Evening star., 1955-02-20
By Fred Theroux

The land Is blowing again In the
Southern Great Plains.
Over 40 million acres are reported
"ready to blow" in huge area CEN
tered around the old "dust bowl" of
the 1930s. If conditions are right"
this spring. the Nation will again be
seeing the sun through brown haze
from Denver eastward to the Allan
tic seaboard, and thousands Of farm
ers in Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Ne
braska, Colorado and New Mexico
will see their farms whisked away
and their livelihood destroyed.
"H conditions are right" the ex-
perts say. Land blows every year in
that immense prairieland where dry
winds almost never cease and where
the topsoil for the most part is thin.
But only the right" conditions can
bring about the vast blowing that
was the disaster OF the middle and
late sos.
So far this year, conditions are
just too right. There have been sew
eral dry years, crop seasons too poor
to permit the successful growth Of
substantial cover on the loose, pow
dery soil. Since the autumn har-
vests, rain and snow fall has been
below normal. And the winds have
been stronger. -Four million acres
were reported seriously damaged by
blowing this winter, with the high
winds Of December doing most Of
the destruction. January was some
what better, the Agriculture Depart
ment says, but the real high-wind
months are still ahead. II the
drought continues, and the March
and April winds are even normally
strong. the prospects are ominous.
AS last week ended heavy SHOWS
were falling in some sections Of
the drought-stricken plains area.
Though some news reporters pro-
claimed that the drought was
broken" it seemed probable that
it would take a couple Of wet years
not just few wet days-to put
an end to the dust-producing con-
ditions now periling the Midwest.
Chronic Drought
Drought in the Great Plains is
no rare phenomenon. Next to the
ever-present winds, drought is prob
ably the most dependable feature Of
the climate. The prolonged dry
spell of the '30s was the worst since
weather records were started, but
drought In varying degrees Of in
tensity has probably been feature
of the Plains for centuries. The
great dryness comes in cycles, but
the cycles are not of any regular
pattern that would permit of reason
ably accurate prediction.
When the great, fiat stretches Of
prairieland knew only the hooves Of
buffalo and Indian ponies, there
were no dust storms. A tough cover
of wild grasses held down the light
topsoil while it gave sustenance to
the buffalo and thence to the Indian.
But the white man pushed West to
follow his manifest destiny, and
where the white man went, there
went the pillow.
Homesteaders poured into the
Great Plains in the years between
1870 and 1890, built their sod shacks
and plowed UP the prairie grass. For
a few years crops were good. the
virgin soil producing copiously with
the aid Of good rains and relatively
moderate winters.
Rut In 1890 the growing season
was dry, and the dryness continued
through 1894-the first disaster in
the region following its initial cul-
tivation. Thousands Of settlers went
back East, leaving their farms to
the winds and the coyotes. BY 1894
the population Of many Western
Kansas counties was less than 1t had
been in 1890. Only the most hardy
and the luckiest stayed on, sure Of