UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

Harold L. Ickes, Secretary

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

W. C. Mendenhall, Director

Water-Supply Paper 820

DROUGHT OF 1936

WITH DISCUSSION ON THE SIGNIFICANCE

OF DROUGHT IN RELATION

TO CLIMATE

UNITED STATES

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

WASHINGTON : 1938

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C. ------ Price 15 cents

CONTENTS

Page

Introduction- _____________________________________________________ 1

Causes ___________________________________________________________ 4

Precipitation- _________________________________________________ 4

Temperature. _________________________________________________ 10

Wind_______________________________________________________ 11

Effects on ground and surface water supplies._________________________ 12

Ground water.__________---__----_____________-_-_______-_____ 12

Surface water.________________________________________________ 13

Stability of water supply.______________________________________ 13

Decline of lake levels_--__-_____________________________________ 17

Damage._________________________________________________________ 20

Vegetation. ___________________________________________________ 20

Domestic and industrial water supplies.__________________________ 20

Health. ______________-_-_-_-_._____________________ 22

Power.-.-------------------------__------_----___________ 22

Navigation. ___________________________________________________ 22

Recreation and wildlife._______________________________________ 22

Relief__-_________--____-___--_-----____._-________-____________ 22

Major drought years in humid and semiarid States ____________________ 24

Droughts as related to the semiarid States____-_____-____________--___ 27

The shelter belt.___________-__--__-_____-___________________ 35

Natural vegetation and soils in the Great Plains in relation to climate. ___ 37

Droughts and cropS--_-_-_----______--_________--__________________ 39

Droughts and the classification of climate---________-_-__-____-_-_-__- 44

Variability of climate____-----______-___________________________-__ 51

Climatic risks-____________________________________________________ 52

Backgrounds of economic distress in the Great Plains, by H. L. Walster _ 53

Index--_-______--___--_-_-----_-___-________________,________-__- 61

ILLUSTRATIONS

PLATE 1. Precipitation by States in percent of mean for 11 major drought

years _________________________________________________ 4

2. Fluctuation of water surface in wells and comparative data:

A, well 261, Hall County, Nebr.; B, Ross well at Arlington, Va_ 12

FIGURE 1. Annual and seasonal precipitation, in inches, for 1936_______ 7

2. Annual and seasonal precipitation, in percent of mean, for 1936- 8

3. Temperatures, 1936--_-__-_________-________-__--_---_-_ 10

4. Average annual excess of precipitation over requirements of

consumption by evaporation and transpiration ___________ 15

5. Diagram showing why lakes of the Great Plains are low-____ 18

in
IV CONTENTS

Paga

FIGURE 6. Percentage of total rural families in typical agricultural regions 

of the Great Plains receiving public assistance in February 

1935 and 1936 and August 1936__.-____________". 23

7. Drought years, 1881-1936.-.____________________________ 24

8. Map of the Great Plains area showing average annual precipitation in inches for 40-year period 1895-1934, with 

typical monthly distribution___________________________ 28

9. Total precipitation for May, June, July, and August, 1936, 

in inches, and composite yields of crops per acre expressed 

as percentage of average yield, 1936.____________________ 41

10. Total precipitation for May, June, July, and August, 1936, 

in percentage of mean, and composite yields of crops per 

acre expressed as percentage of mean, 1936______________ 42

11. Relation of composite yields of crops per acre in 1936 to total 

precipitation in May, June, July, and August, 1936, for 

humid and semiarid States.____________________________ 43

12. Normal climatic regimen of the United States_----__-._____ 46

13. Climatic regimen of the United States during 1936_________ 47

14. Normal distribution of thermal efficiency in the United

States..._____-____.________--_---.____ 48

15. Normal summer concentration of thermal efficiency in the

United States...--.._______________________________ 49

16. Moisture available during the normal growing season.______ 50

17. Moisture available during the growing season of 1936_______ 50

18. Percentage of time during the period of record in which annual 

precipitation has been less than consumptive requirements of 

evaporation and transpiration.__-_-__-______-__-_-_.____ 52

TABLES

1. States in which records of previous minimum precipitation were

equaled or broken in 1930-36.________________________________ 3

2. Average annual, seasonal, and monthly precipitation.______________ 5

3. Annual, seasonal, and monthly precipitation, maximum temperature,

and crop yields for year ending November 30, 1936______________ 7

4. States in which precipitation for 1935 or 1936 ranked as one of the

eight lowest for the period 1881 to 1936.....________--__________ 9

5. Number of days in June, July, and August, 1936, with maximum

recorded temperature of 100° and 110° or above _________________ 11

6. New stream-flow minima in 1936.________________________________ 14

7. Fifteen worst drought years in humid States__--_____--____-_______ 25

8. Fifteen worst drought years in semiarid States_____________________ 26

9. Number of years when precipitation did not exceed 85, 80, 75, or 70 

percent of mean and the precipitation for the 8 years in which the 

precipitation was lowest, for the period 1881 to 1936, by States..-. 26

10. States in which precipitation in 1936 in the period May to August, inclusive, was less than 85 percent of normal or in which 1936 crop 

yields were less than 90 percent of normal--_____________________ 43
DROUGHT OF 1936

WITH DISCUSSION ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF DROUGHT 

IN RELATION TO CLIMATE

By JOHN C. HOYT

INTRODUCTION

During each of the 5 years 1930-34, except 1932, one or more of the 

States except five Maine, Vermont, Louisiana, Mississippi, and 

Arkansas experienced a major drought. In 1935 water-supply 

conditions were in general normal throughout the country, but in 

1936 droughts occurred in many localities.

A report on the droughts of 1930-34 has been published in Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 680. The conditions during 1936 

are presented in the present report, which is based on information 

collected under the direction of the 36 district engineers of the Geological Survey, supplemented by data made available through the United 

States Weather Bureau, Bureau of Agricultural Economics, and other 

agencies as indicated. Acknowledgment is hereby made to these various agencies. W. M. Littlefield has assisted in the arrangement and 

preparation of tables and graphs. W. G. Hoyt has supplied advice and 

material for the parts relative to water supply and the classification 

of climate, and W. B. Langbein has been of special assistance in the 

preparation of the sections treating of climate and its classification 

and drought aspects.

In some sections of this report, notably that entitled "Droughts 

as related to the semiarid States," there have been collected numerous 

pertinent quotations. This collection has the merit of making available in one place statements by several experts and thus serving as 

an exposition both of the subject and of the best thought upon it.

In this report, as in Water-Supply Paper 680, the following definition of a drought has been used. When in an area that is ordinarily 

classed as humid, natural vegetation becomes desiccated or defoliates 

unseasonably and crops fail to mature owing to lack of precipitation, 

or when precipitation is insufficient to meet the needs of established 

human activities, drought conditions may be said to prevail. Alii
2 DROUGHT OF 1936

though water for irrigation or other uses in arid areas is always limited, 

special shortages in such areas are also regarded as droughts. Unsatisfactory distribution of precipitation throughout the year may be 

as effective in causing a drought as a shortage in the total amount. 

Temperature and wind may also play important parts, especially 

in relation to the damage done.

As interest in droughts may relate either to their physical characteristics as determined by the phenomena which cause them or to their 

economic effects as reflected by damage, they may be considered 

either as natural phenomena or as economic phenomena usually 

both and it is therefore essential in drought studies to take into 

account not only physical data but also information as to the extent 

and nature of human activities in the area affected.

Although deficiency in precipitation is the prime cause of drought, 

it is not possible to set for any region an exact limit of the total 

annual precipitation above which a drought does not exist and below 

which a drought may prevail. In general, however, in the humid 

and semiarid States there are no serious drought effects unless the 

annual precipitation is as low as 85 percent of the mean that is, 

unless there is an annual deficiency of 15 percent or more. This 

limit is used in the present report as a measure of a drought year 

and may serve in many drought studies.

In considering droughts the division of the country into three 

sections with respect to precipitation the humid East, the arid West, 

and the intermediate semiarid States must be kept in mind. In the 

humid East precipitation is usually adequate to supply the needs of 

vegetation and of other activities. In the arid West precipitation 

is sufficient to supply only a certain amount of natural vegetation 

without irrigation, and other activities are limited by the water 

supplies that can be conserved. The semiarid States constitute a 

section that may be either humid or arid, depending on weather 

conditions in a particular year. Thus for a year or several years there 

may be adequate water for all needs, following which there may be 

a year or several years of deficiency, which creates an unstable condition as to agriculture and all other activities.

It has been found in drought studies that conditions are usually so 

variable as to both time and area that it is difficult to make comparisons or draw conclusions that can be considered more than general 

unless small areas are studied independently, and even then conclusions will generally apply only to the areas studied and for a given time 

and are not to be extended to apply to other areas or other times.

The average precipitation in each State for the 11 major drought 

years since 1881, expressed in percentage of the annual mean, is 

given in plate 1. Five of these drought years occurred during the 

period 1930-36. The figures indicate the percentage of the precipi-
INTRODUCTION

tation, and the shaded areas the States in which droughts occurred. 

Heavy-face figures indicate that the recorded precipitation is the 

minimum of record. During 1930-36 previously recorded minima 

were equaled or broken in 21 States, as indicated in table 1.

Drought conditions during 1936 were general over the humid and 

semiarid States. In the arid States water supplies were average or 

above, except for slight shortages in sections of Montana, Wyoming, 

and Colorado. In the humid section the principal drought areas were 

in the Ohio and upper Mississippi Biver basins and in Michigan. The 

areas affected were scattered, both as to time and place, and although 

droughts were severe in certain localities, they were not as severe as in 

1930 and in general would not be classed as especially unusual. Damages in the humid areas were restricted to agriculture.

In the semiarid States, except Texas, the drought was especially 

severe, appreciably more so than in any previous years. The drought 

of 1936 was characterized by general crop failures, and there was much 

inconvenience due to lack of water supplies for various activities. As 

in most other droughts, excessive temperatures and hot winds contributed in large measure to the drought of 1936.

The drought of 1936 in the semiarid section again emphasizes the 

fact that radical adjustments must be made in activities if the area is 

to be self-sustaining. The conditions in this section became so serious 

that the President appointed the Great Plains Drought Area Committee, which reported in August 1936. After this report was made he 

appointed the Great Plains Committee, which summarized its studies 

and made its recommendations in a report entitled "The Future of the 

Great Plains", submitted in December 1936.

TABLE 1. States in which records of previous minimum precipitation were equaled

or broken in 1930-36

State

Humid States:

West Virginia. _________ . __

Ohio. _... .-_..-.-.-_..... 

Semiarid States: 

Kansas _ . __ . ....- ___ .. ...

Arid States:

60-year 

mean 

1881-1930 

(inches)

44.07 

44.96 

39.01 

45.89 

42.47 

41.89 

42.18 

50.30 

45.81 

43.83 

38.44 

31.29 

40.17 

48.97 

50.48

27.48 

20.77 

17.70

16.79 

54.22

Minimum, 1930-36

Date

1930 

1930 

1930 

1930 

1930 

1930 

1930 

1930 

1930 

1930 

1934 

1930 

1934 

1936 

1931

1936 

1936 

1936

1934 

1930

Inches

32.83 

32.02 

32.18 

35.28 

28.82 

23.78 

24.99 

39.80 

27.86 

25.43 

26.60 

22.62 

29.70 

31.78 

36.75

17.42 

11.13 

8.92

10.93 

37.11

Percent 

of mean

74 

71 

82 

77 

68 

57 

59 

79 

61 

58 

69 

72 

74 

65 

73

63

54 

50

65 

68

Minimum prior to 1930

Date

1918 

1924 

1908 

1895 

1895 

1895 

1925 

1925 

1894 

1895 

1895 

1925 

1901 

1901 

1904

1917 

1894 

1917

1890 

1929

Inches

36.57 

34.84 

33.54 

37.29 

33.51 

34.47 

32.53 

40.50 

34.81 

32.82 

28.46 

25.51 

30.56 

35.27 

37.17

19.60 

15.30 

10.92

11.97 

38.66

Percent 

of mean

83

77 

86 

81 

79 

82 

77 

81 

76 

75 

74 

82 

76 

72 

74

71

74 

62

71 

71

It is recognized that portions of Oregon are humid, though the State is here classed as arid.
4 DROUGHT OF 1936

CAUSES

The drought of 1936, like previous droughts, resulted from deficient 

and unsatisfactorily distributed precipitation, accompanied by high 

temperature and warm winds. The detrimental economic effects of 

the drought in the semiarid States were increased as a result of the 

previous droughts since 1930, from which recovery had not been

made.

PRECIPITATION

Records of mean annual precipitation give only a general indication 

of droughts. The distribution of the precipitation may cause severe 

drought in a year when the annual precipitation is normal or above, or 

on the other hand it may prevent a serious drought in a year of deficient precipitation. Therefore, precipitation as related to droughts 

should be studied on a seasonal basis in order to obtain a true picture.

In a recent publication,1 three seasons have been used as a basis for 

study, as follows: December through April, May through August, 

September through November. These three seasons correspond 

rather closely, over the United States as a whole, to the three seasons 

found by experience to be specially significant in water-supply 

studies namely, the storage period, December through April, when 

losses are least; the growing period, May through August, when 

evaporation and transpiration are most active, with the resulting 

depletion of soil moisture and minimum ground-water recharge; and 

the replenishment period, September through November, when 

accretions to the soil moisture and ground water commonly occur. 

Under this arrangement precipitation records give a better basis for 

drought and other studies and show many conditions that are not 

disclosed by the annual figures. The studies in this report have been 

based on these three seasons.

The average annual, seasonal, and monthly precipitation is shown in 

table 2. For the year ending November 30, 1936, these data are 

shown in table 3 and also graphically by States in figures 1 and 2. 

The following discussion for the various States in the three principal 

climatic sections of the country is based on these data.

Humid States. Precipitation did not exceed 85 percent of the 

normal in 54 percent of the area of the humid States. Twelve States 

were affected, comprising the greater portion of the Mississippi and 

Ohio River drainage basins and Michigan. The precipitation for 

these 12 States was 76 percent of the normal and ranged from 65 

percent of the normal in Arkansas, which was the lowest on record, 

to 84 percent in Michigan and Tennessee. In the remainder of the 

humid States except Ohio (87 percent normal), the precipitation 

approached or exceeded normal.

' Hoyt, W. G., and others, Studies of relations of rainfall and run-off in the United States: Geol. Survey 

Water-Supply Paper 772,1936.
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY WATER-SUPPLY PAPER 820 PLATE 1

95 ; : 87 

-r._J '05 }-.._.._..J

-J... 109 

/ W9 I

IU< !

98

PRECIPITATION BY STATES IN PERCENT

OF MEAN FOR ELEVEN MAJOR

DROUGHT YEARS

All figures indicate percentage of mean. Large figures indicate 

minimum recorded. When annual precipitation falls to 85 percent of the mean, a deficiency of 15 percent, a drought may be 

said to exist. _Shaded areas show the States having droughts 

under this definition. The percentages are for the calendar year 

except 1936, which is for December 1935 to November 1936 inclusive. In the arid States precipitation on a calendar year 

basis is not a true index of the water supply available for vegetation.

TABLE 2. Average annual, seasonal, and monthly precipit

State

Humid States:

New York. _ . ______ .. ....

Ohio ____ . _________ .-

Indiana - -

Illinois -

Iowa

Wisconsin

Louisiana... __ _ . __ _. _ _

50-year 

mean, 1 

1881- 

1930 

(inches)

41.20 

39.52 

37.03 

42.39 

44.07 

44.96

39.01 

45.89 

42.47 

41.89 

42.18 

50.44

48.21 

50.30 

45.81 

43.83 

38.44 

31.29

40.17 

37.26 

48.97 

40.17 

31.48 

31.63

25.91 

52.94 

50.48 

63. 11 

53.32 

55.64

Total, 

19362

45.66 

45.63 

43.25 

45.08 

42.24 

46.65

38.56 

42.82 

41.00 

41.43 

42.50 

56.96

55.45 

42.39 

35.82 

41.86 

33.25 

26.27

32.46 

28.54 

31.78 

27.72 

25.40 

24.45

17.55 

57.37 

56.09 

57.80 

41.83 

46.62

Initial 

year 

for 

monthly 

means

1888 

1888 

1888 

1888 

1888 

1888

1890 

1885 

1888 

1895 

1891 

1887

1887 

1883 

1889 

1891 

1883 

1887

1887 

1897 

1891 

1888 

1873 

1891

1891 

1891 

1892 

1884 

1888 

1891

Storage period

Dec.

3.24 

2.95 

2.63 

3.53 

3.81 

3.73

2.90 

3.65 

3.16 

3.15 

3.08 

3.82

3.63

4.57 

3.95 

3.34 

2.76 

2.08

2.86 

2.25 

4.26 

2.05 

1.19 

1.31

.79 

2.76 

4.23 

4.91 

5.31 

5.39

Jan.

3.53 

3.01 

2.78 

3.72 

4.05 

3.86

2.93 

3.57 

3.22 

3.30 

3.24 

3.73

3.60 

4.72 

4.33 

3.63 

3.00 

1.84

3.03 

2.28 

4.22 

2.31 

1.08 

1.20

.75 

2.81 

4.27 

5.02 

5.04 

4.84

Feb.

2.99 

2.67 

2.46 

3.48 

3.68 

3.60

2.68 

3.61 

2.86 

2.95 

3.12 

4.06

4.27 

4.35 

3.38 

3.11 

2.58 

1.68

2.41 

2.14 

3.29 

2.06 

1.09 

1.17

.74 

3.14 

4.90 

5.29 

4.90 

4.58

Mar.

3.58 

3.31 

2.93 

3.96 

4.16 

4.09

3.07 

3.78 

3.54 

3.57 

3.77 

4.27

3.91 

5.43 

4.73 

3.97 

3.38 

2.16

3.75 

3.05 

4.74 

3.26 

1.72 

1.77

1.19 

3.13

4.88 

5.89 

5.76 

4.72

Apr.

3.09 

3.03 

2.84 

3.55 

3.84 

3.69

2.98 

3.61 

3.39 

3.45 

3.30 

3.56

3.17 

4.43 

3.97 

3.51 

3.11 

2.46

3.49 

3.37 

4.84 

3.91 

2.71 

2.51

2.04 

2.88 

3.72 

4.33 

4.85 

4.64

Total

16.43 

14.97 

13.64 

18.24 

19.54 

18.97

14.56 

18.22 

16.17 

16.42 

16.51 

19.44

18.58 

23.50 

20.36 

17.56 

14.83 

10.22

15.54 

13.09 

21.35 

13.59 

7.79 

7.96

5.51 

14.72 

22.00 

25.44 

25.86 

24.17

G

May

3.16 

3.07 

3.10 

3.27 

3.40 

3.63

3.48 

3.73 

3.88 

3.41 

3.74 

4.11

3.57 

4.10 

3.99 

3.97 

3.65 

3.20

4.01 

4.12 

5.02 

4.77 

4.07 

3.58

3.15 

3.99 

3.48 

3.90 

4.39 

4.63

Jun

3.4

3.5

3.6

3.4

2.9

3.3

3.6

3.7

4.1

4.0

4.1

4.6

4.7

4.1

4.1

4.3

3.7

3.0

3.7

4.0

4.0

4.6

4.6

4.0

4.0

6.6

4.3

4.2

4.1

4.5

 Means for Oregon and Washington are for period of record through 1934. Means for western, middle, and eastern divis

» Total precipitation for 1936 is for 12-month period December 1935 to November 1936.
TABLE 2. Average annual, seasonal, and monthly precipitation 

State

Semiarid States:

South Dakota... ___ ..___. ...

Texas:

State _______ ___ ....

Arid States:

Utah............................

Oregon:

Washington:

50-year 

mean, 

1881- 

1930 

(inches)

32.63 

27.48 

23.50 

20.77 

17.70

16.62 

27.33 

41.67 

30.84

14.49 

16.79 

14.05 

15.21 

17.17 

9.01

12.67 

13.10 

23.53

13.81

54.22

16.89 

56.98

Total, 

1936

22.73 

17.42 

14.02 

11.13

8.92

16.57 

32.47 

39.08 

31.95

13.41 

15.50 

12.91 

10.71 

16.00 

9.34

15.69 

12.51 

23.65

13.96 

42.7S>

13.89 

54.93

Initial 

year 

for 

monthly 

means

1892 

1887 

1876 

1890 

1892

1888 

1S88 

1888 

1888

1892 

1888 

1892 

1895 

1893 

1889

1891 

1895 

1897

1890 

1890

1890 

1890

Storage period

Dec.

1.69 

.85 

.70 

.57 

.52

.61 

1.70 

3.83 

2.26

.69 

.90 

.74 

.88 

1.97 

.97

1.07 

1.19 

3.67

1.69

8.54

2.50 

9.00

Jan.

1.41 

.66 

.51 

.54 

.48

.47 

1.41 

3.26 

1.91

.56 

.76 

.79 

.88 

2.21 

1.19

1.20 

1.25 

4.83

1.82 

8.50

2.41 

8.31

Feb.

1.33 

1.00 

.71 

.56 

.46

.57 

1.44 

2.96 

1.84

.71 

.98 

.78 

.69 

1.71 

1.05

1.26 

1.25 

4.34

1.51 

6.73

1.75 

6.11

Mar.

2.16 

1.42 

1.15 

1.11 

.78

.60 

1.70 

3.28 

2.07

.74 

1.29 

1.17 

.95 

1.78 

.97

1.39 

.96 

3.54

1.31

5.97

1.44 

5.71

Apr.

3.35 

2.56 

2.41 

2.06 

1.42

1.31 

2.81 

3.97 

3.05

.88 

1.77 

1.58 

1.14 

1.40 

.77

1.18 

.53 

1.64

1.14 

3.85

1.02 

3.91

Total

9.94 

6.49 

5.48 

4.84 

3.66

3.56 

9.06 

17.30 

11.13

3.58 

5.70 

5.06 

4.54 

9.07 

4.95

6.10 

5.18 

18.02

7.47 

33.59

9.12 

33.04

G

May

4.73 

3.80 

3.45 

2.88 

2.32

1.91 

3.67 

4.53 

3.76

1.15 

1.91 

2.08 

2.18 

1.68 

.88

1.21 

.30

.98

1.25 

2.90

1.17 

3.06

June

3.79 

4.00 

3.67 

3.37 

3.39

2.07 

2.85 

3.66 

3.08

1.23 

1.40 

1.60 

2.48 

1.29 

.50

. 5

.34 

.34

.98 

1.76

1.03 

2.36

It is recognized that portions of Texas, California, Oregon, and Washington are humid, though Texas is here classed as s
TABLE 3. Annual, seasonal, and monthly precipitation, maximum temperature, and crop yields for year ending Nov. SO, 19S6

State

Humid States:

New York. 

Virginia. 

Ohio... ...................

Illinois-..... . .

Florida.... .

Louisiana __ ...... .....

Bemiarid States:

Texas:

Middte division ..... .

State 

Arid States:

Utah......... ..... 

Oregon:

Washington:

Precipitation

50-year mean 1 

1881- 

1930 

(inches)

41.20 

39.52 

37.03 

42.39 

44.07 

44.96

39.01 

45.89 

42.47 

41.89 

42.18 

50.44

48.21 

60.30 

45.81 

43.83 

38.44 

31.29

40.17 

37.26 

48.97 

40. 17 

31.48 

31.63

25.91 

52.94 

50.48 

53.11 

53.32 

55.64

32.63 

27.48 

23.50 

20.77 

17.70

16.62 

27.33 

41.67 

30.84

14.49 

16.79 

14.05 

15.21 

17.17 

9.01

12.67 

13.10 

23.53

13.81 

54.22

16.89 

56.98

1936

Total

45.66 

45.63 

43.25 

45.08 

42.24 

46.65

38.56 

42.82 

41.00 

41.43 

42.50 

56.96

55. 45 

42.39 

35.82 

41.86 

33.25 

26.27

32.46 

28.54 

31.78 

27.72 

25.40 

24.45

17.55 

57.37 

56.09 

57.80 

41.83 

46.62

22.73 

17.42 

14.02 

11.13 

8.92

16.57 

32.47 

39.08 

31.95

13.41 

15.50 

12.91 

10.71 

16.00 

9.34

15.69 

12.51 

23.65

13.96 

42.78

13.89 

54.93

Percent of 

mean

111 

115 

117 

106 

96 

104

99 

93 

97 

99 

101 

113

115 

84 

78 

96 

87 

84

81 

77 

65 

69 

81 

77

68 

108 

111 

109

78

84

70 

63 

60 

54 

50

100 

119 

94 

104

93 

92 

92 

70 

93 

104

124 

95 

101

101 

79

82 

96

Storage period

Dec.

1.91 

1.25 

1.20 

1.25 

1.16 

1.05

1.85 

1.67 

2.62 

2.50 

2.31 

3.00

2.82 

1.69 

2.39 

3.66 

2.47 

1.38

1.61 

1.22 

2.95 

1.13 

.95 

.91

.78 

2.69 

2.75 

4.24 

3.90 

5.72

1.77 

.27 

.29 

.56 

.51

.36 

2.58 

4.98 

3.18

.50 

.36 

.49 

.37 

1.36 

.87

.80 

.79 

2.46

1.64 

6.45

1.95 

7.26

Jan.

6.40 

6.07 

4.83

6.78 

6.96 

7.01

3.54 

6.34 

4.21 

6.00

a 44

7.79

7.68 

5.02 

2.99 

4.01 

1.65 

1.87

1.47 

1.40 

1.05 

1.01

1 68 

1.31

.76 

5.55 

9.21 

12.34 

6.20 

5.17

.39

.71 

.92 

.65 

.56

.66 

.53 

1.19

.75

.86 

.76 

1.22 

1.02 

3.76 

1.41

1.57 

.78 

5.00

3.92 

13.26

3.53 

12.72

Feb.

2.75 

2.31 

2.05 

2.95 

4.06 

2.70

2.18 

3.10 

2.33 

3.82 

3.86 

4.72

4.89 

3.10 

1.95 

2.61 

2.55 

1.76

2.59 

1.87 

1.70 

1.50 

1.33 

1.57

1.41 

6.77 

6.50 

7.34 

4.79 

4.15

.42 

.23 

.81 

.69 

.70

.08 

.43 

1.63 

.73

.71 

1.52 

1.54 

1.32 

2.84 

2.47

2.90 

1.81 

9.51

2.18 

6.91

1.82 

8.29

Mar.

7.66 

9.44 

7.24

8.17 

7.13

7.88

5.54 

5.28 

6.84 

5.84 

5.83 

6.22

5.33 

6.77 

4.85 

6.21 

3.65 

1.09

2.74 

1.70 

2.19 

1.27 

1.02 

1.58

1.50 

3.29 

4.32 

3.63 

2.93 

2.07

.51 

.14

.57 

.78 

.82

.32 

1.10 

1.32 

1.02

.32 

.99 

1.17 

.72 

1.45 

.59

1.32 

.98 

1.86

1.03 

4.10

1.25 

6.49

Apr.

4.39 

4.33 

4.32 

3.60 

3.36 

3.85

3.45 

3.23 

3.01 

2.84 

3.43 

5.59

8.27 

4.32 

4.79 

3.66 

2.92 

2.04

3.17 

2.44 

2.64 

2.45 

1.10 

1.28

1.30 

2.19

7.92 

6.82 

4.78 

4.32

.99 

1.17 

1.59 

1.28 

.39

.37 

1.77 

2.30

1.69

.31 

.80 

1.13 

.82 

1.00 

.30

.65 

.14 

1.59

1.22 

2.20

.67 

1.78

Total

23.11 

23.40 

19.64 

22.75 

22.67 

22.49

16.56 

19.62 

19.01 

21.00 

21.87 

27.32

28.99 

20.90 

16.97 

20.15 

13.2-1 

8.14

11.58 

8.63 

10.53 

7.36 

6.08 

6.65

5.75 

20.49 

30.70 

34.37 

22.60 

21.43

4.08 

2.52 

4.18 

3.96 

2.98

1.79 

6.41 

11.42

7.37

2.70 

4.43 

5.55 

4.25 

10.41 

5.64

7.24 

4.50 

20.42

9.99 

32.92

9.22 

36.54

Percent of 

mean

141 

156 

144 

125 

116 

119

114 

108 

118 

128 

132 

141

156 

89 

83 

115 

89 

80

75 

66 

49 

54 

78 

84

104 

139 

140 

135

87 

89

41 

39 

76 

82 

81

50 

71 

66 

66

75 

78 

110 

94 

115 

114

119 

87 

113

134 

98

101 

111

Growing period

May

3.66 

2.86 

2.93 

2.35 

1.65 

2.91

2.70 

2.78 

2.09 

2.11 

1.35 

.90

.48 

1.31 

1.50 

1.99 

1.78 

2.11

2.02 

2.07 

2.50 

2.52 

2.91 

2.70

2.52 

4.12 

1.22 

1.91 

2.69 

5.13

4.49 

4.88 

3.20 

1.67 

.80

3.90 

6.46 

8.16 

6.52

1.78 

1.73 

.52 

1.07 

.94 

.45

.53 

.12 

.62

1.02 

4.50

.82 

5.53

Tune

3.25 

2.44 

2.12 

2.89 

3.31 

4.89

2.51 

4.93 

3.80 

3.19 

3.36 

4.20

3.66 

1.04 

.Si 

2.41 

1.74 

2.00

1.37 

1.66 

1.26 

1.42 

2.85 

2.29

1.87 

8.01 

3.00 

1.91 

1.36 

.53

1.97 

1.26 

2.01 

1.32 

1.34

1.05 

2.27 

.76 

1.59

.94 

1.41 

1.82 

1.78 

2.05 

.79

1.21 

.19 

.81

1.58 

2.53

2.44 

4.80

July

2.63 

3.31 

3.89 

2.19

2.08 

2.22

2.13 

2.47 

2.88 

4.18 

4.20 

6.83

5.06 

6.75 

3.78 

5.10 

3.06 

1.10

1.59 

1.22 

4.90 

1.52 

.51 

1.01

.73 

6.47 

5.04 

7.21 

6.00 

6.42

.71 

.86 

.57 

.62 

.70

1.82 

3.27 

7.02 

4.15

2.07 

2.15 

1.55 

.73 

.73 

.79

2.36 

2.32 

.19

.39 

.74

.23 

1.80

Aug.

2.59 

3.64 

4.68 

5.36 

2.87 

4.31

4.19 

4.14 

4.96 

4.30 

3.65 

4.68

4.84 

2.21 

2.22 

3.96 

3.59 

3.45

3.04 

2.66 

.44 

.84 

3.48 

5.15

2.93 

6.74 

6.41 

5.76 

2.39 

4.42

.21 

1.08 

1.62 

1.59 

1.40

.55 

1.60 

1.73 

1.47

2.07 

2.65 

1.27 

.99 

.82 

.53

1.59 

2.24 

.13

.20 

.08

.15

1.07

Total

12.13 

12.25 

13.62 

12.79 

9.89 

14.33

11.53 

14.32 

13.73 

13.78 

12.56 

16.61

14.04 

11.31 

8.31 

13.46 

10.17 

8.66

8.02 

7.61 

9.10 

6.30 

9.75 

11.15

8.05 

25.34 

15.67 

16.79 

12.44 

16.50

7.38 

8.06 

7.40 

5.20 

4.24

7.32 

13.60 

17.67 

13.73

6.86 

7.94 

5.16 

4.57 

4.54 

2.56

5.69 

4.87 

1.75

3.19 

7.85

3.64 

13.20

Percent of 

mean

91 

89 

97 

92 

75 

96

78 

84 

83 

85 

75 

82

71 

68

52 

79 

70 

73

55 

52 

55 

37 

61 

78

59 

102 

83 

92 

70 

81

52 

57 

57 

48 

42

87 

125 

121 

115

93 

106 

85 

63 

106 

113

152 

92 

117

108 

137

118 

176

Replenishment period

Sept.

3.12 

2.43 

2.31 

3.94 

5.88 

3.96

3.19 

4.30 

2.17 

2.40 

3.30 

4.77

4.51 

3.10 

3.57 

1.82 

3.18 

5.01

4.84 

6.77 

4.15 

8.62 

7.22 

3.48

2.07 

4.51 

4.50 

2.80 

2.13 

2.73

7.85 

4.84 

1.78 

.74 

1.15

5.98 

8.80 

4.64 

7.04

2.78 

1.63 

.70 

.95 

.55 

.29

.54 

1.46 

.16

.67 

1.18

.71 

2.40

Oct.

5.09 

5.22 

5.06 

3.87 

2.56 

4.49

4.54 

3.40 

3.69 

3.24 

3.66 

6.11

6.14 

4.01 

3.47 

3.89 

4.00 

3.03

4.44 

3.23 

5.00 

3.55 

1.69 

2.26

.68 

5.50 

3.87 

2.12 

1.76 

2.22

2.91 

1.82 

.38 

.40 

.21

.88 

2.55 

3.11 

2.44

.60 

1.17 

1.01 

.59 

.33 

.76

1.64 

.81 

1.22

.03 

.35

.18 

1.45

Nov.

2.21 

2.33 

2.62 

1.73 

1.24 

1.38

2.74 

1.18 

2.40 

1.01 

1.11 

2.15

1.77 

3.07 

3.50 

2.54 

2.66 

1.43

8.58 

2.30 

3.00 

1.89 

.66 

.91

1.00 

1.53 

1.35 

1.72 

2.90 

3.74

.51 

.18 

.28 

.83 

.34

.60 

1.11 

2.24 

1.37

.47 

.33 

.49 

.35 

.17 

.09

.58 

.87 

.10

.08

.48

.14 

1.34

Total

10.42 

9.98 

9.99 

9.54 

9.68 

9.83

10.47 

8.88 

8.26 

6.65 

8.07 

13.03

12.42 

10.18 

10.54 

8.25 

9.84 

9.47

12.86 

12.30 

12.15 

14.06 

9.57 

6.65

3.75 

11.54 

9.72 

6.64 

6.79 

8.69

11.27 

6.84 

2.44 

1.97 

1.70

7.46 

12.46 

9.99 

10.85

3.85 

3.13 

2.20 

1.89 

1.05 

1.14

2.76 

3.14 

1.48

.78 

2.01

1.03 

5.19

Percent of 

mean

99 

100 

100 

89 

92 

88

107 

88 

87 

77 

95 

130

131 

107 

115 

97 

118 

111

139 

134 

118 

144 

122 

83

63 

88 

106 

71 

73 

79

141 

112 

56 

59 

53

160 

168 

102 

138

112 

95 

75 

57 

23 

71

91 

102 

36

23 

14

23 

32

Number 

of months 

below 

mean to 

1936

7 

7 

6 

6 

7 

5

7 

8 

8 

8 

6 

5

6 

7 

7 

6 

8 

7

8 

10 

9 

10 

9 

9

8 

6 

6 

7 

10 

8

10 

9 

10 

9 

9

9 

7 

8 

8

8 

6 

6 

10 

7 

6

6 

8 

7

7

7

9 

6

Maximum annual 

temperature (° F.)

Ofrecord 

to Nov. 

30, 1936

106 

104 

104 

106 

101 

105

108 

110 

111 

110 

109 

108

111 

113 

114 

112 

113 

112

116 

115 

120 

118 

118 

114

114 

109 

111 

112 

115 

114

120 

121 

118 

120 

124

120

116 

115 

114 

113 

118 

122

119 

127 

134

} 119 

| 118

1936

96 

200 

97 

102 

94 

103

107 

110 

111 

109 

109 

106

105 

110 

113 

112 

111 

112

116 

115 

120 

118 

117 

114

114 

103 

106 

107 

111 

114

120 

121 

118 

120 

121

113 

120 

118 

120

111 

112 

110 

113 

112 

117

113 

123 

126

f 111 

1 103

/ HI 

\ 105

Number 

of days 

in June, 

July, and 

August 

with temperature 

of 100° or 

more

0 

0 

0 

I 

0 

2

9 

5 

12 

11 

16 

15

25 

46 

46 

26 

23 

12

47 

53

77 

69 

50 

18

22 

5 

34 

38 

54 

42

78 

74 

66 

60 

42

59

78 

57 

80

53 

45 

36 

36 

33 

82

61 

86 

84

14 

1

13 

1

Crop 

yields 

(percent 

of 10-year 

average, 

1921-30)

103 

94 

94 

97 

102 

108

87 

99 

98 

102 

92 

107

130 

100 

79 

78 

96 

95

85 

77 

119 

60 

64 

76

66 

94 

128 

129 

152 

131

52 

62 

45 

37 

45

89

104 

95 

77 

52 

101 

106

101 

117 

102

} 102 

} 102

i Means for Oregon and Washington are for period of record through 1980. Means for western, middle, and eastern divisions of Texas cover period 1888 to 1936. 

It is recognized that portions of Texas, California, Oregon, and Washington are humid, though Texas is her* classed as semiarid and the other States mentioned as arid. 

26479-38 (Taoep.7)

CAUSES

Deficiencies in precipitation for the growing period in Kentucky, 

West Virginia, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota 

were sufficient to reduce materially the crop yields in these States, 

the reduced yields ranging from 60 to 79 percent of the normal.

Semiarid States. Precipitation in the semiarid States except 

Texas ranged from 50 percent of the normal hi North Dakota to 

70 percent of the normal in Oklahoma, and all the States in the 

section except Texas were affected. Previous recorded lows were 

broken in North Dakota (50 percent of normal), South Dakota (54
8 DROUGHT OF 1936

percent of normal), and Kansas (63 percent of normal). In respect 

to both deficiency in precipitation and extent of area affected, 1936 

was the worst drought year of record in the semiarid States.

During the growing season precipitation ranged from only 42 to

57 percent. It was the shortage during this period that made the 

drought so serious in this section. The crop yields in these States 

ranged from only 37 to 62 percent of normal.

Arid States. The precipitation in the arid States approached or 

exceeded normal in all except Montana (70 percent of normal), western
CAUSES 9

Oregon (79 percent of normal), and eastern Washington (82 percent 

of normal). No previously recorded lows were broken. Although 

there was over 90 percent normal precipitation in Colorado, Wyoming, 

and New Mexico, deficiencies in the parts of these States bordering 

on the semiarid States was sufficient to produce severe drought.

The only pronounced deficiencies in precipitation in the arid States 

during the growing season were in Wyoming and Montana, and in 

these States crop yields were materially reduced.

TABLE 4. States in which 1935 or 1936 ranked as 1 of the 8 lowest years in precipitation for the period 1881 to 1936

State

Humid States:

Ohio ....-..-- . ..........

Illinois.. - 

Semiarid States:

Arid States:

50-year 

mean, 18*1- 

1930' 

(inches)

44.07 

44.96 

50.30

45.81

38.44 

31.29

40.17

48.97 

40.17

31.48

25. 91

53.32

55.64

32.63

27.48

23.50

20.77

17.70

15.21 

17.17 

54.22 

16.89

Precipitation, 1935

Inches

37.74 

35.75

10.89 

12.40 

40.63 

12.01

Percent 

of mean

86 

80

*

72 

72

75 

71

Drought 

rank 2

7 

3

5 

3 

3 

3

Precipitation, 1936

Inches

42 39

35.82 

33.25 

26.27 

32.46 

28.54 

31.78 

27.72 

25.40 

24.45 

17.55 

41.83 

46.62

22.73 

17.42 

14.02 

11.13 

8.92

10.71

42.78

Percent 

of mean

84- 

78 

87 

84 

81 

77 

65 

69 

81 

77 

68 

78 

84

70 

63 

60

54 

50

70

79

Drought 

rank"

4 

5

5 

7 

3 

1 

2 

7 

3 

2 

4 

7

4

1 

2 

1 

1

3

4

1 Means for Oregon and Washington are for period of record through 1930.

' In order of intensity of droughts in State for the period 1881-1936, number 1 indicating most intense.

It is recognized that portions of Oregon and Washington are humid, though these States are here 

classed as arid.

As shown in table 3, under the 85 percent criterion there were 

droughts in 1936 in 18 States and also in eastern Washington and 

western Oregon. In 20 States 1936 ranked as 1 of the 8 years of 

lowest precipitation during the period 1881-1936, as indicated in 

table 4.

Previously recorded minima were broken in four States Arkansas, 

Kansas, South Dakota, and North Dakota. Deficiencies during the 

growing season, May through August, were largely the cause of the 

severity of the drought. These deficiencies were especially great in 

the five northern semiarid States and in the bordering States to the 

east.
10 DROUGHT OF 1936

TEMPEBATITBE

During 1936 unusual temperatures were noticeable in most sections 

of the country. The winter was much colder than usual, especially 

in the Northeastern States. The spring and early summer were mild,

but beginning with the middle of June excessive temperatures were 

recorded in most States, as indicated in table 3 and graphically in 

figure 3, which also gives the number of days during June, July, and 

August when temperatures of 100° or over were recorded in the various
EFFECTS ON GROUND AND SURFACE WATER SUPPLIES 11

States. Except in three of the New England States, maximum temperatures of over 100° were recorded in all the States, and in most 

States there were maxima of 110° or more. In all the semiarid States 

maxima of 120° or over were recorded, except in Nebraska, where 

the maximum was 118°. Previous maximum recorded temperatures 

were broken in 12 States and equaled in 6 others. Excessively hot 

days continued over long periods of time, as indicated in table 5.

TABLE 5. Number of days in June, July, and August, 1936, with maximum recorded 

temperature of 100° and 110° or above

Place

St. Louis, Mo . _________

100°

34

51

27

64

110°

0

4

1

23

Place 100°

62

60

53

66

110°

5

26

19

13

WIND

Severe wind disturbances were recorded during 1936 in South 

Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Iowa, Texas, and Utah. The 

worst storms were in Georgia and Mississippi. In April there were 

at least 7 major tornadoes in Georgia, causing 230 deaths and serious 

injury to 1,500 people. Property damages were estimated at $16,000,- 

000 in what was said to be one of the worst tornado disasters ever 

known in the State. On April 5 a severe tornado demolished an 

appreciable part of Tupelo, Miss., killing 216 people and seriously injuring 700 others, with property damages estimated at over $3,000,000. 

The excessive heat that accompanied winds during the summer in 

the drought sections contributed largely toward the destruction of 

vegetation.

Reports in the Monthly Weather Review 2 indicate that dust storms 

during the first 7 months of the year, especially in the semiarid States, 

were more frequent and severe than usual but that during the last 5 

months they were less frequent and severe.

EFFECTS ON GROUND AND SURFACE WATER SUPPLIES

Except in the semiarid States, there were no marked deficiencies in 

water supplies, either surface or ground, during 1936. Increased 

facilities for supplying water, which had been installed on account of 

shortages since 1930, produced adequate supplies to meet most needs.

In the absence of systematic observations extending over periods 

of considerable length, false impressions of the progressive depletion 

of ground water may be imparted by the deepening of wells or the 

adding of new wells in periods of drought. Surface water supplies 

generally fail first in a drought, and where insufficient storage has 

been developed recourse is frequently had to the sinking of new wells 

as the quickest and most direct means of obtaining potable water.

»A summary statement relative to dust storms in the Southwest is given in the issue for June 1936.
12 DROUGHT OF 1936

The ordinary well when first sunk does not penetrate very deeply 

below the water table; consequently it becomes necessary to deepen 

the well when the first drought lowers the water table. Furthermore, 

in some older wells the intakes clog, debris accumulates at the bottom, 

or the casings leak. Although such deterioration is continual, it becomes 

most noticeable and of greater effect in times of drought, when 

a general deepening or replacement of such wells becomes necessary.

Such activities, although normal under the prevailing conditions, 

lead to the impression that there is a progressive lowering of the 

ground-water table. The fact that the ground water may later rise 

to former or higher levels as a result of subsequent precipitation is 

generally overlooked during a period of general well-being. Statistical 

studies 3 show that in many sections of the country precipitation and 

water-supply trends have been downward during the last few years. 

Similar downward trends in the past have been followed by upward 

trends, and there is nothing to indicate conclusively that the present 

downward trend may not soon be reversed.

GROUND WATER

Long-time records of fluctuation of the water table are not available, and studies relative thereto are based more on generalized impressions than on observed data. Precipitation in 1935 was adequate 

in most areas to replenish in a large measure the depletion in ground 

water which existed after the beginning of that year. As a result, 

few springs and wells dried up, and ground-water contributions to 

surface streams and lakes were fairly well sustained during 1936. 

Ground-water trends during 1935 and 1936 tend to refute the idea 

that there will not be a reversal in the downward trend of groundwater levels when precipitation returns to normal.

In the Midwest States ground-water levels in 1936 generally 

declined below the levels of 1935. In Wisconsin, North Dakota, 

South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas a general 

lowering was indicated. Except in Oklahoma, where there was little 

recharge in 1935, the ground-water levels of 1936 in many of the areas 

that were affected by lack of rain in 1934 were appreciably higher 

than in 1934, although in most areas lower than in 1935. This condition was due to the rather general recharge of ground water in 1935, 

which was sufficient to create a hold-over that was ample in many 

areas to supply demands of 1936. These features are illustrated by 

the hydrograph of the fluctuation of the water surface of an observation well in the Platte River Valley in Nebraska, shown on plate 2, A, 

which also shows a graph of the accumulated departure from the mean 

annual precipitation. A comparison of these two graphs shows that

1 Hoyt, W. Q., and others, Studies of relations of rainfall and'run-offin the United States: Geol. Survey 

Water-Supply Paper 772, pp. 20-57,1936.
GEOLOGICAL SUE VET WATER-SUPPLY PAPER 820 PLATE 2

UJ 

UJ 

U.

cc

UJ

X

t

24.5

25.0

25.5

26.0

26.5

27.0 ACCUMULATIVE DEPARTURE IfRQM NORMAL 

ANNUAL PRECIPITATION AT K^ARNEY AND

GRAND ISLAND, NEBRASKA

10

0 (/} ui

-10 o

z

-20

-30

A OBSERVATION WELL 261. HALL COUNTY. NEBRASKA

1929 Dec.Jw>. 1930 Dec. Jan. 193) Dec. Jan. 1932 Dec. Jan. 1933 Dec. Jan. 1934 Dec. Jan. 1935 Dec. Jan. 1936 Dec. Jan. 1937 .0«P-

/HYDROGRAPH OF ROSS

AT ARLINGTON, VA.

ESTIMATED GROUND-WATER DISCHARGE 

OF THE NORTHWEST BRANCH OF THE ANACOSTIA

COLESVILLE, MD. ACCUMULATIVE DEPARTURE FROM NORMAL

ANNUAL PRECIPITATION AT WASHINGTON. D. C

B. ROSS WELL AT ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA

FLUCTUATION OF WATER SURFACE IN WELLS AND COMPARATIVE DATA.
#

.w
EFFECTS ON GROUND AND SURFACE WATER SUPPLIES 13

the recent decline in ground-water levels corresponds with the deficiency in precipitation.

Heavy precipitation and floods in the Eastern States in the spring 

of 1936 caused water levels to rise in many wells higher than usual 

and in some to the highest levels in several years. However, there 

was less recharge during the summer than in most years, and therefore 

the ground-water levels generally declined by the fall of 1936 to levels 

as low as those in years with only moderate spring recharge. The 

ground-water levels, in most localities, however, stood above the low 

levels reached during the dry years of 1930-31.

The general behavior of ground water in the Eastern States is 

illustrated by the record of the Ross well at Arlington, Va., as shown 

on plate 2, B. With this record of well levels is a graph of the estimated ground-water discharge of the North Branch of the Anacostia 

River, at Colesville, Md., and a graph of the annual accumulated 

departure from the normal precipitation. Attention is directed to the 

trend of precipitation, which corresponds with that of the groundwater levels and the base stream flow.

SURFACE WATER

Few records of minimum stream flow were broken in 1936. Precipitation in the form of snow and rain in the headwater areas of the large 

tributaries of the Mississippi River from the west assisted materially 

in sustaining the low-water flow. In addition, the raising of the 

ground-water table in 1935 had an appreciable effect on most streams 

in the drought area. Examples of the effect of the drought of 1936 on 

stream flow in the principal drought areas are given in table 6. Conditions of low stream flow were most severe in the drainage basin of the 

Red River.

Water-supply conditions in the arid States are indicated by reports 

of the United States Bureau of Reclamation, which indicate shortages 

in only a few reservoirs, among which the most serious was in the 

Belle Fourche Reservoir, in South Dakota.

STABILITY OF WATER SUPPLY

Evaporation and transpiration have the first demand on precipitation. The amount which is used through these two means will vary 

and is principally dependent upon the amount and intensity of rainfall, temperature, and other climatic factors, the vegetable cover, and 

the physical characteristics of the area on which the precipitation falls. 

Ground-water recharge and stream flow are dependent upon the residual of precipitation that remains after the abstraction of water through 

the action of evaporation and transpiration. The drought-resistant 

qualities of an area depend upon the stability and amount of surfaceand ground-water supplies. In general, the larger and more stable the 

residual the greater is the margin available for resisting drought.

26479 38 3
TABLE 6. New streams-flow minima in 1936

Stream and station

East Branch of Delaware River, Fishs 

Eddy, N. Y. 

West Branch of Delaware River, Hale 

Eddy, N. Y. 

Little Beaver Kill, Livingston Manor, 

N. Y.

West Fork of White River, Newberry, 

Ind.

Black River, Neillsville, Wis... - 

Republican River, Bloomington, Nebr_

North Fork of White River, Henderson, 

Ark

White River, De Vails Bluff, Ark 

Mississippi River, Vicksburg, Miss...

Drainage 

area 

(square 

miles)

783 

593 

19.8

467 

4,670

306 

10, 300 

756

661 

25, 500 

295 

10, 800 

1,550 

6,390 

20, 900 

1,680 

1,000 

1,640 

3,795 

1,894

1,110 

1,640

6,170 

23,800 

1, 144, 500

Years of 

record

24 

24 

12

5

8

6 

22 

22

22 

54 

5 

9 

5 

8 

7 

22 

15 

24 

IS 

14

8 

8

8 

9 

5

Mean annual discharge for 

period of 

record 

(second-feet)

1,679 

1,074 

47.1

547 

4,050

201 

8,607 

562

414 

2,199 

23.8 

1,210 

43.4 

736 

685 

1,371 

991 

1,809 

1,148 

593

1,224 

1,370

5, 662 

23, 150 

514, 500

Discharge (second-feet) for year ending Sept. 30

Minimum

Day

72 

33 

1.2

14 

251

15 

2,100 

0.7

6 

13 

3.9 

M18 

0.6 

78 

7 

50 

22 

490 

0 

0

15 

312

105 

3,200 

101, 000

7-day

81.0 

36.4 

1.3

16.6 

255

16.9 

2,501 

1.0

8.3 

13.4 

9.0 

456 

1.5 

87 

9.7 

53.3 

23 

511 

0 

0

16

318

112 

3,210 

102, 400

Calendar 

month

148 

51.8 

3.11

33.5 

323

19.6 

2,611 

6.4

15 

20.3 

10.0 

549 

3.4 

210 

59.2 

62.2 

28.5 

551 

0 

0

19.6 

323

152 

3,455 

125, 400

Annual

1,722 

1,215 

55.8

268 

2.333

160 

7,417 

565

216 

592 

21.8 

1,134 

36.3 

517 

524 

377 

338 

950 

696 

152

437 

722

2,206 

10, 110 

401, 600

i Estimated.

? Exclusive of winter minimum.
EFFECTS ON GROUND AND SURFACE WATER SUPPLIES 15

Figure 4 shows the normal amount of this residual in the United 

States as determined from a study of annual precipitation, temperature, and run-off over several comparatively large drainage basins. 

It was deduced from this study that in the humid East there passes

into the atmosphere through the processes of evaporation and transpiration an average annual amount equivalent to about 18 inches of 

water over the basin for a mean annual temperature of 39°, increasing 

to about 33 inches of water for a mean annual temperature of 64°.
16 DROUGHT OF 1936

This figure affords a basis for the study of the stability of water 

supplies and should be studied together with figure 18, discussed on 

pages 51-52 under variability of climate, showing geographically the 

frequency of occurrence of years in which rainfall has been insufficient 

to meet the requirements of normal consumption by evaporation and 

transpiration and further indicating the relative stability of the residual 

available for water supply.

In the eastern United States, essentially in that region east of the 

10-inch residual line shown on figure 4, the margin of precipitation in 

excess of normal consumption by evaporation and transpiration and 

the relatively uniform seasonal distribution of rainfall are sufficient to 

assure perennial streams and relatively stable ground-water levels. 

Although years of drought seriously decrease the water supply, the 

streams in this region are never dry. In other words, the ground-water 

levels are maintained above the stream channels.

The region between the 10-inch residual line and the zero residual 

line (heavy line, fig. 4) lying to the west, in the Great Plains, generally 

coincides with the moist-subhumid climatic province as hereinafter 

described. In this region ground-water recharge occurs only during 

years of more than average precipitation of which the major part falls 

during the growing season, when the evaporation and transpiration 

demands are greatest. Although stream flow is sustained, it is not 

perennial, and frequent dry years occur, as indicated in figure 18.

In the area between the line of zero residual and the Rocky Mountains the precipitation is insufficient to meet the requirements of 

normal evaporation and transpiration more than 50 percent of the 

time, as shown in figure 18. Consequently annual ground-water recharge occurs only under the most favorable conditions of more than 

average and properly distributed precipitation. Stream flow that 

originates in this region is intermittent, and run-off occurs only because 

the precipitation which is concentrated hi the growing season occurs in 

storms and falls at rates exceeding the capacity of the ground to absorb it. The only sustained streams are those which rise in the Rocky 

Mountains and higher plains and traverse this region, generally with a 

decreasing flow resulting from losses by evaporation, diversion, and 

seepage as they cross the plains.

In the Rocky Mountains and the Great Basin, with the exception of 

the mountainous areas, the precipitation is insufficient to meet requirements of normal evaporation and transpiration. However, certain 

portions of the higher northern areas have abundant precipitation, 

most of which falls as snow at times when evaporation losses are low, 

and consequently the resulting run-off is relatively large and well 

sustained. In the lower southern areas run-off follows the erratic 

rainfall, and the yield of streams is negligible. The floodwaters are 

discharged onto the valley floors, where they in part disappear by
EFFECTS ON GROUND AND SURFACE WATER SUPPLIES 17

evaporation and seepage and in part are added to the ground-water 

storage and thus become available for water supply.

The precipitation of the Pacific coast region is concentrated in the 

winter, and that of the summer approaches zero. The average annual 

amount varies widely, from over 100 inches in a small area in northwestern Washington to less than 5 inches in southern California. 

As shown in figure 4, in the areas of high precipitation there is a wide 

margin of excess of precipitation over the losses, and stream flow is 

well sustained through the summer by flow from the melting snow and 

glaciers. The areas of low precipitation have intermittent streams 

similar to those of the Great Basin.

DECLINE OF LAKE LEVELS

Lake levels in the Great Plains a,rea have shown decline in recent 

years. Although the primary cause for the decline is the decrease 

in precipitation over the tributary areas, the effects of the present 

upward trend in temperature and downward trend in relative humidity, with attendant high wind velocities, common in this region, have 

caused large increases in the rate of evaporation from lake surfaces, 

to an extent that the depth of the annual evaporation from water 

surfaces greatly exceeds the depth of annual rainfall.4 Under these 

circumstances there is no contribution to run-off corresponding to 

the precipitation on the lake surfaces, but rather there is a continual 

loss of water from the lake which, where the tributary area is small 

relative to the water surface, is sufficient to cause a steady decline 

in level with consequent shrinkage in surface area.

Adolph F. Meyer, hydraulic engineer, has made a detailed study 

of the effects of the increase in temperature on evaporation and 

run-off.* Figure 5 shows the results of his analysis. The upper 

graph shows the annual precipitation since 1837 at Minneapolis and 

St. Paul, Minn. This graph shows that years of deficient precipitation have been grouped and have been preceded and followed by 

years of more than average precipitation, and that within the years 

of record there have been other periods of deficient precipitation that 

are comparable with that of 1930-36.

The lower left graph in figure 5 shows the results of the determination of the annual evaporation from lake surfaces for the period 

1891-1936, obtained by the use of the Meyer formula,8 an empirical 

expression for the rate of evaporation from water surfaces in terms of 

pertinent climatic elements as found in the published records of the 

Weather Bureau. In the absence of long-term records of observations of the evaporation, its use conveniently affords a logical basis

1 See Geol. Survey Water-Supply Paper 772, pp. 49-110, for discussion of rainfall, temperature, and 

run-off trends.

» Meyer, A. F., unpublished manuscript. 

 Meyer, A. F., Elements of hydrology, 2d ed., p. 238, John Wiley & Sons, 1928.
18 DROUGHT OF 1936

for the approximate evaluation of the rate of evaporation through a 

period as long as that of the available basic climatologic data. The 

climatologic data necessary to evaluate the Meyer formula for monthly 

evaporation are records of the monthly mean temperature, the mean 

relative humidity, and the mean wind velocity. Although there are 

other factors which influence the rate of evaporation, the Meyer 

formula includes those of major influence. The formula contains a 

coefficient whose selection is dependent upon the exercise of a certain 

degree of judgment but whose range has been fixed within fairly close 

limits. Comparison of determinations of the evaporation rates by

FIGURE 5.- -Diagram showing why lakes of the Great Plains are low (annual precipitation and estimated 

depth of evaporation from water surfaces at Minneapolis, Minn.).

the Meyer formula and by actual observations shows good agreement. 

It appears from these computations that for the period 1891 to 1910 

the annual evaporation from water surfaces has averaged about 29 

inches, and since 1910 about 35 inches, an increase of approximately 

6 inches.

The lower right graph in figure 5 shows the difference between the 

recorded annual precipitation and the computed annual evaporation 

from water surfaces since 1891. The recent deficient precipitation 

has combined with apparent large evaporation losses to produce such 

a condition that in only 3 years since 1910 has the precipitation 

exceeded the evaporation from water surfaces. According to these
EFFECTS OX GROUND AND SURFACE WATER SUPPLIES 19

calculations, the precipitation before 1910 appears to have averaged 

about 2 or 3 inches greater than the evaporation from water surfaces, 

but since 1910 such annual evaporation losses appear to have been 

greater than the precipitation by about an average of 10 inches, and 

since 1930 by about 18 inches. During 1936 the precipitation has 

been less than the computed evaporation loss from water surfaces 

by 26.8 inches, making that year the worst of the period shown, 

except only the year 1910. It should be noted that although these 

determinations may be in error as to exact amount, they probably 

show departures from normal in appreciable amounts in recent 

evaporation.

The data and estimates shown in figure 5 relate to Minnesota. 

Further studies show that corresponding effects have extended over 

the Great Plains area, where generally the annual precipitation is 

never equal to the evaporation losses from free water surfaces.

In addition to its effects on lake levels, the evaporation rate is of 

significance in that it is to a large extent indicative of the natural and 

man-made water demands of an area, and consequently the magnitude of the rise in evaporation rate indicated for recent years is a 

measure of the real water deficiency and explains in part, at least, 

why the recent drought in the Great Plains area brought greater 

difficulties and suffering than were brought by droughts of previous 

periods of deficient precipitation.

The situation may be ameliorated to some extent by one or several 

years of greater precipitation, but a decline in evaporation rate 

would be of greater effect. Both may and probably will occur 

together. Figure 5 shows that years of more than average precipitation have frequently been years of less than average evaporation 

loss. The explanation of this may be that a period of greater rainfall 

may offer less opportunity for evaporation, as during this period the 

average relative humidity would be higher. However, according to 

Thornthwaite,7 other factors remaining the same, a rise in precipitation from 2 inches a month to 4 inches a month would result in only 

10 percent less monthly evaporation. It appears, therefore, that 

although a rise in precipitation would be of value in meeting the 

evaporation demands, the effects of deficient precipitation on the 

evaporation rate are probably not sufficient to account for the great 

rise in computed evaporation shown in figure 5, which is obviously 

out of proportion to the deficiencies in precipitation. The computed 

increase in evaporation is probably largely a reflection of the present 

upward trend in temperature and downward trend in relative 

humidity. Until there is a reversal in these trends, some such condition as that shown in figure 5 may be expected to continue.

7 Thornthwaite, C. W., Climates of North America: Geog. Rev., October 1931. pp. 633 et seq.
20 DROUGHT OF 1936

DAMAGE

The principal damage caused by the drought of 1936 related to 

agriculture. In most areas supplies of water for general use had been 

developed to provide for the ordinary drought year, but nevertheless 

there were shortages in certain areas in 1936.

VEGETATION

Except in the semiarid States, there was comparatively little damage 

to natural vegetation during the drought of 1936. Combined yields 8 

of 33 important crops in 1936, expressed as percentages of the 10-year 

(1921-30) average yields, are given in table 3 and indicate that in the 

humid States there was material damage to cultivated crops in Kentucky, West Virginia, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and 

Missouri, and that in the semiarid States, except Texas, failures were 

general and yields were as low as 37 percent of normal. In the arid 

States yields approached or exceeded normal in all except Wyoming 

and Montana. A statement of the relation of droughts to crops is 

given on pages 39-44.

DOMESTIC AND INDUSTRIAL WATER SUPPLIES

As already stated, most sections of the country now have extended 

their facilities for conserving and providing water for domestic and 

industrial supplies, so that serious shortages have generally been small. 

In 1936 no shortages except in certain small rural areas were reported 

in the humid States. Serious shortages, however, were reported in 

all the semiarid States except Texas.

E. P. Rothrock, State geologist of South Dakota, reports as follows:

In some areas west of the Missouri cattle were driven to artesian wells in areas 

where the drought would have been serious otherwise. In fact, I believe the 

artesian wells in our James River Basin have prevented much of the possible 

water famine.

The worst trouble has been with water supplies for our cities. Cities in the 

James Valley have had a rather serious time, though water supplies have been 

found to carry them over the drought. Rapid City, in the Black Hills, was forced 

to drill a series of wells for their water supply due to the reduced flow of Rapid 

Creek. The cities in the Big Sioux Valley seemed to have had little difficulty. 

For the most part their supplies came from gravel channels and shallow wells.

The water levels are evidently lowering, as is indicated by the falling of the lake 

levels which I have measured for the past 4 years. As yet, however, the water 

tables in southeastern South Dakota are, on the average, not more than 10 or 15 

feet below the surface in wells that have been measured.

The supervisor of projects of North Dakota, Frederic W. Voedisch, 

reports serious shortages in that State as follows:

Because of the intermittent character of the rivers of North Dakota, the urban 

water supplies of this State are largely obtained from wells. A few of the larger

« Crops and Markets, vol. 13, no. 12, U. S. Dept. Agr., December 1936.
DAMAGE 21

cities utilize surface water for their supplies; and, with the exception of those located on the Missouri River, all experience considerable difficulty in obtaining 

sufficient quantities of water during drought years.

Grand Forks and Fargo, on the Red River, have experienced considerable difficulty in the past 8 years in obtaining sufficient water for use during the winter 

months. According to W. P. Tarbell and J. H. Turner, city engineers of Fargo 

and Grand Forks respectively, no water has passed over either the dam on the Red 

River at Fargo or the dam on the Red Lake River at East Grand Forks for many 

months. After the spring flood waters have passed out of the basin the reservoirs 

above both of these dams are in reality sedimentation basins. In other words, 

Fargo consumes the entire flow of the Red River, and the only water in the channel 

below the dam is the effluent from the sewage-disposal plant and the seepage 

around the dam; and Grand Forks uses the entire flow of the Red Lake River, 

and the only water below the dam is the backwash from the Red River. The dam 

at Grand Forks was constructed not only for the purpose of impounding water, 

but also to keep the Red River from backing up into the Red Lake River above 

the intake of the waterworks.

Ottertail Lake was pulled down extensively to release water for Wahpeton, 

Breckenridge, and Fargo. At one time 102 miles of channel was dry in spite of this 

release of water, the losses being due to evaporation, seepage, and transpiration. 

Works Progress Administration and Drought Relief crews worked for 3 months 

clearing the channel between Wahpeton and Fargo, and for 2 months Breckenridge was paid to pump well water into the channel.

Red Lake, which is normally the source of the Red Lake River, has contributed little or no water to this river since the drought. Most of the water used 

from this river comes from Clearwater Lake, and there is considerable doubt as to 

whether this one small lake will continue to stand the burden in case of continued 

drought.

A unique method of overcoming an inadequacy of shallow ground-water supply 

has been developed by Valley City. Water from the Sheyenne River has been 

impounded, chlorinated, diverted as needed to an abandoned gravel pit, and then 

recovered in the shallow wells.

The condition of the shallow ground-water supplies is, of course, directly proportional to the amount of precipitation, but the deficiency of precipitation during 

1936 alone could in no way account for the critical condition of these groundwater supplies at the end of that year. Each succeeding dry year finds the groundwater situation more acute.

A recent study of precipitation trends in the State, conducted by the State 

Geological Survey under allotment of funds from the Works Progress Administration, shows that many Weather Bureau stations in the State have had deficiencies in precipitation during the past 7 years of more than 45 inches, or the 

equivalent of practically 3 years' rainfall. Generally speaking, the rainfall in 

North Dakota has been below normal for the past 10 to 15 years. The Weather 

Bureau records at Bismarck, covering a period of 60 years, show that each succeeding 20-year period has an average of 1 inch less annual precipitation and a 1° 

increase in average annual temperature. The critical condition of the groundwater supplies of the State is therefore due in the main to an accumulation of 

deficiencies of precipitation.

A study of the municipal ground-water supplies of the State now being undertaken by the North Dakota Geological Survey, also under allotment of funds, 

shows that out of 281 incorporated towns in the State, which have been investigated to date, 102 reported problems in securing sufficient water supplies. Fiftyfour of these towns were actually hauling water for domestic use during some portion or all of the year 1936.

26479 38 4
22 DROUGHT OF 1936

Most of the water supplies which are inadequate are obtained from impounded 

surface waters or shallow wells, the deep artesian wells being unaffected by the 

drought except in response to increased flow permitted and pumpage due to 

greater demand. It would seem, under these circumstances, that the solution 

to the problem of inadequate water supplies of North Dakota would be to drill 

deep wells. However, because of the high mineral content of these deep artesian 

waters and because of the harmful ingredients such as fluorine frequently found 

in them and their limited quantity in many localities, the water problem in the 

State as brought on by the drought is not simple of solution. Proper consideration must also be given to the chemical quality of the water. The picture as thus 

presented is rather dismal but not exaggerated.

HEALTH

No epidemics or unusual health conditions were reported which 

could be attributed to drought conditions in 1936. Health authorities 

are now so well organized that in general droughts are not permitted

to affect health.

POWER

The Federal Power Commission reports that during the first 11 

months of the year 37,296,000,000 kilowatt-hours of energy was 

generated at central hydroelectric stations, this being 36.2 percent of 

the total power output for public use for the period. The average 

percentage of the total output by central hydroelectric stations for 

the same 11 months for the last 16 years is about 37.1 percent less 

than 1 percent more than that for the year 1936. This indicates 

that the output of hydroelectric power during 1936 was but little 

affected by the drought.

NAVIGATION

Because of low water in the upper Mississippi River it was necessary 

to suspend navigation during July and August, and navigation was also 

interfered with on the Missouri River. The Ohio and tributaries are 

in the main provided with slack-water navigation, and there were no 

interruptions on streams in that basin. No shortages affecting navigation were reported in the lower Mississippi or South Atlantic and 

eastern Gulf streams.

RECREATION AND WILDLIFE

Except in the semiarid States, where both natural and artificial 

lakes have in the main dried up or have been materially lowered, the 

drought had no effect on either recreational activities or wildlife.

BELIEF

Successive droughts since 1930 have necessitated the expenditure 

of large amounts of Federal money for relieving human distress. 

Although drought assistance has been extended to more than half the
RELIEF 23

United States, the major portion has been spent in a relatively small 

area comprised in the main within the Great Plains States. According to the report of the Great Plains Committee, the amount of 

obligations incurred for emergency relief and emergency works pro3 88 8

I w

g <M

CO ^ 

CM (O (0

 S3

O 

O <M (0 (0 O "O 

(M ofoo

JJJJ

>5§£ idii

grams from Federal funds in the Great Plains region through June 

1936 amounted to $132,663,715. The accumulated Federal-aid 

expenditures in the area between April 1933 and June 1936 ran in some 

counties as high as $200 per capita of total population. Among the 

agencies that contributed were the Federal Emergency Relief Ad-
24 DROUGHT OF 1936

ministration, Civil Works Administration, Works Progress Administration, Agricultural Adjustment Administration, and Resettlement 

Administration. (See fig. 6.)

MAJOR DROUGHT YEARS IN HUMID AND 

SEMIARID STATES

Under the 15 percent criterion there have been 39 droughts since 

1880 in the humid States and 30 in the semiarid States, as indicated 

in figure 7, which also gives for the various years in both groups of

HUMID STATES

JO

5 SEMIARID STATES

(North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma)

Height of block indicates mean deficiency in annual precipitation in area

of drought. Width of block indicates percent of total area affected

FIGURE 7. Drought years, 1881-1936.
MAJOR DROUGHT YEARS 25

States the precipitation in percentage of normal and the percentage of 

the area in which the deficiency in precipitation was 15 percent or 

more. Both the extent of area affected and the deficiency in precipitation for any drought year are much less in the Kumid than in the 

semiarid States. Droughts in the humid States are rather uniformly 

distributed, whereas in the semiarid States droughts have recurred at 

intervals, and at each occurrence they have usually been prolonged 

for several years. The interval between specially noticeable droughts 

in the humid States is from 3 to 5 years. Moreover, in the humid 

States the precipitation is so much greater than the agricultural 

requirements that a high percentage of deficiency does not have as 

severe an effect as in the semiarid States, where the precipitation 

approaches the marginal requirements.

The precipitation and percent of area affected for the 15 worst 

drought years are given in tables 7 and 8 for both the humid and 

semiarid States. In the humid States the area of drought in these 

years has ranged from 17 to 63 percent, and in only 3 years has the area 

exceeded 35 percent. The minimum precipitation over the area 

affected by drought was 72 percent of normal, and in only 2 years was 

the precipitation less than 75 percent of normal. In the semiarid 

States the area affected in the 15 worst drought years ranged from 35 to 

100 percent, and in 3 of these years 1910, 1934, and 1936 the entire 

semiarid region was in drought. The lowest precipitation over this 

region occurred in 1936 when it was 58 percent of normal. Both as to 

area affected and as to deficiency in precipitation the worst drought 

years in the humid States were, in the order named, 1930, 1936, and 

1894, and in the semiarid States 1936, 1934, and 1910.

TABLE 7. Fifteen worst drought years in the humid States since 1880

No.

1.. _ ..

2 

3.......

4.......

5 

6.......

7.......

8.......

In order of extent

Year

1930 

1936 

1894 

1901 

1889 

1934 

1910 

1917

Area affected (percent)

63 

54 

45 

34 

32 

32 

30 

30

Precipitation 

in area 

of 

drought (percent of 

mean)

74 

76 

80 

75 

77 

80 

72 

80

In chronologic order

Year

1889 

1894 

1895 

1896 

1901 

1904 

1910 

1917

Interval

... ...

1

1 

5 

3 

6

7

Order 

of area 

affected

5 

3 

12 

15

4 

11

7 

8

No.

9 

10...... 

11 

12. _ .. 

13... 

14 

15.. .

In order of extent

Year

1925 

1921 

1904 

1895 

1933 

1896 

1931

Area affected (percent)

30 

30

29 

27 

24 

18 

17

Precipitation 

in area 

of 

drought (percent of 

mean)

80 

84 

78 

77 

80 

79 

82

In chronologic order

Year

1921 

1925 

1930 

1931 

1933 

1934 

1936

Interval

4 

4 

5 

1 

2 

1 

2

Order 

of area 

affected

10 

9 

1 

14 

13 

6 

2
26 DROUGHT OF 1936

TABLE 8. Fifteen worst drought years in the semiarid States since 1880 

[North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma]

No.

1 ...

2.......

3.. 

4 ...

5 .-

6.......

7 ..-

8... .

In order of extent

Year

1936

1934

19iO

1894

1917

1890

1933

1931

Area affected 

(percent)

100

100

100

80

78

68

66

65

Precipitation

in area 

of deficiency

(percent of

mean)

58

65

71

70

71

76

77

80

In chronologic order

Year

1887

1888

1890

1893

1894

1895

1901

1910

Interval

J

2

3

1

1

6

9

Order 

of area 

affected

15

10

6

9

4

11

13

3

No.

9. ...

10 ...

11......

12-. .

13......

14 .

15 -

In order of extent

Year

1893

1888

1895

1913

1901

1914

1887

Area affected 

(percent)

57

57

45

44

35

35

35

Precipitation

in area 

of deficiency

(percent of

mean)

74

82

78

84

75

83

85

In chronologic order

Year

1913

1914

1917

1931

1933

1934

1936

Interval

3

1

3

14

2

1

2

Order 

of area 

affected

12

14

5

8

7

2

The 8 years with lowest precipitation in the period 1881 to 1936 are 

given for each State in table 9. Except in four of the humid States 

Iowa (3 years), Wisconsin (1 year), Minnesota (2 years), and Louisiana (1 year) all the years having a deficiency in precipitation of 

15 percent or more are included among the eight lowest. However, 

in the semiarid States there were from 2 to 7 additional years when 

the deficiency in precipitation was 15 percent or more in other words, 

there have been 10 to 15 years having a deficiency of 15 percent or 

more in the period 1881 to 1936. The table also shows the number 

of years when the precipitation did not exceed 70, 75, 80, and 85 percent of normal.

In general for the humid States it is true that although drought 

conditions may prevail in a portion of the area during any year, they 

have not usually been severe enough in respect to either area covered or 

deficiency in precipitation to interfere greatly with vegetation or human activities. Development in certain areas of the humid States, 

however, especially in the vicinity of the larger cities, has now progressed to a point where it is necessary to give more consideration to the 

relation between available water supplies and the demands made on 

them. With proper development it should be an especially exceptional 

drought when water supplies in the humid States will not be adequate 

to meet demands.

The conditions in the semiarid States are wholly different. Even 

in the better years the total precipitation is adequate to provide only 

for moderate demands of vegetation and evaporation, with a corresponding small residual for various human activities. Small deficiencies are therefore much more serious and involve great potential 

damage, because in general development in the semiarid States has 

progressed to a point where the needs for water exceed the supplies 

that can be depended upon.
TABLE 9. Number of years when precipitation did not exceed 85, 80, 75, or 70 percent of mean and the precipitation for the 8 years in which the precipitation was lowest, for the period 1881

to 1936, by States

[Precipitation for 1936 is for 12-month period Dec. 1,1935, to Nov. 30, 1936]

State

Humid States:

Maryland-Delaware .... 

Virginia.... 

West Virginia ..

Ohio ....

Illinois 

Florida 

Louisiana

Semiarid States:

Arid States:

Idaho ___ . ..........

Utah.... ...............

California _______

Oregon:

Washington:

50-year mean ' 

1881- 

1930 

(inches)

41.20 

39.52 

37.03 

42.39 

44.07 

44.96

39.01 

45.89 

42.47 

41.89 

42.18 

50.44

48.21 

50.30 

45. 81 

43.83 

38.44 

31.29

40.17 

37.26 

48.97 

40.17 

31.48 

31.63

25.91 

52.94 

50.48 

53.11 

53.32 

55.64

32.63 

27.48 

23.50 

20.77 

17.70 

30.84

14.49 

16.79 

14.05 

15.21 

17.17 

9.01

12.67 

13.10 

23.53

13.81 

54.22

16.89 

56.98

1

Date

1914 

1908 

1882 

1930 

1930 

1930

1930 

1930 

1930 

1930 

1930 

1925

1925 

1930 

1930 

1930 

1934 

1930

1934 

1901 

1936 

1901 

1910 

1910

1910 

1927 

1931 

1904 

1889 

1924

1910 

1936 

1894 

1936 

1936 

1917

1910 

1934 

1886 

1889 

188S 

1928

1887 

1885 

1898

1908 

1930

1929 

1922

Precipitation

Inches

32.98 

30.76 

29.67 

33.84 

32.83 

32.02

32.18 

35.28 

28.82 

23.78 

24.99 

37.33

35.82 

39.80 

27.86 

25.43 

26.60 

22.62

29.70 

25.72 

31.78 

25.28 

19.87 

21.41

14.73 

40.71 

36.75 

39.21 

38.31 

38.34

18.92 

17.42 

13.30 

11.13 

8.92 

16.21

9.46 

10.93 

7.16 

9.24 

10.08 

4.87

6.55 

7.12 

10.35

9.32 

37.11

10.19 

43.02

Percent of 

mean

80 

78 

80 

80 

74 

71

82 

77 

68 

57 

59 

74

74 

79 

61 

58 

69 

72

74 

69 

65 

63 

63 

68

57 

77 

73 

74 

72 

69

58 

63 

57 

54 

50 

53

65 

65 

51 

61 

59 

54

52

a

68 

68

60 

76

3

Date

1905 

1894 

19,14 

1910 

1918 

1924

1908 

1931 

1895 

1895 

1925 

1930

1933 

1925 

1894 

1895 

1930 

1934

1930 

1930 

1901 

1936 

1894 

1895

1936 

1917 

1904 

1931 

1924 

1889

1891 

1917 

1936 

1934 

1934 

1893

1917 

1890 

1887 

1931 

1889 

1887

1883 

1900 

1923

1898 

1929

1890 

1890

Precipitation

Inches

33.23 

31.38 

30.16 

34.96 

36.57 

34.84

33.54 

37.07 

33.51 

34.47 

32.53 

38.04

35.95 

40.50 

34.81 

32.82 

27.00 

25.46

29.70 

27.89 

35.27 

27.72 

21.94 

22.45

17.55 

41.36 

37.17 

42.78 

40.08 

40.25

22.31 

19.60 

14.02 

13.18 

9.49 

20.47

9.49 

11.97 

8.80 

10.09 

12.05 

5.18

7.72 

8.17 

14.13

9.72 

38.66

12.00 

43.17

Percent of 

mean

81 

79 

81 

82 

83 

77

86 

81 

79 

82 

77 

75

75 

81 

76 

75 

70 

81

74 

75 

72 

69 

70 

71

68 

78 

74 

81 

75 

72

68 

71 

60 

63 

54 

67

65 

71 

62 

66 

70 

57

61 

62 

60

70 

71

71 

76

3

Date

1921 

1899 

1908 

1883 

1925 

1935

1895 

1895 

1922 

1925 

1921 

1933

1931 

1904 

1904 

1904 

1895 

1925

1901 

1936 

1924 

1930 

1901 

1936

1889 

1931 

1893 

1889 

1904 

1917

1917 

1910 

1934 

1931 

1917 

1910

1892 

1888 

1902 

1936 

1935 

1924

1900 

1903 

1887

1924 

1935

1935 

1929

Precipitation

Inches

33.55 

31.66 

30.24 

35.77 

37.20 

35.75

33.89 

37.29 

34.88 

34.91 

34.94 

39.28

37.17 

40.74 

35. 10 

33.33 

28.46 

25.51

30.56 

28.54 

37.03 

31.27 

24.41 

24.45

19.08 

43.97 

40.29 

43.30 

41.48 

40.27

22.39 

19.67 

14.40 

14.66 

10.92 

21.46

9.51 

12.00 

9.81 

10.71 

12.40 

5.49

8.38 

8.43 

14.63

10.42 

40.63

12.01 

44.01

Percent of 

mean

81 

80 

82 

84 

84 

80

87 

81 

82 

83 

83 

78

77 

81 

77 

76 

74 

82

76

77 

76 

78 

78

77

74 

83 

80

82 

78

72

69 

72 

61 

71 

62 

70

66 

71 

70 

70 

72 

61

66 

64 

62

76

75

71 

77

4

Date

1924 

1914 

1911 

1908 

1924 

1894

1899 

1918 

1900 

1914 

1881 

1911

1911 

1936 

1901 

1894 

1894 

1910

1895 

1894 

1885 

1917 

1886 

1930

1923 

1883 

1927 

1914 

1936 

1899

1936 

1934 

1893 

1894 

1889 

1901

1934 

1893 

1919 

1890 

1924 

1910

1890 

1924 

1895

1918 

1936

1898 

1905

Precipitation

Inches

3J.37 

32.58 

30.54 

36.04 

37.46 

38.01

34.18 

37.65 

37.31 

35.97 

35.40 

42.65

39.80 

42.39 

35.65 

34.52 

29.75 

25.69

30.99 

28.89 

37.55 

32.06 

24.71 

25.08

19.81 

45.17 

40.65 

44. 9C 

41.83 

42.35

22.73 

19.92 

16.80 

15.30 

11.30 

22.23

9.96 

12.89 

10.46 

10.78 

12.46 

5.53

9.00 

8.68 

14.85

10.53 

42.78

12.02 

46.18

Percent of 

mean

83 

82 

82 

85 

85 

85

88 

82 

88 

86 

84 

85

82 

84 

78 

79 

77 

82

77 

78 

77 

80 

78 

79

76 

85 

81 

85 

78 

76

70 

72 

71 

74 

64 

72

69

77 

74 

71 

73 

61

71 

66 

63

76 

79

71 

81

6

Date

1910 

1910 

1910 

1924 

1914 

1910

1934 

1885 

1931 

1904 

1894 

1921

1930 

1894 

1936 

1887 

1901 

1936

1914 

1914 

1896 

1887 

1933 

1932

1934 

1921 

1921 

1925 

1896 

1904

1901 

1893 

1910 

1933 

1910 

1909

1902 

1889 

1893 

1935 

1929 

1S88

1902 

1899 

1929

1905 

1918

1930 

1911

Precipitation

Inches

34.51 

33.41 

31.93 

36.08 

37.58 

38.33

34.97 

37.87 

37.36 

36.49 

35.76 

42.92

40.15 

42.65 

35.82 

35.33 

32.36 

26.27

31.54 

28.99 

37.72 

32.77 

24.94 

25.37

20.30 

45.24 

40.94 

45.20 

43.13 

43.83

22.78 

20.25 

17.03 

15.31 

12.19 

23.45

9.97 

13.73 

10.67 

10.89 

13.06 

5.76

9.17 

8.70 

15.00

10.80 

43.28

12.12 

46.81

Percent of 

mean

84 

85 

86 

85 

85 

85

90 

83 

88 

87 

85 

85

83 

85 

78 

81 

84 

84

79 

78 

77 

82 

79 

80

78 

85 

81 

85 

81 

79

70 

74 

72 

74 

69 

76

69 

82 

76 

72 

76 

64

72 

66 

64

78 

80

72 

82

6

Date

1908 

1930 

1894 

1894 

1910 

1914

1884 

1921 

1909 

1900 

1904 

1904

1904 

1895 

1889 

1885 

1900 

1889

1894 

1895 

1917 

1894 

1889 

1891

1929 

1895 

1925 

1910 

1899 

1896

1888 

1894 

1890 

1910 

1933 

1924

1894 

1924 

1889 

1904 

1928 

1929

1934 

1904 

1932

1928 

1905

1895 

1923

Precipitation

Inches

34.73 

33.59 

32.14 

36.89 

37.66 

38.44

35.23 

38.16 

37.38 

36.66 

36.11 

43.27

40.98 

43.10 

35.97 

37.23 

32.82 

26.86

32.21 

31.89 

40.72 

33.18 

24.95 

26.12

20.56 

45.50 

41.00 

45.20 

44.52 

46.56

23.40 

20.72 

17.18 

15.49 

13.34 

23.50

10.47 

13.75 

10.81 

11.04 

13.60 

5.83

9.49 

9.24 

15.60

11.21 

44.11

12.92 

47.25

Percent of 

mean

84 

85 

87 

87 

85 

86

90 

S3 

88 

88 

86 

86

85 

86 

79 

85 

85 

86

80 

86 

83 

83 

79 

83

79 

86 

81 

85 

S3 

84

72 

75

73 

75 

75 

76

72 

82 

77 

73 

79 

65

75 

71 

66

81 

81

77 

83

7

Date

1894 

1909 

1881 

1914 

1935 

1883

1883 

1916 

1925 

1896 

1914 

1926

1927 

1931 

1934 

1934 

1936 

1895

1936 

1910 

1899 

1934 

1936 

1901

1933 

1916 

1933 

1896 

1887 

1936

1896 

1890 

1895 

1925 

1929 

1916

1924 

1903 

1934 

1919 

1895 

1908

1892 

1910 

1917

1930 

1892

1922 

1898

Precipitation

Inches

35.16 

34.36 

32.54 

36.92 

37.74 

38.62

35.33 

38.17 

37.86 

37.11 

36.66 

43.33

42.16 

43.24 

37.00 

37.56 

33.25 

26.90

32.46 

32.09 

41.49 

34.19 

25.40 

26.34

20.97 

47.10 

41.91 

45.25 

44.57 

46.62

23.78 

21.16 

18.75 

15.90 

14.32 

24.59

10.65 

13.80 

10.94 

11.14 

13.63 

6.34

9.50 

9.36 

16.48

11.27 

44.25

13.37 

48.11

Percent of 

mean

85 

87 

88 

87 

86 

86

91 

S3 

89 

89 

87 

86

87 

86 

81 

86 

87 

86

81 

86 

85 

85 

81 

83

81 

89 

83 

85 

84 

84

73 

77 

80 

77 

81 

80

73 

82 

78 

73 

79 

70

75 

71 

70

82 

82

79 

84

3

Date

1911 

1913 

1930 

1918 

1892 

1892

1921 

1914 

1914 

1910 

1931 

1931

1890 

1914 

1895 

1900 

1889 

1917

1908 

1887 

1«87 

1914 

1930 

1923

1917 

1911 

1916 

1921 

1917 

1902

1886 

1901 

1916 

1895 

1907 

1925

1889 

1902 

1900 

1934 

1898 

1926

1881 

1928 

1883

1901 

1923

1908 

1925

Precipitation

Inches

35.63 

34.46 

32.88 

37.31 

38.17 

38.77

35.41 

39.23 

38.24 

37.42 

38.00 

43.57

42.29 

43.97 

38.47 

37.62 

33.41 

27.21

34.30 

32.38 

41.89 

34.72 

26.10 

26.39

20.99 

47.40 

43.50 

45.34 

45.16 

46.77

»25.00 

21.35 

19.02 

16.05 

14.41 

25.79

10.74 

13.88 

10.95 

11.25 

14.22 

6.39

9.57 

9.67 

16.60

11.29 

44.89

13.61 

48.13

Percent of 

mean

87 

87 

89 

88 

87 

86

91 

85 

90 

89 

90 

86

88 

87 

84 

86 

87 

87

85 

87 

86 

86 

83 

83

81 

90 

86

85 

85 

84

77 

78 

81 

77 

81 

84

74 

83 

78 

74 

83 

71

76

74 

71

82 

83

81 

84

Number of 

drought 

years 

not included 

in 8 

lowest

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0

0 

0 

0 

0 

3 

1

2 

0 

0 

0 

0 

1

7 

5 

2 

6 

3 

3

4

4 

5 

4 

2

8

11

7 

11

3 

3

5 

1

Number of yean 

when precipitation did not 

exceed the following percentage of mean

85

7 

6 

4 

5 

6 

5

1 

8 

3 

3 

5 

5

6 

5 

8 

6 

6 

5

8 

5 

7 

7 

11 

9

10 

5

7 

8 

8 

9

15 

13 

10 

14 

11 

11

12 

12 

13 

12 

10 

16

19 

15 

19

11 

11

13 

9

80

1 

3 

1 

1 

1 

3

0 

1 

2 

1 

2 

3

3 

1 

6 

4 

4 

1

6 

5 

5 

4 

6 

5

6 

2 

3 

1 

4 

5

11

8

10 

6

7

12 

4 

8 

9 

7 

16

11 

13 

15

5 

5

7 

3

75

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

1

0 

0 

1 

1 

1 

2

2 

0 

1 

2 

3 

1

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2

3 

0 

2 

1 

2 

3

7 

6 

6 

6 

6 

4

9 

3 

4 

8 

4 

11

7 

11 

10

2 

3

5 

0

70

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0

0 

0

1 1 

1

0

0 

0

1

I

2

0

0

I 

1

2 

2 

I

2 

0 

0 

0 

0

1

5 

1

3 

2 

5 

3

5 

I 

3 

3 

2 

7

3 

5 

7

2 

1

1 

0

> Means for Oregon and Washington are for period of record through 1934. 

It is recognized that portions of Texas, California, Oregon, and Washington are humid, though Texas is here classed as semiarid and the other States mentioned as arid.

t Estimated:

26479-33 (TftMp.20)

DROUGHT OF 1926 27 

DROUGHTS AS RELATED TO THE SEMIARID STATES

The climatic quality of an area that is, humid, semiarid, or arid 

is a major factor in determining the destructive effects of droughts. 

The one-hundredth meridian is frequently considered the approximate 

border line between the humid and arid sections of the United States. 

However, there is no well-defined line, as a wide belt extending on both 

sides of this meridian may be either humid or arid in any particular 

year, depending on the weather conditions. This belt is the principal 

semiarid climatic province of the country, and in general it coincides 

with the physiographic province of the Great Plains.

As indicated on figure 8, the Great Plains includes the greater parts 

of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and 

western Texas and small parts of the bordering States to the west, 

Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico. The area comprises about 561,000 square miles 18 percent of the area of the 

United States. Its population according to the 1930 census was 

4,411,624 3 percent of the population of the United States. It is an 

area in which no great industrial development may be expected, and 

its future depends primarily upon the population that agriculture will 

sustain. Although the soils are among the richest on the continent, 

their production is limited by the unreliable water supply.

Since 1880 there have been 30 years when droughts of various 

severities have occurred in the Great Plains area, as indicated on figure 

7; the five principal semiarid States (except Texas) North Dakota, 

South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma have had 15 years 

when 35 percent or more of the area was affected, and in 3 years, 

1936, 1934, and 1910, 100 percent of the area was in drought. The 

precipitation over the drought area in these 3 years ranged from 58 to 

71 percent of normal, as indicated in table 8.

As shown on figure 7 the years 1881 to 1885 were free from drought. 

During the next 4 years there were minor droughts. There was a 

severe drought in 1890, a lesser one in 1891, and none in 1892. Severe 

droughts again prevailed during 1893, 1894, and 1895, after which 

there were only minor droughts until 1910. During 1910 all of the 

Great Plains area was affected, the precipitation being only 71 percent 

of normal. Between 1911 and 1916 there were only minor droughts 

in 1913, 1914, and 1916. In 1917 there was a major drought, after 

which there were 6 years with no droughts. Minor droughts occurred 

in 1924,1925, and 1926, but no droughts in 1927 and 1928. From 1929 

to 1936 the worst drought period of record occurred, although in 1932 

the area was not in drought. In 1934 the whole area was affected, 

with precipitation 65 percent of normal, the worst then on record, but 

in 1936 even this record was broken; all of the area again was in 

drought, with the precipitation 58 percent of normal.
28 DROUGHT OF 1936

The precipitation in the Great Plains is not only small in amount, 

but its variations from year to year are pronounced and frequently 

unfavorable for agriculture. As a saving feature, however, the normal distribution within the year is such that the greater portion of

FIGUEE 8. Map of the Great Plains area showing average annual precipitation in inches for 40-year period 

1895-1934, with typical monthly distribution. (.Report of the Great Plains Committee.)

the precipitation occurs during the growing season, and most of it at 

the beginning of the season, when the crops most need it, tapering 

off from May to September. These characteristics are shown on 

figure 8. However, large annual deficiencies in the Great Plains
DROUGHTS AS BELATED TO THE SEMIARID STATES 29

area, when they occur, are usually at the expense of the precipitation 

of the summer, when their effects are made more serious by their 

combination with those of high temperatures. Studies of the trends 

of seasonal precipitation made by the Geological Survey and published 

in Water-Supply Paper 772 show that the recent deficiencies in precipitation of this region have been due almost entirely to decreases in 

the precipitation of the growing season, and that these decreases are 

more general and pronounced than the annual deficiencies. The 

following is a discussion by Thornthwaite 9 of the year to year precipitation characteristics of the Great Plains.

The rainfall record of Hays, Kans., one of the longest available, dates from 

1868. A computation of the 10-year moving averages for the 67 years reveals 

three periods of scanty rainfall and two intermediate periods of more abundant 

precipitation. The heaviest average rainfall for any consecutive 10 years was 

26.52 inches for the period 1896-1905, and the lowest was 20.60 inches for the 

period 1916-25. The highest 5-year average was 30.64 inches for the period 

1874-78, and the lowest was 17.87 for 1891-95. The driest of the 5-year periods 

received only 58 percent as much rain as the more humid years.

Of the seven times since 1868 when the annual precipitation exceeded 30 

inches, three were between 1875 and 1878. Only twice since 1903 has more 

than 30 inches of rain fallen in a single year. In 1894, the driest year, the rainfall was only 11.80 inches, whereas in 1874, the rainiest year, it amounted to 

35.40 inches, exactly three times as much. The rainfall curves of all stations 

oscillate above and below the line of the normal but show no progressive change 

in either direction.

Apparently there is no cyclic recurrence of rainfall conditions which can be 

reduced to a simple mathematical expression that would permit forecast through 

extrapolation. Evidence derived from tree rings, lake levels, etc., indicates that 

in the Great Plains the period between 1825 and 1865 was a long drought with 

only occasional wet years. At that time the area may in truth have been the 

Great American Desert. On the basis of that experience we may assume that 

the present drought might be prolonged for 20 or more years. Since rainfall 

averages now stand far below the normal, it is safe to forecast an increase throughout th3 drought area, but we have no reason to expect it immediately nor to 

regard the occurrence of a single wet year as the conclusion of the drought. Until 

further advance is made in the field of accurate long-range weather forecasts, there 

is no way of anticipating climatic variations.

In a statement issued on February 1, 1937, by the Smithsonian 

Institution, Dr. Waldo R. Wedel, archeologist, says:

Tree-ring records in the Southwest decoded by Dr. A. E. Douglass, of the 

University of Arizona, show that in that region there were two major droughts 

perhaps comparable in intensity to and of much longer duration than those of 

the last 3 years. One was at the end of the thirteenth century, and one at the 

end of the sixteenth. There is some geological evidence of a severe drought in 

the northern Plains about 300 years ago, and it is reasonable to assume, although 

it has not been proved, that these droughts may have extended over the entire 

Plains area.

8 Thornthwaite, C. W., The Great Plains, to Migration and economic opportunity, pp. 217-219, Univ. 

Pennsylvania, 1936.

26479 38 5
30 DROUGHT OF 1936

Thornthwaite 10 indicates that the last 6 years have emphasized the 

important bearing which droughts have in the semiarid areas and 

states:

The history of the Great Plains has been marked by periods of overexpansion 

during years of heavier than average rainfall. Each was brought to a disastrous 

conclusion by one of the recurrent periods of drought. The forestalling of similar 

depressions in the future should be the major consideration in formulating a 

permanent plan for settlement of the Great Plains. This involves a detailed and 

long-range study of climate and conditions in the past.

In the development of the Great Plains too much optimism has been 

created by highly productive crop yields during humid years, which 

has blinded the settlers to the disastrous effects during years when 

weather conditions, over which man has no control, are unfavorable. 

This production has been capitalized by real-estate agents, bankers, 

implement agents, and others who have exploited the settlers, and has 

brought about a type and degree of development which was never 

intended by nature and which the factual inlormation now available 

shows cannot be continued with success. The resulting conditions 

which are now apparent were foreseen by many early observers who 

gave ample warnings that were unheeded.

Among those who foresaw present conditions were John W. Powell 

and Willard D. Johnson, of the Geological Survey; Joseph Henry, of 

the Smithsonian Institution, and others. The warnings given by these 

men are outlined in an address by H. L. Walster, which appears on 

pages 53-60.

On August 5, 1889, Maj. J. W. Powell, then Director of the Geological Survey, addressed the North Dakota constitutional convention 

and restated the conclusion he had previously expressed as early as 

1878, in part as follows: 1!

The State of North Dakota has a curious position geologically as related to 

agriculture. The eastern portion of the State has sufficient rainfall for agricultural 

purposes; the western part has insufficient rainfall, and the western portion is 

practically wholly dependent on irrigation. In the western portion all dependence 

on rains will ultimately bring disaster to the people. They are unwilling yet, a 

good many of them, to admit it, but the study of the physical conditions which 

prevail in this country and the application of the knowledge which has been 

given to mankind through the study of these same problems in Europe and Asia 

and Africa all prove this one fact that in the western portion of this State they 

will have to forever depend on artificial irrigation for all agriculture. In the 

eastern portion they may depend upon the storms that come from the heavens, 

and there is a middle belt between the two regions which is of very great interest. 

They will soon learn in the western portion to depend upon irrigation and provide 

themselves with agencies for the artificial fructifying of the soil with water. In the 

eastern part they will depend on the rainfall, and in the middle portion they will 

have abundant crops; then for 2 or 3 years they will have less rainfall, and there

10 Thornthwaite, C. W,, op. cit,, p. 217. 

J' Reclamation Era, September 1936, p. 201.
DKOUGHTS AS BELATED TO THE SEMIAKID STATES 31

be failure of crops, and disaster will come on thousands of people, who will 

become discouraged and will leave. Up and down, the temperature of agriculture 

will rise and fall with the seasons in this manner, and the only practical thing to 

do is to look the thing squarely in the face and remember that in middle Dakota 

agriculture will always be liable to meet with failure unless you provide against it. 

That is the history of all those who live on the border between the humid and the 

arid lands. Years will come of abundance, and years will come of disaster, and 

between the two the people will be prosperous and unprosperous, and the thing to 

do is to look the question squarely in the face and provide for this and for all years. 

You hug to yourselves the delusion that the climate is changing. This question is 4,000 years old. Nothing that man can do will change the climate. A 

long succession of years will give you the same amount of rainfall that any other 

succession of the same length will give you. The settlement of the country, the 

cultivation of trees, the building of railroads all these matters will have no 

influence upon your climate. You may as well not hope for any improvement 

in this direction. There's almost enough rainfall for your purposes, but one 

year with another you need a little more than you get.

Two reports issued in 1936 relative to the Great Plains should be 

studied by those who are interested in the area one by Carter 

Goodrich and others 12 and the other by the President's Groat Plains 

Committee. 13 The basic facts and conclusions in these reports, 

many of which are referred to and quoted herein, are similar, and they 

represent in general the conclusions of many students of the Great 

Plains area.

The report of the Great Plains Committee, page 77, states, "It 

is reliably estimated that not less than 165,000 people, or approximately 40,000 families, have moved away from the Great Plains 

drought area since 1930. Many more would have been forced to leave 

but for the emergency credit and relief funds poured into the area."

Notwithstanding this exodus, Thornthwaite u estimated that there 

still remained in 1936 a surplus in the region of approximately 59,000 

families.

The debt situation in the Great Plains presents an economic background that cannot be ignored. The greater portion of this debt is 

owed to the Farm Credit Administration and other Federal agencies. 

In North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas this Federal 

indebtedness ranges from about $900 to $2,000 per farm. Private 

loans are additional.

The aggregate of principal and overdue interest on both Government and private loans and overdue taxes is so great that there appears 

to be no immediate prospect that the average settler will be able to 

pay. The situation appears to be almost hopeless, and remedial 

measures to be effective should be of such a nature that the settler 

can avail himself of them without increasing his obligations,

12 Migration and economic opportunity, especially chapter 5, by C. W. Thornthwaite, Univ. Pennsylvania, 1936.

» The future of the Great Plains, 1938. 

14 Migration and economic opportunity, p. 245, 19SS.
32 DROUGHT OF 1936

Thornthwaite 15 states that 

The high relief rate in 1934 indicated that both potential and real assets of the 

farmers were reduced to a very low level, since relief was not ordinarily granted 

until their resources were either exhausted or mortgaged. More than four-fifths 

of the farmers receiving relief reported their farms mortgaged, and three-fourths 

reported chattel mortgages as well.

According to a local judge in Baca County, Colo. 

The farmers can never escape from such a load of debt and see no other solution 

than outright repudiation. It is evident that many of the farmers have been 

able to remain on their lands only through a succession of loans which are unlikely 

to be repaid in full. This situation applies widely throughout the Plains. 15

The age of the average farmer in the Great Plains is well over 50. 

A man of that age or older who can do but little more than keep up 

his taxes and interest has but small chance of greatlj7 reducing the 

principal of his debt. The extent to which the next generation will 

be willing to assume debts will be important with respect to the future 

of the country.

Irrigation has been suggested as one of the principal solutions of 

the Great Plains problem. Unfortunately, the irrigable areas are 

limited to about 3 percent of the area, and the cost of irrigation is in 

general higher than the returns will pay. Thornthwaite 15 states that 

according to the experience of the Federal Reclamation Service, it 

is almost impossible for a settler without capital to become successfully established on-an irrigation project. Since practically all of 

the farms in the Great Plains requiring rehabilitation are without 

capital they would be unsuitable for settlement without extensive 

subsidy.

The report of the Great Plains Committee, page 76, discusses the 

possibilities of irrigation as follows:

Irrigation at best can cause only minor changes in the economic life of the 

Great Plains. The scarcity of surface run-off (only about 5 percent of the rainfall reaches the main river systems) and the lack of large supplies of underground 

water limit the total possible irrigation development at reasonable cost to less 

than 2 or 3 percent of the land area. Moreover, much of this land lies in the 

eastern portions of the area, where recurrent humid and subhumid years encourage farming without irrigation. Irrigation projects in the area have failed 

repeatedly because the ditches and appurtenant workings were abandoned in 

years of plentiful rainfall. Most new large-scale projects are of doubtful feasibility under present reclamation policy. Medium-size projects probably will 

yield more substantial benefits.

As has been stated, any great industrial development in the Great 

Plains is not to be expected. Therefore, the future of the region 

depends primarily upon the population which agriculture will sustain. 

This in turn is limited by the reliable water supply. The existing 

agricultural development in the area will not support the present

ii Thornthwaite C. W., op. cit., p. 246.
of

DROUGHTS AS RELATED TO THE SEMIARID STATES 31$

population. The commonly accepted remedy is that the population 

should be reduced, the size of the farm unit should be increased, muc i 

land should revert to Government administration, and the type of 

agriculture should be adjusted to the local conditions. 

Thornthwaite 16 has suggested:

The ideal situation in the Great Plains would be a practically complete return 

to grazing economy, where pasture on the range is supplemented by raising 

feed and forage crops in those areas which can be irrigated and elsewhere 

soils which are sufficiently resistant to deterioration by wind and water. Thij 

does not mean a reestablishment of great ranches and the restoration of thi? 

"cattle kings," but rather an increase in the size of farms to a point where cultivation and grazing can both be controlled.

In chapter 6 of the report of the Great Plains Committee attention 

is directed to topics that have an important bearing on the future of 

the Great Plains, divided under the following heads:

Lines of Federal action.

Lines of State action.

Importance of local action.

Readjustment of farm organization and practices.

Organization for readjustment and development.

Under "Lines of Federal action", attention is called to the following; 

steps in procedure:

Investigations and service.

Federal acquisition of land in range area.

Control and use of lands acquired by Federal Government in range area.

Measures to increase the size of farms.

Development of water resources.

Resettlement.

Compensation to local governments on Federal land acquisition.

Control of destructive insect pests.

Development of other resources.

In reference to the relative importance of the Great Plains witt 

respect to the country as a whole, the report of the Great Plains. 

Committee, on page 94, points out:

The region is a source of supply for foods and other materials. It is also 

great market. Its economy has been interwoven with the economy of the 

Nation. These lines of economic relation must be maintained in full vigor. 

Outside capital has a self-interest as well as a public responsibility in maintaining; 

them.

The present situation in the Great Plains might have been avoided 

if heed had been given to the warnings of early students of the area 

In discussing marginal precipitation requirements in his report on th« 

survey of the Rocky Mountain region, Powell 17 stated:

» Thornthwaite, C. W., op. eit., p. 243.

» Powell, J. W., 45th Cong., 2d sess., Ex. doc. 73, p. 3,1878.
34 DROUGHT OF 1936

The limit of successful agriculture without irrigation has been set at 20 inches, 

that the extent of the arid region should by no means be exaggerated; but at 20 

inches agriculture will not be uniformly successful from season to season. Many 

droughts will occur; many seasons in a long series will be fruitless; and it may be 

doubted whether, on the whole, agriculture will prove remunerative. On this 

point it is impossible to speak with certainty. A larger experience than the 

history of agriculture in the western portion of the United States affords is neces- 

.sary to a final determination of the question.

This statement refers to the broad belt that separates the arid 

regions of the West from the humid regions of the East, coincident 

with the Great Plains.

Later Hay 18 stated:

The almost boundless extent of tillable land, the ease with which large areas 

«an be cultivated, and the wonderful fertility of the soil have attracted settlement 

farther and farther from the Mississippi Valley out upon the Great Plains, and 

even into and across the regions which from scantiness of rainfall are known as 

subhumid or semiarid. The tide of settlement rolling westward has been thrown 

back again and again by the almost insurmountable barrier interposed by the 

meagerness of rainfall. Individuals and communities have attempted to make 

liomes, have invested all of their available means in enterprises dependent upon 

farming, and after perhaps a year or two of success, due to an unusual amount of 

precipitation or to a fortunate shower coming at the right time, have been compelled by prevailing droughts to abandon their possessions and scatter, almost 

penniless, to other localities. These men have been succeeded by others, perhaps 

more sanguine of success or ignorant of the fate of their predecessors, and they in 

turn have become disheartened by repeated crop failures. Here nature seems 

io have lavished .her resources, withholding only one that of an ample supply 

of water.

Notwithstanding these and many other statements, development in 

the Great Plains area has progressed to a point where drastic readjustments must be made. It is generally agreed that the final solution 

of the problem can be arrived at only after more complete studies, and 

then there must be the fullest cooperation of all interested groups. 

As Thornthwaite 19 says "Until it is possible to accomplish considerable 

retrenchment there are only two alternatives for the Great Plains 

either permanent poverty and distress or permanent subsidy."

On pages 53-60, is presented an address, "Backgrounds of Economic 

Distress in the Great Plains," delivered by H. L. Walster, dean of the 

Division of Agriculture and director of Experiment Station and 

Extension Service, North Dakota Agricultural College, at the National 

Catholic Rural Life Conference at Fargo, N. Dak., October 12, 1936. 

In this address Dean Walster discusses frankly and clearly the problems of the Great Plains as he sees them. Of these problems, those 

related to recurrent drought are most significant.

" Hay, Robert, Water resources of a portion of the Great Plains: Qeol. Survey 16th Ann. Kept., pt. 2, 

>. 541,1895. 

19 Thornthwaite, C. W., op. cit., p. 250.
DROUGHT OF 1936 3£> 

THE SHELTER BELT

The Great Plains were treeless when the first white men arrivec 

and labeled them a desert. After settlement had begun, their barrenness, monotony, and high winds suggested the possibility of improving 

the conditions of this semiarid region by planting trees. The possibility has attracted much attention and recently has taken the form 

of the proposed shelter belt.20 The valuable attributes of trees in this; 

region are pointed out as, first, to offer a barrier against the devastating winds; second, to effect the more economic use of the available 

water supply; and, third, to make the region more pleasant as a places 

in which to live, thereby improving the morale of the inhabitants.

Various attempts have been made to accomplish these objectives.

In 1873 the Timber Culture Act was passed on the assumption that if the 

western farmers were induced to plant trees, rainfall would be increased to such an 

extent that climatic hazards to crop production would be removed. This acn 

gave an additional quarter section of land to the homevsteader who would plani; 

and maintain 40 acres of it in timber. This idea has reappeared time and agair 

on the Plains and was the basis of the much-publicized "shelter belt.'" 2l

The original Timber Culture Act was amended in regard to certain 

details of tree acreage and density required for patent and was finally 

repealed in 1891. The act was not considered successful in encouraging the planting of large acreage in trees.

The desirability of trees has nevertheless provided a great urge to 

have them, even in a region where soil characteristics and scant moisture available normally discourage their growth. The shelter-beln 

project, however, constitutes a scientific effort to evaluate all possible 

factors, and it is assumed that with the competent direction available 

in the United States Forest Service the project is possible of achievement, and that locally and in a restricted sense some benefits may bo 

obtained. The desire for trees has in the past caused the fallacy citec 

above by Thornthwaite as the basis of the Timber Culture Act of 1873, 

that trees will ultimately turn an arid region into a humid one. Air 

upturn in the annual rainfall of the Plains about 1880 led many of thai; 

period to state that the upturn was caused by the cultivation of thd 

sod land. The following quotation from Aughey 2? is typical of the 

reasoning of the period which has led to the present sad consequences 

to men and women who have practically staked their lives on its 

validity:

It is the great increase in the absorptive power of the soil, wrought by cultivation, that has caused and continues to cause an increasing rainfall in the State.

29 Shelter-belt planting in the Plains region, U. S. Forest Service, 1935.

Ji Thornthwaite, C. W., op. cit., p. 209.

11 Aughey, Samuel, Sketches of the physical geography and geology of Nebraska, 1880.
36 DROUGHT OF 1936

In 1866 Joseph S. Wilson, then Commissioner of the General Land 

Office, petitioned the Congress as follows:

If one-third of the surface of the Great Plains were covered with forest, there is 

every reason to believe the climate would be greatly improved, the value of the 

whole area as a grazing country wonderfully enhanced, the greater portion of the 

soil would be susceptible of a high degree of cultivation.

This theory seeks its support on the assumption that, inasmuch as 

trees and vegetation, in general, transpire large quantities of water 

they serve well to increase the atmospheric moisture available for 

precipitation. It should now be realized that in a region in which the 

run-off represents 1 inch or less in depth on the basin, evaporation and 

transpiration losses are about equal to the rainfall. The prevention 

of the return to the sea of the small run-off would be valuable as a 

conservation measure, but at most it could have slight if any effect on 

local precipitation.

Although there is much evidence that a large portion of the precipitation in the Great Plains is water re-precipitated after evaporation 

from land areas, nevertheless the destination of water evaporated into 

the atmosphere is dependent upon the movements and other characteristics of the atmosphere, which in general are part of an ever-changing continental pattern. Atmospheric moisture is essential to rainfall, 

but it is also necessary that meteorologic events be such that condensation can occur. It is possible, and moreover it frequently happens, 

that the atmosphere contains moisture sufficient to produce substantial 

precipitation and yet no rain falls. J. B. Kincer, meteorologist of the 

United States Weather Bureau, hi an address before the American 

Meteorological Society at Pittsburgh, Pa., in December 1934, outlined 

the factors requisite to condensation as follows:

The only effective method of producing rain is through the cooling of the air in 

volume and degree sufficient to extract from it a goodly portion of its valuable 

water treasure hidden in vapor form. Nature effects this cooling in a number 

of ways and usually on an immense scale, far greater than man could ever hope to 

emulate. Air moves from place to place over the earth's surface in mass formation. 

These masses are of two major sources, polar and tropical; those of polar origin are 

dense, heavy, and relatively cold, and those of tropical inception warmer and lighter. 

A mass of tropical origin moving northward may come in contact with a polar 

mass, and, being lighter, it naturally flows up over the opposing dense air just 

as it would flow up the side of a mountain that by chance may be disposed in its 

path. In its ascent, through expansion, the cooling necessary to produce rain is 

effected. This illustrates nature's method of producing rain in appreciable 

amounts; no other is effective. Under different circumstances the process varies, 

of course, often being decidedly local.

During the past droughty summer there was a persistent absence of the dense, 

cool polar air masses from the north until about the middle of August, when a 

more normal movement began, definitely breaking the heat wave and, in conjunction with more favorable cyclonic air circulation farther south, producing 

drought-relieving showers over the interior States. Just how these drought 

conditions definitely establish themselves and persist so long, as in 1934, has
NATUKAL VEGETATION AND SOILS IN KELATION TO CLIMATE 37

not yet been determined, but it is evident that any effort of man to effectively 

change the situation would be fruitless.

The United States Forest Service 23 makes the following statements:

The general effect of shelter belts is not the creation of more rainfall over the 

area covered by tree growth, but the more economic use and conservation of the 

available rainfall. Shelter-belt planting is not a cure-all of unfavorable climatic 

conditions in the Plains region.

Romantic expectations, such as raising the water table or increasing the rainfall, 

should not be entertained.

It is apparent, therefore, that most of the benefits that may be expected from a shelter belt in the Great Plains relate to the amelioration of the effects of the wind and to the esthetic aspects.

NATURAL VEGETATION AND SOILS IN THE GREAT PLAINS 

IN RELATION TO CLIMATE

The Great Plains occupy a unique location in the continent with 

respect to climate and vegetation. They form the transition zone 

between the humid East and the arid West, and across the Plains there 

is a characteristic decline in normal precipitation from east to west. 

At the eastern limit, as shown in figure 4, the normal annual precipitation is approximately sufficient to satisfy the normal consumptive 

requirements of evaporation and transpiration of a luxuriant type of 

grassland vegetation, but as one proceeds westward the vegetation 

shows the effect of marked and progressive decrease in annual precipitation. Figure 8 shows the geographic distribution of precipitation over 

the Great Plains and shows also that the greater part of the annual 

precipitation falls during the growing season. The mean annual 

temperature in the Great Plains increases from north to south, being 

38° F. at the Canadian border and 65° in Texas, and is associated 

with a significant variation in the type of vegetation.

The Great Plains are frequently subdivided on the basis of the 

dominant natural vegetation into three main areas, designated, from 

east to west, the tall-grass (true) prairies, the central or mid-grass 

plains, and the short-grass plains.24 The boundaries of these areas 

of plant distribution follow hi general lines of equal precipitation but 

are modified, by the rise hi temperature from north to south, to the 

extent that for the same vegetative type a greater precipitation is 

required in the southern portion than in the northern.

The differences in soil moisture available for plants are significant 

in the determination of plant distribution. The amount of such 

moisture depends upon the precipitation (minus that intercepted by 

plants and the surface run-off), the evaporation from the soil, and 

the nature of the soil. The evaporation is influenced primarily by 

temperature but also by relative humidity and air movements and

>' Possibilities of shelter-belt planting in the Plains region, pp. 9, 35,1935.

« Weaver, J. E., and Clements, F. E., Plant ecology, pp. 463-465, McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1929.
38 DROUGHT OF 1936

by the relative opportunity for evaporation. Soil characteristics 

that influence the soil moisture are its capacity to absorb precipitation 

through infiltration and its capacity to retain moisture.25 These 

characteristics are exemplified by coarse sandy soil on the one hand 

and clayey soil on the other, which are in a sense complementary 

soils, the former having a high infiltration capacity and low retention 

capacity, and the latter a low infiltration capacity and high retention 

capacity. The grassland vegetation of the Great Plains largely 

depends upon the supply of moisture to the surface soil during the 

growing season, rather than upon the deeply stored water. Grasslands are characteristically regions of summer rainfall. The greatly 

lowered precipitation in the Great Plains during autumn and winter, 

which results ia dryness of soil, is a factor that might bear on the 

occurrence and adaptation of some plants. The available moisture, 

however, is not the only factor, for temperature appears to have a 

direct bearing upon the favorable as well as the optimum growth of 

plants.

In the areas of scanty rainfall the soils are characterized by an 

upper leached zone, the soil proper, beneath which the leached-out 

calcareous material has accumulated as a hardened and impervious 

layer. In the short-grass plains the leached zone is comparatively 

shallow; farther east, with increasing rainfall, its depth increases; 

and in the eastern tall-grass prairies the rainfall is sufficient to percolate to a considerable depth without segregation of the leached 

material. Local variations in soil types may be found, and these 

local variations are more commonly related to parent rock or to 

manner of deposition rather than to climate.

Under changing natural conditions the plant life of a region progresses from youthful stages to maturity and climax. In the particular 

habitats of the Great Plains there has been survival through competition in which the diversified factors commonly understood to 

represent climate, such as precipitation, temperature, evaporation, 

and light relations, have different degrees of effect. The past successional floral history of the Great Plains, which has been interrelated 

with soil derivation, has resulted in plant climaxes that are directly 

adapted to the particular conditions existing on the Plains, including 

those of drought. Agriculture in the Great Plains is practically concerned with the relation between the natural soils and the details of 

rainfall and evaporation that under extremely unfavorable conditions lead to drought. The natural vegetation therefore constitutes 

a valuable indicator that may serve as a guide in the adoption of 

successful agricultural practices.

» Horton, B. E., Hydrologic interrelations of water and soils: Soil Sci. Soc. America Proc., vol. 1, pp. 401- 

429,1937.
DROUGHT OF 1936 39 

DROUGHTS AND CHOPS

In a recent article Thornthwaite 26 writes:

Although the influence of climate on the distribution of vegetation and agriculture has been recognized from early times, the precise nature of this influence 

was indeterminate prior to the development of meteorological instruments and 

the collection of records. The thermometer, barometer, and rain gage were 

products of the eighteenth century. Meteorological records have accumulated 

very slowly, and there are barely a dozen rainfall records in existence which are 

continuous over 150 years.

It is only within the last three or four decades that the influence of climate on 

soil formation has been recognized. This recognition followed the systematic 

study of soils and their descriptive classification initiated by the Russian school 

of pedologists in the early nineties. In summarizing the relation of soil to 

climate, Dr. Marbut, former Chief of the Soil Survey, said, "The coincidence of 

soil belts and climatic belts has caused soil students to conclude that climatic 

forces are the predominant soil-forming agencies of the world."

During the last two decades those sciences which are dependent on climatology, 

including plant ecology, soil science, and geomorphology, have developed rapidly. 

The climatic basis of the distribution of plants, soils, and land forms has been 

the subject of considerable research and has been reduced to a certain degree of 

order. Scientists working in these fields have recognized that their future 

development on a truly scientific basis requires a consideration of climate in 

quantitative terms.

From the standpoint of agriculture, probably the most significant climatic 

factor is the relation of precipitation to evaporation. Its effect on soil development is direct and positive. Where precipitation exceeds evaporation, a surplus 

of water flows into and through the soil and along its surface as run-off. Where 

the evaporation rate exceeds the precipitation, run-off is limited to periods of 

intensive rain, and accumulation in the soil is limited to a few inches or feet 

near the surface, with an area beneath which remains permanently dry. Thisclimatic relation to soil formation is well known and accounts for the development of the two major soil groups lime-accumulating soils, or pedocals, and 

aluminum- and iron-accumulating soils, or pedalfers. Where the evaporation 

rate exceeds the precipitation, the soluble materials are not leached out and 

carried away but are concentrated a short distance beneath the surface. Where 

the precipitation exceeds the evaporation, the more soluble materials are rapidly 

leached away, leaving only relatively insoluble materials such as iron and 

aluminum.

Although the precipitation-evaporation ratio is of obvious significance, its 

actual determination is extremely difficult. Present measures of both precipitation and evaporation are grossly inadequate. The expression of total precipitation in numerical form has little significance, since all precipitation is included, 

regardless of the conditions under which it fell. The rainfall of a crop season is 

a composite made up of a series of rains, each possessing an individual pattern of 

distribution. The rains may be gentle showers or downpours, long or short in 

duration, and some may occur during the day and others at night. Periods 

without rain may last for a few days or for several months.

86 Thornthwalte, C. W., The significance of climatic studies in agricultural research: Soil Sci. Soe. 

America Proc., vol. 1, p. 475. 1937.
40 DROUGHT OF 1936

In his chapter on the Great Plains 27 Thornthwaite writes:

The lack of uniformity of rainfall during a crop season may be illustrated by 

reference to the rainfall regimen in Abilene, Tex., in 1911. The total rainfall for 

the year was 25.88 inches. Of this amount 7 inches had fallen by May 1; during May and June only 0.14 inch fell, and by July 13 the total fall amounted to 

7.49 inches. During the last 19 days of July 6.21 inches fell, of which 3.50 came 

in 1 hour. During 2 hours, one in July and the other in December, there was a 

total precipitation of nearly 6 inches, and during the two storms a total of 9.30 

inches, 36 percent of the year's supply.

The numerical expression of total precipitation can mean little, since it includes all rainfall irrespective of the conditions under which it occurred. Some 

methods of evaluating the effectiveness of individual rains, even sections of 

rains, must be developed. The effective annual rainfall would differ from the 

total annual rainfall; there would be deductions for excessive or badly distributed rain and additions for possible carry-over from the preceding season. Until 

a method has been found for the satisfactory determination of rainfall efficiency, 

attempts to correlate rainfall and crop yields are necessarily premature.

In the paper first cited 28 Thornthwaite adds:

Measures of temperature are likewise far from adequate. Our only temperature index at present is derived from the position of a column of mercury in a 

small glass tube obviously far removed from vegetation or soil. All measures 

of temperature efficiency must in one way or another be derived from recorded 

temperature values. Here, as well as in the consideration of precipitation and 

evaporation, the sciences of climatology, ecology, and pedology require the 

services of plant physiologists and microbiologists.

Cheapness of crop production, due to mechanization of agriculture, 

now makes possible the cropping of land which otherwise would not 

have been used. By including the yield of such lands the apparent 

production per acre has been reduced. Changes in systems of cropping and improvements of seed also influence yield. These and other 

factors increase the difficulty of correlating crop yields with climate.

Notwithstanding the inadequacy of crop statistics and the lack of 

correlation between vegetable growth and the factors upon which it 

depends, the crop statistics published monthly by the United States 

Department of Agriculture are of much value for general comparisons 

and give an indication of production from year to year on a reasonably 

 comparable basis. In fact, they give the only systematic information 

that is available on production.

The 1936 crop yields M in percent of the 10-year average for 1921-30 

are given in table 3 and figures 9 and 10. A study of the total precipitation for the growing period May, June, July, and August, 1936, in 

comparison with the crop yields, is indicated in figure 11 and shows 

that when the precipitation during the growing season is 8% inches or 

more the crop yields in general amount to 90 percent or more of the

" Thornthwaite, C. W., in Goodrich, Carter, and others, Migration and economic opportunity, pp. 

227-228, Univ. Pennsylvania, 1936.

» Thornthwaite, C. W., The significance of climatic studies in agricultural research: Soil Sci. Sec. 

America Proc., vol. 1, p. 276,1937.

*» Crops and Markets, vol. 13, nc. 12, U. S. Dept. Agr., December 1936.
DROUGHTS AND CEOPS 41

10-year mean. Apparent departure from this rule in N«w York, West 

Virginia, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Texas can be explained by an examination of the distribution of precipitation during the growing season, as 

indicated in table 3. For example, in Iowa the crop*yield was only 64

percent of the average with a rainfall of 9.75 niches. The May and 

June precipitation was approximately normal, but the July precipitation was only 0.51 inch. July is a month when the plant needs for 

water are great. Although the August precipitation was 3.48 inches,
42 DROUGHT OF 1936

the period of maximum need had passed, and it was too late to save 

the crops.

As indicated in table 10 there were nine humid States in which crop 

yields in 1936 fell below 90 percent of normal; the lowest yield was in

Missouri, with 60 percent; in two other States, Minnesota (66 percent) and Iowa (64 percent), the yields were below 75 percent of normal. All the semiarid States had yields below 90 percent of normal, 

the lowest in South Dakota (37 percent) and the highest in Texas (89 

percent). In all the arid States except two, Montana (52 percent)
DROUGHTS AND CROPS 43

and Wyoming (77 percent), the yields exceeded 90 percent of normal. 

The yields in these States, however, except Montana and Wyoming, 

are largely dependent upon irrigation and are not a true index of 

drought conditions.

2t>

24 

22

20

to 

£ 18

o

z

z 16 

o

S l4

Q.

3 12 

a: 

o.

10

8.5 

8

6

A

 

4

 ^

1

 

V

1

»

1

 

30 4O 50 60 70 80 90 IOO 110 120 130 140 150 160

CROP YIELD, PERCENT OF AVERAGE

. Relation of composite yields of crops per acre in 1936 to total precipitation in May, June, July, 

and August, 1936, for humid and semiarid States.

TABLE 10. States in which precipitation in 1986 in the period May to August, 

inclusive, was less than 85 percent of normal or in which 1986 crop yields were less 

than 90 percent of normal

State

Humid States:

Illinois...............

Arkansas.. . .........

Ohio.-. ...... .......

South Carolina... _ 

Michigan ............

New York ...........

Precipitation

Total

6.30 

7.61 

8.31 

8.02 

9.10 

8.05 

9.75 

11.31 

30.17 

12.44 

34.04 

8.66 

9.89 

12.56 

11.15 

11.53

Percent 

of 

mean

37 

52 

52 

55 

55 

59 

61 

68 

70 

70 

71 

73 

75 

75 

78 

78

Crop 

yields (percent of 

10-year 

average 

1921-30)

60 

77 

79 

85 

119 

66 

64 

100 

96 

152 

330 

95 

102 

92 

76 

87

State

Humid States Contd.

North Carolina. .....

Semiarid States:

Arid States:

Precipitation

Total

13.46 

16.50 

16.61 

13.73 

15.67 

14.32

4.24 

5.20 

7.38 

7.40 

8.06 

13.73

4.57 

5.16

Percent 

of 

mean

79 

81 

82 

83 

83 

84

42 

48 

52 

57 

57 

115

63

85

Crop 

yields (percent of 

10-year 

average 

1921-30)

78 

131 

107 

98 

123 

99

45 

37 

52 

45 

62 

89

52

77
44 DROUGHT OF 1936

The foregoing statistics indicate that much must be learned before 

a definite correlation can be made between climatic and other factors 

and crops. Although precipitation and temperature are the two 

basic factors involved, much difficulty is due to the lack of a method 

of quantitative estimation of their effects on vegetative processes 

and man's activities, or of the nature of the effects of the distribution 

or concentration of these factors, not only within a year but from year 

to year.

DROUGHTS AND THE CLASSIFICATION OF CLIMATE

In recent years much progress has been made in the theoretical 

classification of many of the climatic and other fundamental factors 

entering into the drought problem. In this connection the work of 

Koppen 30 is outstanding and gives a logical and scientific approach 

to the subject. Following the lines indicated by Koppen's work, 

Thornthwaite 31 and Russell 33 have made valuable contributions to 

the subject, with especial reference to the United States. Through 

these and other studies related to the classification of climatic factors 

a start at least has been made toward the development of a system 

of classification of regions with respect to water supply and other 

characteristics related to droughts.

In the initial concept droughts were regarded as related primarily 

to lack of water and the presence of other conditions that discourage 

plant growth. The lack of water for other than plant use has been a 

later consideration in the drought problem. Among the principal 

factors that affect plant growth are precipitation, temperature, and 

soil. In an arid or desert country a shrub survives on a meager 

amount of water and in an alkaline soil. In the semiarid or prairie 

country grasses thrive that would die in the desert. In the humid 

regions dense vegetation is commonly abundant. An intimate relation between native plant growth, climate, and soil may be observed. 

The plant association that evolves as a stable phase of plant succession resulting from processes of selection and survival under given 

climatic and edaphic conditions is termed the climax association. 

Consequently the climax association in arid or semiarid regions 

possesses great drought-resistant qualities, because it is but a reflection of its environment and is well acclimated to conditions as they 

exist. But when man introduces plants that require moisture in 

excess of demands of the climax vegetation and neglects to supply the 

additional amount of water necessary, he creates a situation in which 

more than the natural supply of water is needed and which to him

M Koppen, Wladimer, Versuch einer Klassifikation der Klimate: Qeog. Rev., October 1931, p. 833.

*i Thornthwaite, C. W., Climates of North America according to a new classification: Geog. Rev., October 

1931, pp. 633-655.

" Russell, R. J., Dry climates of the United States: California Univ. Pub. in Geography, vol. 5, no. 5, 

pp. 245-274, 1932.
DROUGHTS AND THE CLASSIFICATION OF CLIMATE 45

may therefore become a drought. A similar situation is created if in 

the development of a region demands are created for water for man's 

uses in excess of that which is normally available.

In connection with the present-day activities of a highly organized 

civilization, therefore, it is increasingly difficult to define droughts on 

the basis of a study of meteorologic conditions alone. Among the 

factors entering into the problem are the climatic conditions, principally precipitation and temperature, the physical condition of the 

earth's surface, and the activities of man in the region under consideration.

There is no simple way to classify ground areas with respect to 

droughts. Not only must the amount of precipitation and temperature be taken into account, but other conditions that have a bearing 

on the magnitude of the residual precipitation available for man's 

use must be considered.

Thornthwaite 33 made an attempt to determine critical climatic 

limits by evaluating the effectiveness of precipitation in terms of the 

temperature at which it fell. Temperature as a factor in the effectiveness of precipitation for plant activities has long been recognized, 

and Thornthwaite's classification offers a logical measure of this 

effectiveness.

Meyer 34 has pointed out that

Other factors remaining constant, the rate of evaporation from shallow water 

is approximately doubled for every 18° increase in temperature. Van't Hoff 

and Arrhenius have enunciated the principle that most chemical reactions and 

physiological processes double in activity for every similar increase in temperature. This law has been found, by experiment, to apply to a number of phases 

of plant activity. It has, for example, been found to be substantially correct for 

the rate of fixation of carbon dioxide by plants in sunlight; and, inasmuch as 

transpiration occurs during the process of carbon dioxide assimilation, when the 

stomata open in the sunlight, it is reasonable to conclude that the rate of transpiration, insofar as it is dependent on temperature, substantially follows Van't Hoff's 

law.

Thornthwaite has assumed that the rate of evaporation from free 

water surfaces is a measure of the characteristics of a region with 

respect to the natural loss or consumption of water through evaporation from land and water areas and through the transpiration of vegetation. To evaluate the rate of evaporation, he has derived an empirical relationship for the monthly evaportation in terms of the mean 

monthly temperature, using the monthly precipitation as an indication ol the atmospheric humidity. Thornthwaite has indicated that 

the effectiveness of precipitation is measured by its ability to supply

M Thornthwaite, C. W., Climates of North America according to a new classification: Geog. Eev., October 

1931, pp. 633-655.

** Meyer, A. F., Elements of hydrology, 2d ed., p. 261, 1928. See also Barrows, H. K., A study of the 

effect of temperature upon different reactions and processes: Boston Soc. Civil Eng. Jour., April 1937.
46 DROUGHT OF 1936

the consumptive demands of the local vegetation. On the theory that 

these demands are proportional to the evaporation, as discussed above, 

he has used the ratio of monthly precipitation to monthly evaporation to indicate the effectiveness. A statistical index of the precipitation effectiveness of the year is computed by adding together the 

sum of the 12 monthly ratios. The sum is multiplied by 10 for convenience.

Five major moisture provinces are recognized, and their boundaries, 

are defined in terms of the annual index of precipitation effectiveness 

namely, (A) wet, (B) humid, (C) subhumid, (D) semiarid, and 

(E) arid. The normal positions of these provinces of the United States.

UNITED STATES

PRECIPITATION EFFECTIVENESS 

Humidity province ifi. index 

A (Wet) 

B (Humid) 

C (Subhumid) 

D (Semiarid) 

E(Arid)

FIGURE 12. Normal climatic regimen of the United States.

are shown on figure 12 and their position during 1936 on figure 13. 

In addition three moisture subprovinces, defined on the basis of seasonal distribution of precipitation effectiveness, are recognized in the 

United States (r) moisture abundant in all seasons, (s) moisture 

deficient in summer, and (d) moisture deficient in all seasons. These 

subprovinces are defined by the proportion that the precipitation 

effectiveness of 3 summer or winter months, whichever is the greater, 

bears to the total annual effectiveness.

Thornthwaite also recognized climatic division in accordance with 

thermal efficiency, which is assumed as being directly proportional to 

the difference between the monthly mean temperature and the freezing point, on the assumption of a linear relation between the evaporation rate and the temperature. On this basis an annual index of 

thermal efficiency is computed in a manner similar to the computa-
DROUGHTS AND THE CLASSIFICATION OF CLIMATE 47

tion of the precipitation efficiency as described above. In addition 

five thermal subprovinces are defined on the basis of the summer 

concentration of thermal efficiency. These climatic divisions are 

shown on figures 14 and 15. ±=

This system of classification offers a unique method of defining 

the climate of a region, on the basis of observed meteorologic data. 

Mathematical definiteness may be given to the boundaries of these 

climatic provinces and subprovinces, whose migrations can be traced 

annually. This constitutes a distinct advance in climatology.

In the United States the thermal efficiency is generally adequate, 

and variations in the precipitation effectiveness are the ruling factors

UNITED STATES

PRECIPITATION EFFECTIVENESS 

Humidity province fftL index 

A (Wet) 

B (Humid) 

C(Subhumid) 

D (Semiarid) 

E (Arid) Dec. 1935 to Nov. 1936 inclusive

FIGURE 13. Climatic regimen of the United States during 1936.

and determine the climatic boundaries. Consequently, the precipitation effectiveness is of basic interest, particularly in a study of 

droughts.

A condition that exists when a drier climate has temporarily displaced a normal wetter climate is an indication of drought. Although 

in this report a year having 85 percent or less of mean annual precipitation has been adopted as indicative of drought conditions, 

objection may be raised to an arithmetical measure as such. First, 

it does not consider the effects of temperature and the distribution 

of the precipitation with respect thereto; and, more important, it 

does not consider that in some areas large variations in precipitation 

may occur without seriously influencing normal activities, whereas 

in other areas, particularly those near the marginal boundaries of 

the humid and arid provinces, small percentage variations have
48 DROUGHT OF 1936

great and controlling effects on many activities. The variations of 

precipitation and of temperature that are of interest with respect to 

droughts in a particular region are those that result in a decrease in 

moisture available below the critical climatic limit for that region. 

Thornthwaite's climatic boundaries afford definite measures of these 

limits.

Figure 13 shows the location of the major humidity provinces in 

the United States during 1936, based on the precipitation effectiveness of the 12-month period December 1935 to November 1936. 

-Comparison of this figure with figure 12 shows a general eastward 

movement during 1936 of the subhumid province, with consequent

UNITED STATES

THERMAL EFFICIENCY

Temperature province T/E index 

B'(Mesothermal)

FIGURE 14. Normal distribution of thermal efficiency in the United States.

contraction of the eastern humid province and enlargement of the 

semiarid province. Texas remained nearly normal, acting as a hinge 

point for the northward increase of the general eastern movement 

of the subhumid province. In North Dakota and South Dakota 

the semiarid province completely displaced the subhumid. However, 

the normally arid States showed in general little change in 1936, 

with some exception in Utah and Nevada, where the normally arid 

areas were somewhat contracted. New England is indicated as wet, 

because of the large rainfall during a period of low temperature, which 

caused the floods of March 1936 in that area.

An analysis of the growing-season records is of greater interest, 

however, because important variations that may be obscured in the 

annual record are thereby exposed for study. In the arid West 

water supply and irrigation are largely dependent upon storage of the
DROUGHTS AND THE CLASSIFICATION OF CLIMATE 49

previous winter's rainfall and snowfall, rather than upon the precipitation of the growing season, and consequently a study of the deficiencies in that area should center in the winter season. The availability of this water for the growing season is largely dependent 

upon the adequacy of the development works, and to that extent 

the influence of climate is obscured. Furthermore, a study of the 

precipitation in the arid States during the storage period of 1935-36, 

recorded in table 3, shows that the precipitation was about normal or 

better. Aside from the effects of the chinook winds in the northern 

arid areas, the temperature of the storage period is of little influence, 

provided it is below the freezing point, as it matters little whether

UNITED STATES

SUMMER CONCENTRATION OF

THERMAL EFFICIENCY 

Sub province , Percentage

THE GEOGR. REVIEW

FIGURE 15. Normal summer concentration of thermal efficiency in the United States.

snow falls at say 25° or 10° F. For these reasons no special study 

of the precipitation of the nongrowing season is indicated.

The moisture available during the growing season, May to August, 

as indicated by the precipitation effectiveness, is shown for a normal 

year in figure 16 and for 1936 in figure 17. The outstanding feature of 

1936 is the large expansion and eastward movement of the belt of 

moisture deficiency, with consequent large contraction of the area of 

summer-moisture sufficiency to the eastern Coastal States. The 

eastern boundary of the belt of moisture deficiency, although remaining in an approximately normal position in Texas, moved eastward 

from its normal position in North Dakota and South Dakota, as far 

east as western New York, intersecting eastern Kentucky and Tennessee. Areas normally in the belt of moisture deficiency as shown on 

figure 16 became semiarid, notably Montana, Wyoming, North
50 DROUGHT OF 1936

MOISTURE AVAILABLE 

Wet |

Sufficient g 

Deficient \ 

Semiarid ', 

Arid s

-32~1 Precipitation^

-161 effectiveness

- glMay-Augutt 

. 4 inclusive

FIGURE 16. Moisture available during the normal growing season.

t f Af fV f t / r /' / / f f f f f\f ft f '~tt^f

MOISTURE AVAILABLE 

Wet

Sufficient 

Deficient 

Semiarid 

Arid

- 16 I effectiveness

- 6 f Moy-August 

. 4J inclusive

FIGURE 17. Moisture available during the growing season of 1936.

Dakota, and South Dakota. The arid region showed some contraction in 1936.

In the humid and semiarid provinces drought conditions may be 

said to be indicated whenever the moisture available has decreased to 

an extent equivalent to that of the next lower humidity province,
VARIABILITY OF CLIMATE 51

and severe drought to be indicated when it has decreased to that of 

the second lower humidity province. Accordingly in 1936 summer 

drought conditions were indicated over a wide area in the Central 

States, with severe drought conditions in Missouri, North Dakota, 

South Dakota, and part of Minnesota.

VARIABILITY OF CLIMATE

The preparation and study of maps of normal climatic regimen is 

often, futile without a study of the variability of the climate of the 

region. An economy is adapted most easily to a climatic regimen 

that remains fairly uniform from year to year. But in areas of great 

climatic variability the adjustment is made difficult, and consequently, in such areas, economic and physical distress commonly 

occur during unfavorable years, and it is to the solution of the problem 

offered by these areas that much political and economic thought has 

recently been directed.35

An attempt has been made to set up a measure of climatic variability in terms of the frequency of the occurrence of years in which 

the precipitation has been less than sufficient to meet the normal 

demands of evaporation and transpiration.

With other factors, such as wind, remaining the same, evaporation 

and transpiration will vary directly with temperature within the limits 

of available water. A study of annual precipitation, temperature, 

and run-off over several large drainage basins indicates that the normal 

annual consumption by evaporation and transpiration varies from 

about 18 inches at a temperature of 39° to about 33 inches at 64°. 

On this basis, the frequency with which the annual precipitation has 

been less than the requirements of normal consumption by evaporation and transpiration is shown on figure 18. When the requirements 

of normal consumption are not met vegetation tends to suffer owing 

to a lack of moisture, and there is little or no residual water available 

for stream flow or to recharge ground water.

In the preparation of figure 18 stations having long-term records 

were favored, and the selection of stations was so made that each 

State had at least four stations uniformly distributed over its area.

The critical area and the area of greatest variability lies between the 

lines representing 80 and 20 percent frequency and is generally coincident with the Great Plains. In this area there may be a year of 

sufficient precipitation followed by a year or years in which the rainfall does not meet the demands of evaporation and transpiration. 

The 50 percent line that runs through the Great Plains is of special 

interest, as it separates the humid East from the arid West. The 

area west of the 80 percent line never has enough rainfall for successful

35 This subject is treated at length by Isaiah Bowman in Qeog. Rev., January 1935, pp. 43-61, and in 

Headwaters, control and use: Upstream Engineering Conference, 1935, pp. 76-105.
52 DROUGHT OF 1936

production of crops without irrigation, except along the northwest 

coast and in some of the intermountain area shown on figure 12 as 

either wet or humid. The area east of the 20 percent line is the area 

of least variability and in general has adequate precipitation for 

normal crops. East of the Mississippi River years of insufficient rainfall to meet the demands of transpiration and evaporation occur less 

than 5 percent of the time.

FIGURE 18. Percentage of time during the period of record in which annual precipitation has been less than 

consumptive requirements of evaporation and transpiration.

CLIMATIC RISKS

It is now generally recognized that droughts are natural phenomena 

which may occur in any locality and at any time and that nothing can 

be done to prevent them. In general, however, the damages incident 

to droughts are frequently the result of man's activities, and these can 

be alleviated if proper consideration is given to the water-supply 

characteristics of the area in which development is made. The data 

now available for most areas are sufficient, if properly used, to indicate 

the water supplies that may be reasonably expected in any region.

In the humid regions there is usually enough rainfall to supply the 

needs of vegetation and most human activities. As shown in tables 7 

and 9, there are years when water is short, but in general droughts are 

not especially prolonged or serious. However, increased demands for 

water, due to intensive development in urban sections that formerly 

had adequate supply, now frequently result in shortages during brief 

periods. In the arid regions development is definitely limited and
BACKGROUNDS OF ECONOMIC DISTRESS 53

largely depends on the water that can be conserved, stored, and made 

available for agriculture through irrigation and for other uses. The 

semiarid region is one of special risk, and here the problem is not 

simple. Periods of sufficient water are enjoyed, and then without 

warning shortages occur which virtually reduce the area to aridity.

The extent to which climatic risks and part-time use may be compensated by actual productiveness in competition with sections where 

nature has been more lavish with her bounties is largely an economic 

problem. Although physical geography and the scientific study of 

climate offer a basis upon which to determine where economic effort 

of certain types may be applied and where it should be withheld, the 

question of climatic risks remains as much economic as physical. 

Consequently, the problems of droughts and climatic variability are 

pomplex.

Whether our climate is changing is a question that has remained 

unanswerable. It would be scientific quackery, indeed, to venture a 

forecast upon the basis of our very short climatologic records. It is 

certain, however, that Quaternary climates have changed since the 

glacial epoch, but historical records are so infinitesimal in relation to 

geologic time that they provide no backsight upon which to base a 

statement of climatic trends. It will only be through the keeping of 

long continuous records of the behavior of natural phenomena that 

it may be possible for our posterity, through our recorded experiences, 

to plan profitably and intelligently for the best use of their resources.

BACKGROUNDS OF ECONOMIC DISTRESS IN THE GREAT

PLAINS

By H. L. WALSTER s«

The Great Plains what and where are they, and why are they so 

frequently in a state of economic distress? From the point of view of 

the Nation the Great Plains might well be defined as an area of stress 

and strain: they have been and probably always will be the stage upon 

which the American people will try their great social and economic 

experiments. They will also continue to be the stage upon which 

Mother Nature will reveal herself in the greatest variety of moods, 

ranging from sumptuous plenty in the bountiful years to niggardly 

scarcity in the years of drought, hot winds, grasshoppers, rust, or other 

disaster.

E. C. Chilcott, long a native of South Dakota and for many years 

senior agriculturist, in charge of the Office of Dry Land Agriculture, 

Bureau of Plant Industry, United States Department of Agriculture,

» Dean, Division of Agriculture, and director of Experiment Station and Extension Service, North Dakota Agricultural College. Presented at the National Catholic Rural Life Conference, Fargo, N. Dak., 

October 12,1936.
54 DROUGHT OF 1936

defined the Great Plains as an area of about 450,000 square miles 

west of the 98th meridian and limited in its western boundary by 

the 5,000-foot contour. It includes most of North Dakota, South 

Dakota, eastern Montana, eastern Wyoming, most of Nebraska, eastern Colorado, the western half of Kansas, western Oklahoma, the panhandle of Texas, and eastern New Mexico. Such is the prosaic geographic delineation.

But the Great Plains are something more than mere geography: 

They are the land of romance the land of Buffalo Bill and of Billy 

the Kid; the land of the cowboy, of the lariat, and the 6-shooter; 

the domain of the cattle kings, the scene of the lonely vigil of the sheep 

herder. They are the broad acres from whence are filled the granaries, 

the oil casks, and the larders of the Nation.

The Spanish legacy to the history of the Great Plains extends back 

more than 4 centuries to 1530, when Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca 

first saw a buffalo near the southern margin of the Great Plains. 

The Spaniard, first white invader of the Great Plains, found a congenial environment. Webb 37 has pointed out that these adventurers 

came from the semiarid part of western Europe, from a treeless land 

where they had long built homes from adobe, brick, and stone, and that 

they were superb horsemen. When the 4-H Club boy of western 

North Dakota rides his spotted pony to school today, he little realizes 

that it owes its spots to the Moorish invasion of Spain and the Spanish 

dispersal of horses in North America. The story of the Great Plains 

is the story of the rise and fall of the horse.38 The horse provided a 

means of transport to both white man and Indian in a great open 

country traversed by but few navigable rivers. The next time you 

see an alleged cattleman trying to herd a bunch of cows with a model T 

Ford or any other mechanical contraption, just register the fact that 

you have witnessed the passing of an era; that era was at its zenith 

when the first herd of Texas longhorns trailed their way to the northern Great Plains.

Those first herds arrived in the late seventies of the nineteenth 

century. What is now North Dakota had only 2,000 cattle in 1870; 

by 1880 it had 70,000, and that number had risen to 189,000 by 1886.39

The Great Plains have always suffered from two kinds of wrong 

publicity that spread by the misleading optimist and that spread 

by the misleading pessimist. The Great Plains have always been a 

happy hunting ground for the boomer and the booster, and they have 

quite invariably left behind them a sorry trail marked "busted." 

Beef bonanzas were floated in England and Scotland, and every 

possible effort was made to exploit the range. The Badlands Cowboy,

» Webb, W. P., The Great Plains, pp. 94-98, Ginn & Co., 1931.

« Idem, pp. 52-68.

*» The western range, 74th Cong., 2d sess., S. Doe. 199, table 25, p. 119,1936.
BACKGROUXDS OF ECONOMIC DISTRESS 55

of Medora, N. Dak., short-lived but vivid newspaper of the North 

Dakota cow country, records the following incident in one of its 1886 

issues:

Marquis de Mores returned last Thursday evening from his eastern trip and 

started down the river Sunday with his wife on a hunting expedition. He has 

completed contracts with the French Government to supply its soldiers with a 

newly invented soup. He intends to visit Europe soon to make contracts with 

western-range cattle companies who have their headquarters there for the slaughtering of their cattle.

Then came the severe winter of 1885-86, followed by the equally 

severe drought in the summer of 1886. George Stewart says:

Financial confidence, which started to wane in 1885, was almost completely 

lost, and the winter of 1886-87 gave a body blow to the beef bonanza. When 

the depression caused loans to be called, credit liquidation brought forced sales 

and bankruptcy.

The farmer had begun to occupy the western North Dakota range 

country in the early eighties; these first sod-busters refused to listen 

to the advice of Major Powell 40 namely, that "Crop agriculture would 

not yield a dependable family living in most of this area except under 

irrigation."

A disastrous rainless season afflicted the early farmer in western 

Dakota Territory at a very early date. The issue of the Bismarck 

Daily Tribune for October 15, 1886, contains the following illuminating editorial:

The Northern Pacific Co. will act upon the advice of its general emigration 

agent, Col. P. B. Groat, and all farmers along the line of the road whose crops 

were a total failure this year will be furnished with good seed wheat for next 

season. This encouragement to farmers at this time will do an immense amount 

of good, as many who decided to do but little fall plowing for next spring's seeding will now prepare all the ground possible and make up next season for what 

has been lost this year.

Your particular attention is called to one phrase in the above 

editorial namely, "will now prepare all the ground possible."

Officialdom in the person of one Lauren Dunlap also broke into 

the editorial columns of the Bismarck Tribune on October 1, 1886, 

with a summary in the Monthly Weather Review. (Mr. Dunlap was 

attached to the Immigration Office of Dakota Territory.) Immigration commissioners are, of course, traditional optimists and, like the 

rest of us, are not endowed with prevision, although they frequently 

claim that particular ability. So we find Mr. Dunlap saying anent 

the drought of 1886:

Dakota has suffered the same and no more than her sister States in the West 

from a dry, hot period of weather this summer, the like of w.hich has not been 

experienced before in years. Never since the settlement of Dakota began in

40 Quoted from L. F. Kneipp, assistant chief, Forest Service. See The western range, p. 394; also Major 

Powell's address at the dedication of the first North Dakota capitol building.
56 DROUGHT OF 1936

earnest has the drought been so general, and it is reasonable to suppose that such 

an experience as the Territory has now passed through safely, after all, may not 

be repeated again in the lifetime of the youngest Dakotan.

Subsequent history must adjudge Mr. Dunlap overoptimistic, for 

his youngest Dakotan was destined to suffer the droughts of 1893, of 

1897, of 1900, of 1910, of 1917, of 1934, and of 1936, but it is true that 

the major droughts have not been confined to the Great Plains.

Opinions with respect to the suitability of the Great Plains to crop 

farming, into which destiny has now thrust millions of its occupiers, 

have varied from the days of the first explorers. Maj. Stephen H. 

Long's 1819-20 expedition across the plains is probably responsible 

for the label "Great American Desert." His map published in London 

in 1823 carries the phrase "Great Desert" but does not delineate its 

boundaries. The early geographies extended the boundaries with 

little regard to the facts. In 1859 Joseph Henry, the famous physicist 

of the Smithsonian Institution, wrote in the columns of the American 

Agriculturist that a "vast extent of country, almost one-half of the 

width of the American continent, was quite unfit for tillage." Henry 41 

called the territory from the 98th meridian to the Pacific coast valleys 

"a wilderness unfitted for the uses of the husbandman." Owen Wister, 

whose "Virginian" was "wild and wooly and full of fleas, and hard to 

curry above the knees" characterized Henry's ideas as "rancid with 

philanthropy and ignorance." 41a Even Horace Greeley, of "Go

West, 

*******

young man" fame, thought that the desert was growing.

The soils of the Great Plains are fertile soils that is, they contain 

a great store of available and potentially available plant food; the 

average lower rainfall of the Great Plains has prevented the excessive 

leaching of these soils. Such depletion of fertility as has occurred 

has been largely through the removal of crops and the loss of nitrogen 

through wastage by fire. The Great Plains exemplify the dictum 

laid down by Sir John Russell, the world's greatest student of soils: 

"It is not the crops that exhaust the land, but the cultivation." 

But although Great Plains soils have not had their fertility exhausted, 

we must remember that they are wind-swept. Wind-swept soils are 

always subject to wind-erosion damage. Wind erosion has taken a 

heavy toll throughout the length and breadth of the Great Plains; 

water erosion, too, has levied a heavy toll, particularly in the warmer 

longer season in the southern part of the Plains.

In a short address which the present speaker [Mr. Walster] made to 

an informal session of experiment-station directors in November 1935 

he said:

Conservation is not congenial to the American temperament. Coronado 

ventured into the unknown Great Plains to find gold in order that he and his

« Quoted by Hulbert, A. B., Soil, its influence on the history of the United States, 1930. 

«»Idem, p. 205.
BACKGROUNDS OF ECONOMIC DISTRESS 57

Spanish adventurers might spend it. The cattlemen trailed their herds over the 

same trails eternally seeking new and distant pastures. The sheepmen followed 

with their still more efficient grass consumers. Both cattlemen and sheepmen 

increased their herds and flocks to the capacity of a particular range, then left it 

for greener pastures.

Then came the farmer the Plains settler with his plow and his harrow, pulverizing the ancient soil structures and destroying the equally ancient soil cover. 

Not satisfied with the toll taken by beast and mold-board plow, we invented that 

most efficient of all methods for destroying soil structure and soil cover dry 

farming. And how we praised it! What congresses and conferences we held to 

extol the praises of all that it implies! The prospectus for the Seventh International Dry-Farming Congress held at Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, in 1912 

stated, "Dry-farming methods can be used with profit upon every acre in every 

district of the world." The American West and the Canadian took this enthusiastic advice, and they have become "brothers in adversity."

Will a mere rearrangement of fields into alternate strips of crop 

and summer fallow now so prominently advocated by the Soil Conservation Service ultimately accomplish anything but a mere postponement of that exhaustion by cultivation which Sir John Russell 

so aptly epitomizes? "Were I to succumb to the lure of alliteration, I should be inclined to characterize strip farming as 'planners' 

palliative.' It is the type of recommendation being greeted with the 

same cocksure enthusiasm as greeted original apostles of dry farming."

The Office of Dry Land Agriculture of the Bureau of Plant Industry, United States Department of Agriculture, has maintained a 

series of 23 experiment stations up and down the Great Plains for 

the last 25 years or more. E. C. Chilcott summarized all the crop 

work of these stations in United States Department of Agriculture 

Miscellaneous Circulars 81 and 81, supplement 1, published respectively in 1927 and 1931. * * * Chilcott sums up as follows:

The Great Plains area has been and should continue to be chiefly devoted to 

stock raising, and all agencies interested in the agricultural, social, and economic 

development of this vast region of more than 450,000 square miles should unite 

in bringing about conditions that will make possible the fullest development of 

its natural resources for stock production. Crop production should be aimed to 

supplement livestock production rather than to compete with it.

Back of the whole story of such degrees of economic distress as the 

Great Plains have experienced lies the wrong use of the land. To 

place the sole blame for that wrong use upon the operator or even 

the owner is to ignore the facts of history. Let us look at some of 

these facts:

First and foremost lies the fact that land prices and local taxes 

have in general been too high for the revenue-producing capacity of 

the land.42 Men have not been able to afford land ownership; this 

has meant a growing land tenancy. In eight of the Great Plains 

States 15 percent of the farmers were tenants in 1880; by 1910, 30

« See Chilcott, E. C., U. S. Dept. Agr. Misc. Circ. 81, p. 94, 1927.
58 DROUGHT OF 1936

percent of them were tenants, and by 1935, 40 percent. A rising 

tide of tenancy has not been conducive to livestock farming; the nonresident landlord and too many of the resident landlords still seek 

revenue from the outturn of the threshing machine.

The farm-debt situation in the Great Plains presents a background 

to the economic situation which cannot be ignored. The greater proportion of this debt is owed to one or another of the several arms of 

the Farm Credit Administration. * * *

American agriculture is young; the agriculture of the Great Plains 

is still younger, and the agriculture of the northern Great Plains is 

even younger. The agriculture of that part of the United States 

east of the Great Plains by and large, the humid agriculture of this 

country is relatively old and evolved from a simple subsistence agriculture to its present diversified form. The diversified agriculture of 

New England, the Atlantic seaboard, and the great dairy and corn 

belt has evolved from a simple cash grain farming with few livestock into a system wherein feed and forage crops provide grain and 

pasture for the herds and flocks which dominate the landscape.

The agriculture of the Great Plains has had an entirely different 

history: except in a few rare instances or special locations the Great 

Plains never had a subsistence phase. Most of our pioneers were 

surplus producers from the start. The tragedy of the Great Plains 

lies in the obstinate fact that at fairly regular intervals great portions 

of the Plains people are forced by the whims of nature to a subsistence 

level or to charity. The closer historical connection between the 

initiation of Great Plains agriculture, especially northern Great 

Plains agriculture, and modern developments in farm machinery and 

mechanical power foreordained this difference.

The cowboy once dominated the Great Plains; now the cowboy is 

largely confined to such portions of badlands, sandhills, butte-dominated terrane, and stony, rocky, or gravelly hills as the plowboy has 

not yet wholly invaded.

The Great Plains was once a cow country: herein its history 

differs sharply from the history of the land to the east of the Plains 

The plowboy has always been rather proud of his conquest of the 

prairie plains, of his successful drive against the cowman.

The plowed range lands must be rehabilitated; the agricultural 

lands within the range territory must be made to serve the livestock 

enterprise. All this requires much planning and more action. Society 

is not yet wholly ready to help the Great Plains farmer and his 

neighbors out of a bad situation. Every time government moves to 

the aid of the economically distressed, the cry of governmental interference is raised. Dudley Stamp says that "Planning the land for 

the future is essentially the work of securing the optimum use for the
BACKGROUNDS OF ECONOMIC DISTRESS 59

benefit of all." Heroic remedial measures will be required to return 

the Great Plains to their best use, and let me assure you that the socalled best people will not always approve. Plans for best land use 

must be subject to change. Sir Josiah Stamp, in his 1936 presidential 

address before the British Association for the Adanvcement of Science, 

emphasized what the planner is always up against to wit, "Unknown demand schedules, the unceasing, baffling principle of substitution, the inertia of institutions, the crusts of tradition, and the queer 

incalculability of mass mind." Sir Josiah Stamp is dealing with 

imponderables not reducible to maps, charts, or models, the favorite 

static devices of the planners. We shall have to inject into the best 

provision we can map for the Great Plains and for agriculture and 

ranching generally more imponderables than our planning fancies 

have yet devised. These imponderables will deal with such age-old 

ideas as hate and love, selfishness and unselfishness, greed and generosity. These imponderables will deal with the spirit of man.

Are we willing to have social control over the land, the greatest of 

all instruments of production? Then we must have a strong national 

government, for as [B. H.] Hibbard, in his great history of public-land 

policies, has pointed out, social control of the land is not possible under 

a weak government. Social control does not mean abolition of private 

ownership; properly administered it can mean more lands in private 

ownership and greater security on the land. Will you agree with 

Hibbard when he says that "The types of agriculture least suited to 

a laissez-faire land policy are forestry and grazing"? Laissez-faire 

implies that the county, the State, and the Nation keep "hands off." 

When Hibbard published his book, just 11 years ago, he said, "Precedents for giving seed wheat to certain settlers are well established; 

but precedents for helping them out of a bad bargain altogether, 

rather than to put up with it, have yet to be established."

But we have had an unprecedented series of drought years and an 

unprecedented depression since Hibbard reached that conclusion. 

Drought and depression have written precedents all over this country. 

We are helping farmers out of bad bargains, and we are protecting 

ranch lands. Whether or not this era of land reforms upon which 

we are fairly entered gives us an enduring and worthy land policy and 

program of conservation of lands and land users will depend upon the 

intelligence and honesty used in developing the program and the 

public understanding and appreciation of the need for action.

Our approach to some of the fundamental problems in production 

in the Great Plains has been, from the beginning of settlement, that 

of a rather blind faith in machines, and with little or no faith in 

biological science. This is well illustrated by the early adherence to 

the fallacious notion that "rain follows the plow" and the continuing
60 DROUGHT OF 1936

fallacious notion that we can be saved by some new tillage implement. 

Improved tillage implements are helpful but they are not the complete 

answer. The answer to the problems of the Great Plains lies in a 

more complete ecological approach. More people must come to 

understand human ecology, plant ecology, and animal ecology. 

When we understand the Great Plains "ekos," the environment about 

its people, its plants, its animals, we shall be able to deal with the 

Great Plains intelligently.
INDEX

Acknowledgments for aid.......

Agriculture, effect of climate on.

historyof .- . .. .

social control of lands for....

Page 

........ 1

.-... 39 

........ 58

..... 59

Arid States, crop yield in.. ...____.... 42-43

extent of drought in....._____.___ 8-9

Badlands Cowboy, quoted..._______... 54-55 

Bismarck Daily Tribune, quoted_____.. 55

Cattle, economic value of, in drought areas... 57 

introduction of, into northern Great

Plains..........._....__.... 54

Chilcott, E. C., quoted..... ............ 53-54,57

Climate, relation of formation of soils to___ 38-39 

classification of, in relation to drought.... 44-51

crop yield correlated with.-...___.... 40-44

general conditions of, in semiarid States.. 37-38 

risks of, in semiarid States. ...... 53

variability of-._____..--_____._ 51-52

Climax association, definition of. . -. 44-45

Crops, influence of climate on-._____... 39-14

yield of, correlated with climate... ___ 40-44

Droughts, areal extent of.___ 1-3, 24-26, 51, pi. 1 

causes of-.... ____......_.___ 2,3,4-11

damage from, to crops..._______ 3,39-44

to health................---..--...-.. 22

to navigation..__ --------_ 22

to power plants....-.--.-. ...-.--- 22

to recreational facilities---....__.-.. 22

to vegetation......_________ 20,39-44

to water supplies...-_________ 20-22 

to wildlife.-- - ... .... 22

definition of.._____..________ 1-2

expert opinion quoted-.-.-_.___ 1,29-34, 

36,39-40,45, 55-57

forecasting oL_______________ 30-34 

frequency of ___________ - __ 24-26,27,29 

precipitation and stream flow as indexes

to-~--~- - - - -- 2-9, pi. 1 

relief measures for-______.__ 22-24,31-32 

severity of----------..-----------.. 4,7-9,24-26

Dry-farming, features of._--____...__ 57 

Dunlap, Lauren, quoted..- ________ 55-56 

Dust storms, occurrence of. --_________ 11

Evaporation, extent of. - _---_._.. 15-16,17-19

Farm Credit Administration, relief by...__ 31,58 

Floods in New England, cause of_. - _... __ 48

Great Plains, cattle industry in...._.______ 54-55

debt situation in.----------__ -.-.__ 31-32

economic distress in._______....__.. 53-60

geographic outline of...___----------- 53-54

natural vegetation in.,_______... 37-38

precipitation in_____. ________._ 37-38 

type of soilin________________ 38, 56 

variability of climate in...__-___... 50-51 

See also Semiarid States.

Great Plains Committee, quoted..____ 31,32,33 

reportof___._________..____ 3,23

Great Plains Drought Area Committee, report of-_______________ 3

Page

Greeley, Horace, quoted...._________ 56

Ground water, fluctuations in level of. 12-13, pi. 2

recharge of........ .....__........... 16-17

Hay, Robert, quoted,....______..___ 34

Henry, Joseph, quoted____________ 56 

Hibbard, B. H., quoted....-......------.-.... 59

Humid States, area of drought in. ___ 3,4, 7,24-26 

contraction of humid province in...__ 48 

crop yield in ___. ________. __ 42-43 

precipitation in___________ 4-7,9,24-26

Irrigation, dependence of, on winter rainfall

and snow.____ ____ ____ 48-49 

feasibility of, in arid and semiarid regions.. 32

Kincer, J. B., quoted__..............__ 36-37

Lakes, effect of drought on__________ 17-19 

Livestock. See Cattle.

Mid-grass plains, in semiarid States_____ 37 

Moisture provinces, definition and position of. 46-51

New England, floods in, cause of. _- ... 48

Powell, J. W., quoted-...._..-.-. 30-31,33-34,55 

Power, effect of drought on production of_.. 22 

Precipitation, annual, seasonal, and monthly,

tables showing .._ 5-8 

by States, for drought years 1930-36__. 3 

for major drought years- 2-3, pi. 1 

deficiency in, drought defined in terms of.. 1-2 

tables and diagrams showing....__ 4-9,24 

discharge of water received by.... .. 11-19 

distribution of, seasonal__ __ _____ 4-9 

effectiveness of . 45-50 

in semiarid States .. . .. 27-31 

meteorologic conditions necessary for..... 36-37 

relation of, to crop yield.__ 40-44

Quotations, expert opinion in, on droughts.. 1,29-34, 

36, 39-40,45, 55-57

Rainfall. See Precipitation.

Relief in drought areas. . 22-24,31-22

Reservoirs, effect of drought on.. . _. 13

Rivers, run-off of. See Stream flow.

Run-off. See Stream flow.

Russell, Sir John, quoted._.__.. ...__ 56,57

Semiarid States, area of drought in - 3, 7-8,24-26 

climate, general conditions of, in 37-38,50-51 

climatic risks in - . - 53 

crop yield in.... .. ...... 42-43

debt situation in - ------ 31-32

expansion of semiarid province in. ..-- 48 

natural vegetation in. . 37-38 

precipitation in--------------- 6-9, 24-26, 27-31

suggested remedies for drought condition

in- - 32-34

temperatures in------ -.- ... 11,37

years of severe drought in.- 27-31

See also Great Plains. 

Shelter belt, features of 35-37

Short-grass plains, in semiarid States.--..-... 37

61
62 INDEX

Page 

Soils, climate an agent for forming___------ 39

relation of, to soil moisture..__.... 37-38

Stamp, Dudley, quoted..__-_______ 58-59 

Stamp, Sir Josiah, quoted- ___-- -.. 59 

Stewart, George, quoted .. . 55 

Stream flow, effect of drought on.-...__ 13,14-17 

Surface water. See Lakes; Eeservoirs; Stream 

flow; Water supplies.

Tall-grass prairies, in semiarid States.____ 37 

Temperature, effect of, on run-off and evaporation- . 17-19

excessive, during 1936__.._______ 10-11

mean annual, of semiarid States. _____ 37

thermal efficiency as related to...-. - 46-47

Thermal efficiency, features of.-..______ 46-49

Thornthwaite, C. W., quoted. 29-30,32,33,34,39-40

Tornadoes, damage by....------------ ------ 11

Transpiration, extent of..._ ,. __ 15-16 

United States Forest Service, quoted-___ 37 

Vegetation, factors affecting . __. 37-44

Walster, H. L., discussion of economic distress

in Great Plains by..__. . 53-60 

Water supplies, effect of drought on. 11-19,20-22, pi. 2

stability of. 13-17

Water table, fluctuations of______ 12-13, pi. 2 

Wells, additional water supplies from __ 20-22

effect of drought on 11-12 

Wilson, Joseph S., quoted.. _._.__ 36 

Wind, Chinook, influence of.._.______ 49

during drought_ . 11,17

erosion by, in Great Plains... .. 56 

Wister, Owen, quoted- ... __. 56

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