122 THE BOOK OF WHEAT 



carry the " empire " yet farther west. The " Great American 

 Desert" disappeared from the maps. During a series of years 

 in which the rainfall was more adequate than usual, the agri- 

 cultural areas leaped forward to the west from county to 

 county. The first general advance was in 1883. Within five 

 years, western Kansas and Nebraska and eastern Colorado were 

 largely settled. To the east of the arid region is a strip of ter- 

 ritory embracing portions of Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas 

 and northwestern Texas, which has been designated as the 

 "rain belt." Its name resulted from the theory that the humid 

 region was gradually extending itself toward the west as a 

 consequence of the breaking of the prairie sod, the laying of 

 railroad and telegraph, and the advent of civilization. There 

 was supposed to be a progressive movement of the "rain belt" 

 as civilization advanced. While thorough cultivation undoubt- 

 edly makes a material modification in the effects of a given de- 

 gree of aridity, it has been declared that the probability of a 

 perceptible change in climate does not merit serious discussion. 



The theory received a serious setback from the periodical 

 exodus which occurred when succeeding years brought a rainfall 

 at or below the normal. There were years when the average 

 rainfall (10 to 20 inches) decreased by almost half; there 

 were months without a cloud; there were days in the southwest 

 when the winds were so dry and hot that green corn was turned 

 into dry and rattling stalks. When crops shriveled and died on 

 millions of acres, men lost hope and means, and they were 

 forced to abandon the homes that represented the earnings of a 

 lifetime. Whole counties were nearly depopulated. These 

 vicissitudes caused the tide of migration to ebb and flow, and 

 continually wore out its resources. The desert had been re- 

 moved from the maps. The supplications of the devout and 

 the dynamite of the "rainmaker," a suggestion of the Indian 

 medicine men who had held sway on the plains less than a 

 century before, had vainly implored the heavens for the rain 

 which alone was wanting for the production of profitable crops. 

 Yet the blunt fact remained, and still remains, that many mil- 

 lions of acres were dead, vacant, and profitless simply because 

 of their aridity. This land has little value now, for in many 

 places a whole section does not yield enough to keep a fleet- 

 footed sheep from starving. 



