Re dust bowl

As best I can remember,the jackrabits wern't fit to eat,but the cotton tails were.I remember day after day of high winds and no rain,until the early 1940,s. And then lots of rain and hail thru the 40;s.Lots of old tractors around.My dad busted a lot of them up for the scrap iron drive for ww2.Iwas just a kid'born August 31 1935.But can remember those years(39 and up).Used to watch the gliders trying to get back to Lubbock airbase,training for D Day landings

I just watched a show last knight on tv about the dust bowl, man it was something. The farmers believed if you killed snakes, hung them on a fence it would rain. They had people trying to go to a funeral who were caught in the storm. I also have a good book about it called The worst hard time. Hope we never see one of them again.

What the documentaries never mention is that part of the agreement when homesteading land was that it had to be tilled and cultivated. Had the Fed gov't not told farmers how to farm the land,over tilling of prairie land MIGHT have been avoided or diminished as many land owners would have chosen to graze beef or used their land differently. The fed also pushed the wheat prices artificially high which also encouraged unwise tilling of land. You'd think we (the people) would learn from history, but it's deja-vu .....all over again.

I wish when i was younger and my grandparents were still alive they would have told about those times more, but i think it was something they didnt want too dwell on much. Yes it was a costly mistake breaking up all that land, but no one had ever seen drought that severe before either and people were trying to make a living and raise food for their family. I dont think the Dakotas had as much of the soil blowing as the other states, but our soil is heavier and not as sandy which might be the reason. I do remember grandma telling they had twine or rope from their house to their cattle barn, it was mostly used in the winter time for blizzards, but they used it in the 30's also because of blowing dust.

Like others mentioned, history does repeat itself and around here prairie and hayland are being farmed more and more all the time. The crops are mostly no tilled, but if the multi year drought conditions they had in the 30's come back it could be a similiar replay. I have seen many no till bean fieds blow during an open winter. We have water sitting everywhere right now, but just read in the paper they are expecting hot and dry 2010 for our area, time will tell.

TVB,

That's not really true. It sounds like you're trying to paint the image of today's federal government (highly regulatory) onto the federal government of the '20's, which we all know was pretty much [i:654c4848f0]lassez faire[/i:654c4848f0].

The government of the '20s did not dictate how farmers tilled their land. But what the government did do was to set the homesteading policies: one quarter section of land, which was a lot in the eastern and midwestern states, but not much out west. So most homesteaders had little choice but to farm in order to survive on 160 acres. It didn't help that these farmers brought farm practices from the midwest and Europe to the arid Great Plains. Or that railroads promoted the absurd concept that "rain follows the plow".

As for the government driving the price of wheat up, that's not really true, either. There was a worldwide shortage of grain after the first world war. Market forces, not the federal government, were responsible for high prices.

Pretty much the entire US farm program, particularly price supports and soil conservation, are a direct result of the Dust Bowl and Great Depression. They did not exist prior to the Dust Bowl, and to blame the Dust Bowl on non-existent farm programs is nonsensical.

I don't think we will be repating those days, but I hope that we as a culture have learned from them. The connection to the past is what keeps me in this hobby. I, like many, would love to go back to those days to experience things, although for only a few days, I enjoy my modern lifestyle too much. I'd love to "uncover" a tractor that was lost to the dust back then..maybe someday.

Young jack rabbits not to bad. Older, tough ones, you cut off bone and ran through meat grinder to make burgers. I was raised on them and cows milk. Got to remember, no refregeration to keep beef or pork if we had it. You could keep meat up till about May or so in salt water crock. I am not joking, we probably ate 2 or 3 a weeks in 35 and 36. Chicken some times, Lots of eggs and milk, Home made bread, all ways potatoes (bought), and some times pinto beans.
KennyP

What really did it here in NE Colorado was pinto beans, After war price was high ( I think 10 to 12 a hundred) and there was a wet year when they made 20 bushels acre. Sucked every one in, then no more rain. To harvest beans, you slice a blade along the ground and cut loose every bit of plant material, leaving the ground absolutly bare.
KennyP..born is 1929

I read a great book about the Dust Bowl called "The Worst Hard Time" a while back. Don't remember the author's name, but it was a good description about the worst natural disaster in U.S. history and how folks made it through. Started out with how wheat prices caused everyone to get into farming and break up as much land as possible and how great things were going for farmers on the plains, until one day the rain stopped and the wind picked up. It mentioned the rabbit drives, dust pneumonia, how the FDR admistration tried to intervene and more. Great historical reference for anyone looking for a good read.

Dad used to tell me how grandad would buy blocks of ice that sat in trays attached to the walls over the windows. The ice melt would trickle onto gunny sacks set as draps over the windowns. The wetted sacks helped keep out the dust and helped cool the house.

I heard my Granddad talk about surviving the 30's in the Texas panhandle. And one time he and his brother did have a pretty good wheat crop and the price was so poor they still lost money. My Dad talked about farming in there in the 50's. He said the drought was worse in the 50's than the 30's but they had changed farming practices enough that it wasn't as bad. One thing was that the government paid him to use a chisel plow instead of clean tillage.

all snakes work or did only certain types have this affinity with nature,