Evening star., 1937-02-14
BY BLAIR BOLLES.

BY BLAlR bOLLES.
Many q romanticist dwelling along
the Eastern seaboard. feeling even In
the i930s a vague pull toward the ex-
citing life of the pioneer, has sung:
"Oh, give me a home where the
buffalo roam
sAnd the deer and the antelope
play,
"Where seldom is heard dis
couring Uord
"And the skys are not cloudy or
gray"
This pretty picture in verse Is
painted of the rangeland extending
from Central Kansas to the Rockies
and from the Pecos to Canada, the
wide expanse Of prairie famous in
history, story, play and movie. 1t was
the home of the cattle industry and
the birthplace of the cowboy. Buffalo
battled on its grasses and in a corner
of the region Sitting Bull trapped Gen.
Custer The covered wagon rumbled
across its treeless miles toward Cali
fornia and Oregon. Romance clings
to it as fog to valley, but realistic
group of experts, the Great Plains
Committee, last week broke the spell
In q report which stated:
"As productive resource, as a place
to work and a place to live, the Great
Plains present disquieting picture"
Home Of Rugged lndividualist.
The Great Plains in the 1870s were
the home grounds of the original
rugged individualist-the cattleman,
whose herds moved with the weather
south to Texas and New Mexico and
north to Montana. cropping the long
grass which extended in continuous
pasture nibroken by fencing. Cattle
kings brooked interference from none,
but SC changed Is the life and economy
Of the plains today that the commit
tee saw flt to recommend this jolt to
tndividualism:
"The plainsman cannot assume that
whatever is for his immediate good
is also good for everybody. He cannot
assume the right always to do with his
own property as he likes-he may ruin
another mans property If he does. He
cannot assume that the individual ac-
ton he can take on his own land will
be sufficient even for the conservation
and best use of that land. He must
realize that he cannot conquer ma
ture'-he must live with her on her
own terms, making use of and conserv-
ing resources which can no longer be
considered inexhaustible."
The Great Plains are worn out, al
though they can be reinvigorated.
They have been overcultivated by
farmers whose holdings are too small.
They were overgrazed before they
were overcultivated. and the combina-
ton of the two excesses has stripped
off the grass which anchors the top
soil and permitted the humus to be
blown away in the binding clouds Of
the sandstorm, leaving behind barren
soil ill-suited for any cultivation.
Relief Expenditures High.
So ineficient is the economy OF this
storied region, the Great Plains Com
mittee reported to the President last
week, that between April, 1888, and
June, 1886, the Federal Governments
relief expenditures ran as high as
5000 per capita in some counties.
Net increments to the relief popu-
1ation of the whole United States be-
tween 1884 and l934-5 amounted to
per cent" the committee found. I'm
New Mexico they were 1872 per cent,
in South Dakota, 17.6 per cent: in
Oklahoma, 11.3 per cent; in North
Dakota, 10.9 percent. In June. 1885,
20 per cent of the farmers in the
Spring-wheat area of the plains were
receiving relief and another 8 per cent
were in process of rehabilitation"
But the real opening of the plains
territory was 10 years ago, during a
period when rainfall in the region
was in . plentiful cycle. Land-grant
railroads sold acres by the millions
TO an eager populace. which foresaw
riches never attainable in the East.
The homestead act gave a quarter
section, 160 acres, free to all who would
settle. There was gerat push toward
the land where the buffalo roam"
Economic disillusionment was not
long in following. A dry cycle with
frequent droughts began in 1886. The
l60-acre grant was not large enough
to support q family, and when the
grant was increased in 1916 to $40
acres, the farmer had to agree to de-
vote the land to stock raising and
grazing
Flowing Often Harmful.
Thus" remarks the committee, "the
homesteader often had to plow when
plowing was harmful to the land, and
he was sometimes forbidden to plow
when plowing might have been profit
able and beneficial"
The small farmer fenced and spelled
thus the doom of the cattle baron,
whose beeves no longer could roam
freely the thousand miles from the
spot where illiterate Roy Bean set
himself up as the law west of the
Pecos' to the edge of the country
patrolled by the Royal Northwest
Mounted Police.
The coming of the tractor and the
combine brought into cultivation far
more land than could be handled by
the horse pillow and the stationary
thresher. A few years after the in
PRODUCTION of these marvels of mech
anized farming the World War ar
rived and wheat shot up to unheard-
Of prices-which caused "a remark
able extension of the area planted to