The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1934-08-02
Sisseton. S. D.

top the car and am occupied with
he sidecurtains for a few minutes.
When l look up, the black clouds
are barely visible. In front of
hem, driving down hard, is big
;wirling, gray cloud. l have never
seen a cloud like 1his before and l
2-y to recall wha' a "twister" is
to look like. This cloud
doesn't seem dark enough to be a
,wister, so I keep on driving. In
five minutes 1 have to switch on
ny lights. After ten minutes 1
: Op at a gas station. The man
aughs and says it's only a little
dust storm. eve have 'em every
TWO or three days"
This little dust storm" is a
drought phenomenon. 1t never
occurs in wet seasons. And it eX-
plains a great deal. 1t explains
the cattle set out to crop the road
side grass-cattle with shrunken
flanks and loose skin. They walk
with dropping heads, muzzle at a
clump of thistle and move on. 1t
explains the wheat that will not be
the stunted barley, the
corn that has tasselled too soon;
and the pastures that are gray and
dark brown and black-pastures of
late fall and not of mid-July. 1t
explains also the bitches that are
being hastily dug, the abandoned
gravel pits for which use has now
been found, ana the good milk cow,
the calves. the beef steers, and the
sheep which are being slaughtered
by the hundred thousands and are
thrown into those bitches and pits.
Prices in Chicago go up. The flies
and spectators feast.
1t is difficult 10 picture ac-
curately the effect of the drought.
1t has covered a very wide area
and rainfall has varied from state
to state, from county to county,
even within counties. A dozen miles
from Sisseton, South Dakota, there
was a good shower three days ago.
This may still mean the saving of
some corn that will be useful for
feed if not for market. But the
rain passed over Sisse'on. "Rain
clouds mean a dust storm here"
However, the general rule is that
as one proceeds west from Chicago
the effects of the drought become
more apparent, more consistent
and more devastating. Through a
good deal of Wisconsin and Mime
sofa the corn hastily planted after
the failure of the small grains as
wheat, oats, barley and rye), has
been receiving sufficient moisture
still to be a possible crop. But the
river beds are still dried out with
wild shrubs growing in the bleach
ed soil, the pastures are burnt, the
hay is lost, the cattle have been
sold at a pittance or are being
shipped or slaughtered by the gov
eminent. And from Minneapolis
on the corn will not be good for
even fodder unless there is imme-
diate and recurrent rain. eff /
could make rain," said South Da-
kota farmer, 'and if 1 could make
it come as much and as hard as
1 wanted, we might still get some
corn and little hav or millet. But
it'll take as much rain as that to
get anything at ALL" And the
cattle that remain to the farmers
are tethered along the road where
the thistle grows wild, or they are
herded for miles to a scrubbv patch
of woodland, or they cluster in a
corner of pasture field and make
no effort to crop because there is
no grass.
1t is difficult also to picture &C
curately the administration of ne
lief since this varies from county
to county. It depends, among other
things, upon The makeup of relief
boards and upon the degree of mill
tant organization amongst farm
ers. But it will help illustrate the
drought, the drought situation and
the farm problems in general tC
take up a specific county:
Roberts county in South Dakota
is Illuminating because it has beer
among the worst sufferers in the
drought. There has been no rain.
fall "more than would drown a
grasshopper" since last fall. AnC
Roberts county was burned out by
drought last year as well.
1t is Illuminating also because il
possesses one of the strongest anC
most effective units of the United
Farmers League.
South Dakota was opened fol
homesteading in the eighteen
nineties. A farmer was given {
free grant of one hundred anC
sixty acres of Ian d. A few year:
ago this land was worth $3.50 an
acre. Today it sells for $25-bu-
today there are no buyers.
The homestead territory wa:
largely populated by Norwegians
Germans and Irish farmers and
city workers. Today these mne,
their grown sons and daughters,
and their families make up the
population of sixteen thousand
(Robers county was once an In
dian Reservation and there arr
about twelve hundred Indians liv
ing here under Federal juTisdic-
tom.
These men farrned well. There
is no soil in America better suited
for grain than this praiTie land