A show recently caught on PBS’s American Experience about the Dust Bowl of the 1930’s really brought home relevant thoughts about lessons perhaps lightly learned at the time. Perhaps we need a bit of a history lesson an revisit of what happened then due to bad farming practices.  Further, it is with some irony that one has to consider the big picture here, as the government stepped in with better practices and suggestions about limited scope in the 1930’s – since the 1970’s the say get big or get out.

A bit of background is in order for those that may not be familiar with the happenings.  During the early 1930’s, really at the height of the depression there was a major move toward the expansion of the wheat production in the Western prairie states.  The ground was rich from years of the prairie grass growth, death, decay cycle – especially when combined with the animals both wild and later domestic that grassed those grasses and made deposits.  In effect, over the years a nice layer of fertile topsoil had built up.  And even with the mostly flat landscape, the winds did not really disturb the topsoils in a major way, as they were held in place by the deep rooted prairie grasses that lay above.

Then what happened was a few years of drought, but really starting with the first one the land was parched and the wheat crops that were planted to be gold during a time of economic hardship already were doomed.  They dried up and withered.  As this happened, the root system of the wheat along with the grassy steams above the wind began picking up the topsoil.  This became a magnified issue given the relative flat lay of the land, no general windbreaks.  It got worse though, as the farmers guessed it was  a one in hundred years experience and plowed even more unbroken land the following years to make up for the losses.

Things continued in a drought cycle for four-five more years.  In the meantime the soil was blowing away by the thousands of pounds.  People were getting pneumonia from the dirt that was being breathed into their lugs and as can be imagined deaths occurred, especially among the young.  The dirty air eventually blew east, dumping a load of dirt on places like Chicago – supposedly enough for every citizen of the city to have a couple of extra pounds of it.  It also, timely, blew into Washington D.C. – just when they were debating some laws to provide some relieve and such.

When it was all said and done, there was a huge movement toward reduction of expansion and a great deal of consideration given to what should be considered tillable lands.  Further practices of conversation were of course in vogue.  The sad thing is though, that many of the farmers embraced those for the time and of course in typical independent farmer fashion quickly dismissed them when the rains returned.   Some farmers, who learned the lesson, later lamented that the lesson did not take for most and that practices were quickly abandoned later when things turned and openly wondered if it would be worse the next time it happened.

Of course, as I noted not only did the farmers loose the lesson but so too it would seem did our government.  After all, the message all my life to farmers has been get big or get out.  There is no place for the small forty acre (much less twenty or ten) family farm and if that is what you are shooting for it is just a hobby for you.  And certainly conservation methods went by the wayside over the last few years when commodity prices and pressure from possible ethanol production shot prices through the roof.  Alas, it is a lesson I fear one day we will have to face, but we manage today despite it.