1.   A lengthy drought there has parched fields and forests that usually are all but awash in water, killing crops and leaving piney woodlands ready to explode in fire.

2.   Chicago corn and soybean futures prices fell sharply Wednesday after heavy rain fell on parched Iowa fields and moved into other dry Midwest states.

3.   Hungry and abandoned cattle, at the mercy of compassionate villagers, grazed parched fields in front of tent cities.

4.   If the drought persists, leaf-eating grasshoppers may move from parched fields to irrigated lawns, gardens and row crops.

5.   Nara Singh, a father of four with a fifth on the way, picked his way through the thousands of villagers sitting in a parched field.

6.   Spring rains revived some parched fields in the southern Plains.

7.   Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman is touring parched fields in Texas and Kansas.

8.   Wheat prices fell as rainfall quenched parched fields across Europe and in Australia, where farmers were preparing to sow the winter wheat.