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on a critica! necessity we generally take
for granted - WATER. In the 1930's,
lack of water, blistering wiod, and
man's foolish farming practices resulted
in the Dust Bowl. Startling facts about
that decade of drought make farmers
today eringe at the thought of its return.
Theo, massive blankets of topsoil dis–
appeared from America's heartland as
rains turned to dust.
During
one
dust storm of May
11,
1934, an estimated 300,000,000 tons of
topsoil were scoured off the Great
Plains, America's breadbasket.
In sorne places, a foot or more of fer–
tile topsoil blew off fields, piling up
along fence rows, covering neighboring
fields. Incredible black billowing clouds
composed of topsoil rose to great
heights. People as far as Washington
D.C., New York
City,
and ships on the
Atlantic were dusted with Kansas top–
soil. One day in 1934 even the U. S.
Congress had the problem graphically
portrayed before its eyes when a dust
cloud engulfed the Capitol.
Sorne reports have estimated that
25% of the farmlands in the Great
Plains belt from Mexico to Canada were
permanently ruined. The richness that
nature had bestowed over the centuries
was carried off in a matter of days in
clouds of dust.
Crops were often a total loss, espe–
cially in southwestern Kansas and over
great arcas elsewhere.
Sixteen and twenty hours a day farm–
ers worked the fields to save their land.
They struggled in dust and in cold.
Sorne, weakened by excessive dust in
their lungs, were hospitalized. Winter
temperatures were so cold the crankcase
oil in tractors held together like thick
honey. And dust trickled deep inside en–
gine carburetors, cylinders and oil pans.
Black blizzards swept over the land.
The sun appeared faintly as a blood-red
ball at midday, if it shone at all. Auto
engines failed from static electricity due
to milüons of charged dust particles in
the air. When caes stalled, motorists set
out on foot to find help. Sorne suffo–
cated in the darkening dust. Birds flew
wildly ahead of oncoming storms.
Fioally, exhausted, they fell to the
ground to suffocate. Jackrabbits died by
the thousands, throats clogged with
dust.
The
PLAIN TRUTH
Fences were buried by dust to the
tops of posts. W agons, farm imple–
ments and even houses disappeared
under mounds of drift. Yet sorne farm–
ers stayed on.
Personal Tragedies
Ooe farmer's 1932 experience was
typical. His wheat crop was ruined.
Next, a seeding of barley was blown
away. Determined to harvest a crop, he
seeded maize. Paradoxically, rains carne
- in torrents, 12 inches in June that
year. The maize grew well, attaining 2
feet in height. Then the rains ceased.
Clouds floated by, but there was no
rain. As the maize began to "head out,"
it d ried up for lack of moisture.
This same local farmer of south–
western Kansas summed up his own sit–
uation during 1932:
"1 had planted wheat in 1929, in
1930, and in 1931. I had planted barley
and I had planted maize. 1 had planted
five crops and
harvested only one,
for
whicb 1 received a miserable, low price.
You might have thought I would have
become convinced that there was no
profit in farming wheat in the Great
Plains. But I was a glutton for punish–
ment, and here I was planting wheat
again, aod still hoping."
(An Empire
of Dttst,
by Lawrence Svobida.)
All he received for his labor was, as
the title suggests, an empire of dust.
These personal tragedies of Great
Plains farming experience exemplify the
suffering and misery of thousands of
families during the 1930's. No crops,
no livelihood. Farmers packed up and
moved west to California (where you
supposedly could reach out anywhere
and pick an orange off a tree!), Oregon
- and of course,
cities
everywhere.
Repetition of Dust Bowl ?
For most people the 1930's drought
is so much history. But history has a
habit of repeating itself.
Once again, farmers are asking them–
selves: Will the beginning drought con–
ditions of the 1970's end in a repetition
of the 1930's drought? Or could the
current d rought be WORSE than others
before it?
The whole question of drought is, of
course, dependent upon
RAINFALL.
Every farmer yearns to have the Bibl ical
November 1971
promise of "rain in due season" come
true. Yet, most oations have not
received rain when oeeded, where
needed and in the amounts needed.
So badly have people wanted to break
droughts that ancient tcibes performed
various incantations in hopes of per–
suading their god to send rain. Rain
dances and other practices presumably
appeased the gods who could give or
withhold rain.
Even in these modero times, men
have looked to a Higher Power to send
rainfall and thus break drought
devastation.
One interesting, and apparently
serious, example was reported in the
news when a San Angelo, Texas, adver–
tising man put up a billboard which
pleaded, "PRAY FOR
RAIN."
The area
was then suffering a long-term drought,
one of the worst of its history.
Ye.t, to the dismay of the business–
roan, local groups pressured for the re–
moval of the sigo.
"Why ?" he asked.
"Because God doesn't make it rain,''
they reportedly replied .