BALTIMORE -- Malcolm Goode Jr. is so discouraged he can't bear to look at his field of dead corn, shriveled from drought.
"I don't think it is going to turn around this year," said Goode, 46, who owns 500 acres in Maddox, Md. "The corn crop is just about shot."A growing number of farmers who can only stand by and watch their crops die because of a drought that began last summer.
The worst conditions are in the mid-Atlantic and the interior Pacific Northwest. Drought conditions also exist in the Northeast and California.
The last time a dry spell continued this long in this region was November 1979 to April 1981.
Already, Pennsylvania has declared a drought emergency, which means mandatory restrictions on water use. In New Jersey, the governor has asked people to cut back. Areas of Virginia have been declared agriculture disaster areas. Maryland and Delaware have issued drought warnings, asking the public to conserve.
New Jersey farmer Bob Puskas said the last good rain was 3 inches in May.
"It is very devastating," said Puskas, who farms 1,500 acres in Somerset. "Our corn is pretty much a lost cause. Milk production is off by one-third. It is from the heat stress and there's no pasture left."
Reservoirs throughout the region are below normal and dropping. In eastern Pennsylvania, some wells are drying up.
Areas of Maryland and Virginia are running a 15-inch rain deficit over the past year, meaning rainfall is about 32 percent below normal. In Pennsylvania and New Jersey, some areas have a 13-inch deficit.
It would take a tropical storm to pull the region out of the drought, but those conditions probably wouldn't come until August or September.
In Maryland, the mayor of Myersville employed dowsers -- people who search for water using divining rods -- after the town spent $20,000 on a geologist and an engineer who both came up dry. Drillers found water Thursday where the dowsers said it would be, but a hydro-geologist said the flow was too little for a city.
In Philadelphia, city fountains have been turned off and sprinkler caps were removed from more than 100 fire hydrants used by children to keep cool.
Eleven counties in Virginia have asked to be declared disaster areas. About 500,000 fish were found dead Thursday in a tributary of the Pocomoke River -- apparent victims of excessive heat, which can deplete water of oxygen.
In New York, many municipalities have placed restrictions on watering lawns and filling pools.
Livestock, hay and pastures have been hit particularly hard.
"People are culling their herds, they're selling more of their livestock, because they see they're not going to have enough water or feed to carry their herd into the winter," said Roy Seward of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.