DROUGHT-STRICKEN FARMS

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 291, 21 November 1936, Page 3

DROUGHT-STRICKEN FARMS

, Federal Assistance for Sufferers J WORK AND LOANS Though New Zealand has suffered at times from storms and frosts, nothing as devastating as the drought in America has been experienced in the Dominion. Here is a summary from “The Literary Digest” of what the United States Government has had to lace ami do to save hundreds of thousands ol farmers from starvation. “For the benefit of John Brown and thousands of other drought-beaten farmers of the West, Northwest, and South, the Government last week set into lull operation its programme ol succour and rehabilitation.

“John Brown, of North Dakota, typical of the legion of farmers and ranchers in the live States hardest hit by the scourge—Minnesota, the Dakotas, Montana, and Wyoming— had assurance of quick help in several directions. .

“First, his family was assured ol food—there would be no starvation, anywhere. He also had a promise oi a 15-dollar-a-week Works Programme Administration job on a soil or water conservation project. In addition, the Government was ready to help him maintain four or five work horses, two milch cows, fifty chickens and three or four hogs.

“That was for the average farmer. If, however, he had a large hard of cattle, the Government would help him, by means of loans, to ship them to new pasturage, or feed them where they are, until next year. A cattlebuying and processing programme also was put into effect. “North Dakota estimated its John Browns at 80,0(10, almost all of them heads of families. In the five States, it is estimated that 111,000 families would need relief; in the whole drought area, about 204,000 families. A Tugwell Takes Plane.

“With the backbone of the drought finally broken, although the fate of the I corn crop, biggest of them all, remain- I ed in doubt, estimates of the total I damage caused by the rainless, scorching siege rose as high as l,0iX),090,000 dollars. Jn the face of that situation, Rexford Guy Tugwell, Under-Secretary of Agriculture and head of the Rural ; Resettlement Administration, flew to ■ Bismarck, North Dakota, for a fiveState conference.

“Working in co-operation with Harr? L. Hopkins, head of W.P.A., he an nounced that the Government could assure every distressed farmer quick I and effective aid. The loans to be made, j he said, would average about 500 dollars; the maximum would be 900 dollars. Mean while, it was announced that the W.P.A. jobs to be handed out would be on dams, reservoirs, meadow waterways, cleaning and developing natural springs, digging wells and planting forage crops. “For its long-range programme the Government considered several steps, one of them the removal oi families from submarginal land in the Dakotas I to the more fertile region of the Red | River Valley of western North Dakota j Other steps were the returning oi I thousands of acres of submarginal lam to pasturage and experimentation wit I erosion-resisting grasses. j

How It Destroys. “Soil erosion is not duo to improvei isl'ed soil, but to a lack of the veg< tation which once held the soil to getber. The parched soil becomes a> easy prey to wind and water, and ‘black blizzards’ are (he result. On<-< I the fertile topsoil goes, it cannot be re 1 placed by man. “The United States Soil Conserva tion Service estimates that 9,000,C()< acres have been irretrievably ruined by erosion, and 50,000 additional acres so seriously affected that there is not | much chance of their survival. Some- ■ thing like 200,000 acres are going every | year, and the direct loss of ail this ; is put at about 400,000,000 dollars annually.”