Local corn, cotton crop withering away because of heat wave (H'ville times)

[eppur_se_muova]

Budd McLaughlin, The Huntsville Times

HUNTSVILLE, AL -- Running counter to a government report that predicts record corn and cotton harvests, area farmers are seeing their crops wither away because of the oppressive heat wave.

In fact, the state of the local cotton crop has deteriorated so quickly that a local agriculture official called it a "survival crop."

And there isn't much relief in sight.

"We've got to have rain," said Thomas Atkinson, Madison County executive director of the Farm Service Agency. "On the Fourth of July ... I thought everything looked good. But, in a month's time, it went from a great crop to a survival crop."



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more: http://blog.al.com/huntsville-times-business/2010/08/local_corn_cotton_crop_witheri.html