32 



Land Planning Report 



since 1900. Montana, north and east of the Yellow- 

 stone River, was homesteaded between 1908 and 1914. 

 South of that river only small patches of homesteading 

 occiuTcd. After 1910 large areas in Wyoming, Colo- 

 rado, New Mexico, and western Texas received agri- 

 cultural settlement. 



Thus, by 1920 the Great Plains had been transformed 

 within 50 years from an open-range pastoral area to a 

 region of extensive dry-farming. Events have subse- 

 quently shown that this has been a development of 

 dubious value. Over much of the western Great 

 Plains, agricultural settlement aside from stock ranches 

 should never have been undertaken. Indeed, this 

 region today constitutes one of the most critical areas of 

 uneconomic farming in the country. 



Crucial i^srrfors. — Several factors have contributed 

 to the distress in this area. 



1. Systems of farming employed have not been ad- 

 justed to the character of the region. In some instances 

 they represent transfer of methods from humid lands 

 farther east. In others, they represent imperfect 

 adjustments in drj'-farming. 



2. The homestead unit permitted by law has usually 

 been too small. Farms in the eastern part of the 

 Great Plams zone average 325 acres, which is in most 

 instances sufficiently large. Farther west, in the semi- 

 arid zone, farm holdings average 683 acres. These are 

 probably only two-tliirds as large as they should be. 

 Still farther west, in the more arid zone, hokUngs 

 average 1,225 acres, which are in most instances far 

 too small. 



3. Violent fluctuations in the amoiuit and seasonal 

 distribution of rainfall occur. This has resulted from 

 time to time in wholesale crop failure, and occasionally 

 in widespread suffering. 



4. Pastures and range land have been seriously over- 

 grazed. This has so reduced the vegetative cover that 

 both water and wind erosion have become acute. To 

 this must be added during dry years the violent wind 

 erosion from abandoned ilry-farm areas, fallow fields, 

 and even from croplands. 



5. The western Great Plains, like all other of the 

 world's shortgrass lands, are subject to additional 

 hazards which contribute to agricultural insecurity. 

 Hail, grasshoppers, wheat rust, chinch bugs, army 

 worms, Hessian flies, and many other such factors 

 assail the dry farmer. 



The Rainfall Factor. — Accurate rainfall records for 

 the western Great Plains have been kept in a few 

 localities for nearly 50 years. An examination of such 

 records suggests that this is the really critical factor 

 in the agriculture of the region. In Grant County, in 

 southwestern Kansas, the average annual rainfall over 

 a period of approximately 50 years is about IC inches. 

 This suggests a rainfall normally suificient for diy- 



f arming adjustments, but it actually includes such ex- 

 tremes as 26 inches in 1891, 8 inches in 1896, or 10 

 inches in 1926. Great droughts in this section occurred 

 in the lS70's, the 1890's, the second decade of the 

 twentieth century, and in the early 1930's. 



As pointed out by S. S. Visher in his Geography of 

 South Dakota, local droughts happen every year, and 

 general droughts recur at frequent intervals. For 

 example in South Dakota widespread droughts oc- 

 curred in 1864, 1874, 1886-87, 1889-97, 1910-12, 1926, 

 and 1931-34. A study of the records for many local- 

 ities over this region suggests that there is no apparent 

 periodicity in the ups and downs of the rainfall. If 

 there be anything approaching a regular cycle in the 

 recurrent droughts of this section, however, its dis- 

 covery would enable man to be forewarned and to a 

 certain extent forearmed. So far, rainfall records do 

 not cover a period long enough to permit accurate 

 statistical conclusions to be drawn. 



Tliis region has produced good crops in certain years 

 and will do so again in the future, but is is subject at all 

 times to great risk. Emergencies wliich will entireh' 

 deplete the resources and reserves of a large proportion 

 of the population are boinid to recur again and again 

 in the future. 



Land Abandonment. — The great drought of the seven- 

 ties in Kansas almost completely routed agricultural 

 settlement. A series of wet years had tempted settlers 

 from the Com Belt to extend their crops and farming 

 methods far out onto the Great Plains. With the 

 advent of drought years the agricultural occupance 

 melted away. During the following decade a second 

 wave of settlement advanced into Kansas, only to be 

 defeated by the drought years of the nineties. During 

 this period Kansas is said to have lost nearly half a 

 million of its inhabitants, many of them being literally 

 starved out. Nebraska and the Dakotas suft'ered 

 somewhat similarly. During the ensuing period of 

 resettlement in Kansas, dry-farming methods M'cre 

 carefully worked out, and crops selected to fit environ- 

 mental conditions were introduced. As a consequence, 

 geographic stability has been achieved in eastern and 

 central Kansas. 



Again in 1913 drought produced a vast unrest in 

 Kansas and Oklahoma, and some land abandonment 

 took place in the western parts of those States. Far- 

 ther north in Montana after 1915 almost complete 

 abandonment of dry farming has occurred over exten- 

 sive areas. 



Since 1930 large areas in eastern Colorado have lost 

 10 percent or more of their population. The western 

 parts of the Dakotas have also experienced some land 

 abandonment since 1930, and large areas would prob- J 

 ably have been evacuated had it not been for public 

 relief, seed loans, crop benefits, feed loans, and other 



