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COUNTY DEMOCRAT AND OXrUKD LEADERDust Bowl Looms as Proving Ground For Enlightened American AgricultureScientific Fanning, Rain Combine to Cut South* west’s “Blow” Area Next Summer.By JOSEPH W. LaBINEThe sun is beginning to shine through America’s southwestern dust clouds. Where five years ago there was drouth and desolation, encouraged farmers now prick up their ears to hear rain pound on windows that were once pockmarked by sandstorms.This is .taking place in the “dust bowl” region, comprising western Kansas, eastern Colorado, the Oklahoma Panhandle and northwest Texas. But it extends northward, too, through desolate wastes of North and South Dakota where a scant few years ago farmers fed their cattle Russian thistle because nothing else would grow.Rain has been partly responsible for this new optimism, for the depressing dry cycle of the 1930s appears to be ending. This year’sOmahiNorth Platte* LincolnGrand IslandDenver*Topeka*WtchltaSanlaTe°AlbuquerqueMEX.6 100_ T E XASGas masks for a dust storm. Used since 1932 in the south-west, but soon they may be stored away.flow the dust bowl has' been shrinking, and a fairly accurate prediction of next year’s trouble-center. Contour farming, and other efforts to re-anchor the soil are responsible.rains have been the heaviest since 1932, and like a great piece of wool, the dust bowl seems to shrink when it gets wet.But behind the dust bowl’s shrinkage is something far more fundamental than rain. It is a definite change in America’s treatment of her No. 1 industry, agriculture.New Century, New Problems.Oldtimers recall how, 50 years ago, each midwestern homestead was an independent kingdom on which the farmer lived without concern for high neighbor’s well-being. The land was new and good; no problem was bigger than the homestead itself. But since free land disappeared, since year-after-year cultivation began loosening the soil from its anchors, problems have sprung up that are not localized. It all boils down to the problem of preserving our land.This is far more important than the matter of agricultural prices and surplus. When land begins eroding and blowing away itGermany Builds New Zeppelin, Un^iaken by Past Tragedies, A year ago last. May, when giant Hindenburg exploded while landing , at Lakehurst, N. . J., the world thought lighter-than-air craft were a proven failure. But though one after another airship has been wrecked by structural defects, wartime shells, storms and explosions, Germany still has faith.Just launched is the new LZ-130, christened “Graf Zeppelin” after an earlier lighter-than-air ship. The new Graf Zeppelin is a sister ship -of the ill-fated Hindenburg, and in outward appearance is the same. But a visit to the hangar at Fried-richsha'fen, Germany, offers convincing proof that the similarity ends there.The LZ-130 is 803 feet-long with a beam of 135 feet. When inflated it will hold 7,060,000 cubic feet of . gas, helium if the United States .government'will supply it. Germany wants to avoid hydrogen, whose inflammability caused the Hinden-burg's'downfall..; Eckener Is Leader.The guiding genius behind Germany’s dirigibles is Dr; Hugo Ecke-ner, who has. devoted most of his life .to lighter-than-air research. Most of the new LZ-130’s new features can be attributed to him. For example, the mass of metal inside the ship is made of duralumin, an amazingly light alloy. Helium—if Germany gets it—will ,be stored in. 16 doughnut-shaped compartments;The ship is powered by four 1,000-horsepower motors capable of taking the ship from Germany to Lakehurst, N. J., in two. and one-half days, returning in two.. Store rooms, baggage compartments and passenger accommoflations are inside the monster’s belly, but actual navigation takes place in gondola-like control cars.The Graf Zeppelin has 20 cabins,' accommodating 40 passengers as compared with the Hindenburg’s load of 70, The smaller, load is necessitated because helium .lifts slower than hydrogen. Dining quar-.TOf*—The neiv Graf Zeppelin sours over: Friedrichshafen on her first triaV run, outwardly a “carbon copy” of the ill-fated Hindenburg. ABOVE—Dr. Hugo Eckener, guiding spirit of Germany’s ' lighter-than-air research which dates back to Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin’s, experiments 40 years ago; /ters are located in the center of the main runway, flanked on one side by a lounge and reading room, and on the other side hy another lounge, a smoking room and a bar. Promenade decks- are fitted with huge slanting windows^ that enable passengers to watctf the world below.When, regular transatlantic passenger service is inaugurated, it will cost $450 to come from Frankfort to Lakehurst, against $400 on the Hin-, denburg. Smaller' pay loads are re-' sponsible for the added fare. •Strong in her faith, Germany is already planning the LZ-131, to be larger still. America's contribution to the dirigible field will be a $3,000,-000 U. S. navy training, ship, authorized by. congress last'year. The principal reason it Has not been started is. that engineers'cannot decide whether . it shall be'covered with metal or fabric. .spreads like a cancerous disease. America’s cancer lies in an area that from 1928 was the breadbasket of the nation,” producing some 300,000,000 bushels of wheat a year. From 1932 to 1936 production dropped to 1.50,000,000 bushels. The cancer is still spreading, mostly to the northeast into Kansas’ corn belt. But the encouraging factor is that man can now reconquer the orig-jnal dust bowl, and is at last learning how this precious farm land should be handled.Today’s farmer admits the good earth has been misused. Through a half century of boom era farming its resources were drained and no attempt was made to restore them. Years ago there was no such thing as crop rotation, nor did a washed-out hillside cause much concerm But eventually the good earth got plain mad, dried up and blew away. Agriculture’s Proving Ground.The dust bowl offers agriculture’s best example of what must be done throughout the Midwest, and what will result. In this 97,000,000 acres of wasted land—once highly productive farm territory—co-operation fostered by .the United States department of agriculture is winning a painstaking battle. Though thousands have migrated, though countless, farms stand deep in churning sand, the dust bowl is emerging as a proving ground for American agriculture.It was not enough that farmers learned to leave a good ground cover during winter months, nor was it enough to learn that terracing will prevent erosion from both causes— washouts and blowing. It took money to carry out these plans.First, the Farm Security administration offered loans to farmers who would handle their land scientifically, making further loans if they wished to lease adjacent neglected “blow land” and anchor it down. Though 220,000 dust bowl farms, have been placed under good management this way, and although the Jones-Bankhead act permits the government to purchase remaining idle blow land, the new spirit of cooperative attack, is best illustrated by still another . method—the soil conservation district.Given U. S. Assistance.This is a simple plan. Farmers irt a certain area can form an association to lease abandoned land, thereby qualifying for a special-payment from the Agricultural Adjustment administration. The government provides machinery to remove buried fence hosts, level hummocks and put the abandoned land - in shape. Funds for-additional treatment come from the Farm Security administration, and this loan is, repaid when; AAA allotments are mrfde to the district. -.This co-operative work has been going on unnoticed in the dust bowl and other drouth areas, and this autumn the amazing' results were brought to the public’s attention for the first time. There is a popular misconception that the dust bowl is a new “great American desert,” but farm experts are quick to point out that it is a potentially productive region of generally good soils. Most of the land is level and. can be operated with, modern farm machinery. It has produced bumper crops in the past and can again.Department of agriculture officials confidently predict that a relatively small percentage of the land operated this past summer, will be subject to blowing'next winter and spring. They have found some of the land not suited to crops—about6.000.000 of the 32,000,000 acres now under cultivation—and this will be put back to grass immediately, eventually becoming suitable for grazing,The latest figures on dust bowl progress look good, Its original97.000.000 acres are now reduced to an expected 16,000,001) acres - for next year, which means the proving ground has succeeded and that similar technique can be applied to firouth-ridden' farms throughout the Midwest. .. © Western Novfspaper Union, .
Newspaper Details
Johnson County Democrat and Oxford Leader
Oxford, Iowa, US
Thu, Oct 20, 1938
Page 6
Full Page
Clipped by
Jeph O.
NA, 27 Nov 2023
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