THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 1, 1995 TAG: 9412300391
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 13 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: Jody R. Snider
LENGTH: Short : 35 lines
The region's corn crop may have bit the dust in 1994, but cotton and peanuts put on a good show.
A blistering heat scorched the corn fields for the third year in a row, leaving some farmers with no crop at all and others with fewer than 30 bushels an acre. However, cotton and peanuts drank up late rains that began in July.
As a result, farmers turned their hopes to cotton in 1994, pulling the state's total acreage up from 22,000 to 42,000 acres with an estimated value of $18 million. While most farmers reported two bales to the acre, some said they were getting three. A bale of cotton weighs about 500 pounds and sells for about $350.
Meanwhile, after suffering through a bad year in 1993, peanut farmers turned the corner with a bumper crop of about 3,000 pounds per acre.
Most Hampton Roads pumpkin growers, however, reported less than half a crop this year, blaming strange weather patterns for the strange growing season.
In June, when farmers were planting, fields were bone dry across the region. In July, 14.37 inches of rain fell. In August, more rain came. And the pumpkin crop died on the vine. The result was that many a jack-o'-lantern in Hampton Roads this year was imported from Pennsylvania, and many pumpkin farmers lost their shirts. by CNB