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will suffer a definite drought — at least not by meterologists’ measures. Michaels cites two scientific standards that he says haven’t been met yet: the Palmer drought severity index and the crop moisture index. Under the first standard, deep soil moisture must measure minus two for there to be a drought. Michaels says the current state-wide measure is -1.25. The crop moisture index detects stress on agricultural plants by evaluating top soil moisture. Again, minus two denotes drought conditions, and the current state-wide figure of-1.8 approaches but misses that point.
If Michaels’ forcasts for rain hold true, the local effects of dry weather on the fruit crop can be pretty well reversed.
Orchardist Lewis Moore says his peaches are down by 2Vi (or about 50 percent) in size and the apples are down by about 2xh but that he has some six weeks to go before the final effects will be known. Many of his trees are late harvesting varieties such as red delicious, winesap and black twigs. He says the small apples could recover with enough rain.
Meanwhile, George
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