Evening star., 1935-04-21
By HENRY A. WALLACE,
Secretary of Agriculture.

ScCIctdIS Ol
~ ECAUSE of the dust storms
- out West, land and wheat are
news again.
- City people are asking: Is
= the great plains becoming a
desert? viii there be enough bread
to 60 round this coming year?
The answer to the first is Not
yet" The answer to the second Is
"Yes!"
In 1893 the United States had the
shortest wheat crop in 40 years. In
1884 the United States had the short
est wheat crop in Al years. BY the
laws of probability. you would not
expect two such wheat crops to come
in succession oftener than once every
is centuries.
A year ago this Spring, before the
1884 drought had begun to be seri-
ouSly evident, the Agricultural Ad-
justment Administration said city
people ought to be protected against
unexpected shortages due to drought
and farmers ought to be protected
against undue surpluSes due to alb
normally good weather. The idea OF
the ever normal granary was pro-
posed and the necessary amendments
to the agricultural adjustment act
were discussed, but not enacted, by
Congress.
Joseph Had Same Idea.
The plan of the ever ormal granary
is simply a modern version of the old
idea of Joseph in Biblical times;
namely, to store Surpluses against
wears of drought and keep balance
between production and consumption
by a combination of controlling acre
age and using past surpluses for
making payments in kind to cooper
ating farmers. 1t is believed this
would provide large measure OF
economic stability in region where
climatic instability is notorious.
The 1884 drought emphasized the
need for the ever normal granary, but
the need has not yet been met.
Whether the dust storms of 1885 will
be any more effective is in the lap OF
the gods.
Spectacular and damaging as these
dust storms are, they ought not be
allowed to distort our Judgment on
either the land or the wheat problem.
II We have normal rainfall in May,
I predict that by June newspaper
readers will have forgotten entirely
about dust storms-but 1 hope they
won't forget what the dust really sig
nifies.
The dust storms are simply like the
fever which accompanies disease.
Though alarming and damaging. this
fever is merely the symptom OF the
disease. The wise doctor will try to
do three things: Reduce the fever,
cure the disease and build up the pa
tient's health until he can resist the
disease in the future.
Prompt Relief Pledged.
Whatever State and Federal gov
ernments can do to reduce the imme-
diate damage of the dust storms will
be done, and promptly: but Govern
ment can neither stop the winds from
blowing nor produce rain. To cure
the disease which is back of the dust,
and to prevent its recurrence. is the
more important and more hopeful task
Given the cooperation of farmers
working with State and Federal gov
ernments, the job can be done, but it
will take several years to show ma
terial results.
The disease. of which dust is the
symptom. Is land misuse. with COM
plications-prolonged drought. In a
region of low annual rainfall, of soils
mostly light and loose, the only way
to prevent wind erosion is to keep
the land in grass or trees. But war
time wheat prices, and subsequent
high fixed charges to pay, inveigled
men into turning the sod under and
putting the land into wheat and cul-
tivated crops. Successive years of
drought, apparently the worst in our
history, added the final and devas-
tating complication to the basic NAL
ady of land misuse.
If you will take map of the United
States about 6 by 9 inches in size
and place a quarter so that it will
cover the adjacent corners of Kansas,
Colorado. New Mexico, Oklahoma and
Texas, you will have located the heart
of the dust storm area. Here soil,
farm practice, drought and wind have
combined to produce desolation.
Last years drought covered both the
Great Plains and the Middle West.
So far this year the 1884 drought
has continued in the western edge of
Great Plains. from the western parts
Of the Dakotas south to much of
Northern Texas and New Mexico.