well over 1,000 from causes Girectly or indirectly attributable to the heat and Jack of rainfall.
Estimates of losses by states included:
Kansas, crop, $200,000,000, livestock, -$180,000,000; Missouri, crop, '$250,600,000, Nebraska, crop, $150,000,000, stock. $75,000; Oxisoma, crop. $25,000,000, live-stock, "$6,000,000: Texas, crop, $15,000,000, live-stock, $25,0000008" Arkansas, "Towa and Towa, combined total, $200,000,000.
The heat wave has come to an end but the drought continues unabated.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.