European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 20, 1980, Darmstadt, Hesse Of problems in face of drought and heat wave Harold Barrett says you can t be a farm evening and the hat land. Rich and somber and always silent the Miles of fresh slowed soil heavy and Black full of strength and harshness. Willa gather of pioneers 1913 by John m. Lee new York times n his bitter Prairie stories of 100 years ago Hamlin Garland wrote of main travelled roads with a Dull Little town at one end and a Home of toil at the Iowa has changed but it is still much the same. Farm life remains toilsome yet it has become enormously efficient producing wealth for Many Farmers bounteous food for Consumers and billions of Export dollars for the nation s Trade accounts. This year however the state is a Briar Patch of problems with a recession probably second Only to Michigan s in severity and a prickly farm situation combining inflation and a summer drought scare. They pronounce it drouth there and Harol Barrett is ready to talk about it Nith people who visit his farm. His address is Dallas Center but the directions Are complicated. The Best thing is to drive straight West out of us Moines and into the scald ing Sun. A mile and half past the Waukee Grain elevator you take the second gravel Road to the right. After a couple of Miles a s a announces the farm of Harold l. Barrett & son a 20-Acrc spread with an air conditioned Brick farmhouse crouched in the planted Shade. The farm is three times the average size for Iowa and at today s inflated prices the land alone is Worth More than $2.5 Corn soybeans Oats cattle and hogs Are worked by Barrett a 59-year-old forthcoming Man his eldest son two others have gone off to the cities and one hired hand. The farm grosses $400,000 a year. The More this heat Rocs on the More you feel it he said slapping his Wallet pocket. Corn s the problem. Last year was sensational but it s the feed Grain for livestock and poultry and you really Don t know what your re getting until the Harvest. But 1 can Tell you we re Way s wife Lilla who brought a Large Fern Home from a hawaiian vacation offers the hospitality of lemonade and the Cool efficiency of five years of monthly rainfall figures jotted in comparative columns on an in Dex be been in accumulating capital Barrett said and 1 Don t need to take Money out of the farm week to week. But 1 feel for these Young Fellows. Look at these interest rates and particularly the Cost of farm land. It is $1,500 to $2,500 an acre even $3,000. You be got to be born into it or marry Barrett s farm has been in his family for four generations and his Grandfather broke the land. Like a Prairie Tornado the drought has taken a Capri Cious toll. Texas hurts while Iowa profits. Missouri suf fers and Ohio gains. It is not yet Clear what Overall damage has been inflicted on the nation s farm Economy but consumer food prices Are almost certain to Rise More hardly darkening the inflation Outlook once again. At american Grain and related industries farm cooperative known As Agri industries that does is billion Worth of business annually in Grain Merchan dising ind processing executives remain optimistic. Maurice Van Nostrand the 54-year-old Market re search director and former political aspirant said last year was fantastic for farm income 1980 May just be awfully indeed the Winter wheat crop was largely harvested before the drought and the 100-degree heat seared the Plains and ruined the pastures. Cattle prices have bit record highs but herds Are being thinned because feed in so expensive. Farmers from the Dakotas to Texas have lost Corn yields and states South of Iowa and Illinois have suffered heavy damage Overall. Now the hot air has spread Over parts of Iowa. Corn has failed to Polli Nate properly and the beat of August set the Fate of the purple flowering soybeans. A Rou-3 Namiat go i lot Barrett shares a lunch with his wife Lilla on their farm near Des Moines. Emmai Tad cult Jiejin Page 14 the stars and stripes saturday
