The Dust Bowl

[Capt. Dan]

Originally Posted by rangerider

My parents were "Depression babies" and told me lots of stories about the dirty thirties, as they called them. They were in the north-northeast section of Nebraska, and the dust storms were not as bad there as Kansas and Oklahoma, but bad enough. The drought was horrible, and both their families lost many acres of crops and lots of livestock; many from anthrax that ravaged the country more than once. Dad remembered burning carcasses in big pits more than once - it was the only way to make sure the virus wouldn't spread. Both remembered their mothers hanging wet sheets across the windows during the dust storms to try and trap at least some of the dirt blasting through the cracks. Dad remembered trying to put fencing back up because the dirt would drift like snow and tear wire to the ground. They tried to practice low till farming, like you are describing, and it helped, but the wind tore into the land and anywhere it found a foothold, especially in the sandhills country, it started a blowout and that quickly grew with each new storm. As kids, my brother and I would go into these blowouts large and small with flour sifters from the kitchen and find arrowheads and little pieces of pottery and stone. If you were really lucky, you might find a stone used to scrape hides or a piece that looked like it might have been a pounding tool. That area was on my great-uncle's place on the very east edge of the sandhills. He and his sister never married and had about a section and a half of sandhills and a little black dirt. He figured out a long time before anyone else about planting big shelterbelts to deflect the wind and rotating his Angus cattle herd from pasture to pasture so they never chewed the grasses down more than about 4". This kept his land intact and his cattle looking pretty nice long after most of the neighbors had turned their places into wastelands. I can't imagine how many loads of water he took out on his buckboard to get 3 1/2 miles of shelterbelt trees started.

My dad was a heck of a good shot, and he had to be, because they hunted for food a large share of the time and ammunition was expensive. Rabbits, pheasants, and squirrels were the preferred game. He said some rabbits carried a "fever" that it was wise to watch for; it sickened people, cooked well or not. Both their families raised sufficient produce to feed themselves, but still ate what they could off the land so they could sell the rest for flour, sugar, seed, or repair parts for their homes and machinery. Although they never really went hungry, Mom said they always put what they could away, for the winters were not easy. No one threw anything away; repairs and fabrication used any and all materials used to ship food, liquids, etc. Dresses and aprons were made from flour sacks, and most kids went without shoes in the warm months so they could be used in the cold. Mom said there were some cases of tetanus stemming from that, although they called it lockjaw then. Every article of clothing was worn until there was not enough left to wash, and what little they had was carefully maintained and cared for - a habit I picked up and I admit it does look a little strange in this disposable day and age. Today most of us cannot imagine how it was, and further how we could ever live in those circumstances....

The most poignant thing I ever heard from them about those Depression days was a thing my Mom said when she was in her last two months of life. At one point, a hospice volunteer asked if she would like a preacher to come visit, or maybe if she felt up to it make a short trip up to a church a mile from where we live. Mom thought for a minute, and said, "You know, when I was a girl during the depression, my shoes were very worn and I had only enough cardboard to patch the holes enough to get to school and back every week; so I didn't go to church." The gal from the hospice was probably in her thirties and had no idea what my Mom was talking about...

I think that story exemplifies just what those days were like for so many people. But it burned a resolve and sacrifice into them that enabled the greatest generation to win a very difficult war a decade later.

Phenomenal story! Thanky you! How blessed we are today! And as an afterthought, Bakerfield, California probably would not be what it is today without the westward migration from the dustbowl as it is filled with the decendants of those migrants.

[John Walmsley]

Originally Posted by GregW

I do not remember the author's name but try to find a book titled "Dirt". It chronicles the downfall of many societies because they abused and lost their productive soil.

Ironically as we plant fence to fence to supply the corn to alcohol factories we are setting ourselves up for another dust bowl.

GregW,

I found the titles of two books that deal with the subject of dirt: one is Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations by David R Montgomery. However, I think the one you had in mind is Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth by William Logan, which received a five-star rating in Amazon books by several readers.

Since I was working in my own small garden (approx. 500 sq. feet) this morning, the subject is timely. I'm trying the no-till method of gardening by just disturbing just two or three inches of the top soil. After 35 years of adding compost, the soil is now quite friable and easy to work with hand tools. This has worked pretty well for the last two or three years and allows the worms to survive without tearing them up with deep tilling.The robins seem to like the idea as well, as they wait for me to leave the garden.
John

[Capt. Dan]

Originally Posted by John Walmsley

GregW,

I found the titles of two books that deal with the subject of dirt: one is Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations by David R Montgomery. However, I think the one you had in mind is Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth by William Logan, which received a five-star rating in Amazon books by several readers.

Since I was working in my own small garden (approx. 500 sq. feet) this morning, the subject is timely. I'm trying the no-till method of gardening by just disturbing just two or three inches of the top soil. After 35 years of adding compost, the soil is now quite friable and easy to work with hand tools. This has worked pretty well for the last two or three years and allows the worms to survive without tearing them up with deep tilling.The robins seem to like the idea as well, as they wait for me to leave the garden.
John

Slightly off topic but, Google Milan Tennessee and they should have a link for the annual "no till" festival. Quite interesting if you are into no till farming.