In the Middle West water conservation is not so pressing a problem. Water conservation by means such as these is being expanded as a result of this new drought all through the Great Plains area, the western corn belt and in the states that lie further south. Thousands of wells have been drilled or deepened community lakes have been created and irrigation projects are being pushed. ![]() In accordance with that program literally thousands of ponds or small reservoirs have been built in order to supply water for stock and to lift the level of the underground water to protect wells from going dry. ![]() Beginning in 1934, when we also had serious drought conditions, the state and Federal governments cooperated in planning a large number of projects - many of them directly aimed at the alleviation of future drought conditions. Let me make it clear that this is not a new question because it has already been answered to a greater or less extent in every one of the drought communities. If then we know, as we do today, the approximate number of farm families who will require some form of work relief from now on through the winter, we face the question of what kind of work they should do. Into this scheme of things there fit of course the government lending agencies which next year, as in the past, will help with production loans.Įvery Governor with whom I have talked is in full accord with this program of doing work for these farm families, just as every Governor agrees that the individual states will take care of their unemployables but that the cost of employing those who are entirely able and willing to work must be borne by the Federal Government. We agree, therefore, that we must put them to work for a decent wage, and when we reach that decision we kill two birds with one stone, because these families will earn enough by working, not only to subsist themselves, but to buy food for their stock, and seed for next year's planting. They do not want to go on the dole and they are one thousand percent right. We have the option, in the case of families who need actual subsistence, of putting them on the dole or putting them to work. It was their fathers' task to make homes it is their task to keep those homes it is our task to help them with their fight.įirst let me talk for a minute about this autumn and the coming winter. No cracked earth, no blistering sun, no burning wind, no grasshoppers, are a permanent match for the indomitable American farmers and stockmen and their wives and children who have carried on through desperate days, and inspire us with their self-reliance, their tenacity and their courage. Yet I would not have you think for a single minute that there is permanent disaster in these drought regions, or that the picture I saw meant depopulating these areas. I saw brown pastures which would not keep a cow on fifty acres. I shall never forget field after field of corn stunted, earless and stripped of leaves, for what the sun left the grasshoppers took. I shall never forget the fields of wheat so blasted by heat that they cannot be harvested. I saw other farm families who have not lost everything but who, because they have made only partial crops, must have some form of help if they are to continue farming next spring. I saw livestock kept alive only because water had been brought to them long distances in tank cars. I saw cattlemen who because of lack of grass or lack of winter feed have been compelled to sell all but their breeding stock and will need help to carry even these through the coming winter. ![]() That was the extreme case, but there are thousands and thousands of families on western farms who share the same difficulties. I talked with families who had lost their wheat crop, lost their corn crop, lost their livestock, lost the water in their well, lost their garden and come through to the end of the summer without one dollar of cash resources, facing a winter without feed or food - facing a planting season without seed to put in the ground. I saw drought devastation in nine states. ![]() I went primarily to see at first hand conditions in the drought states to see how effectively Federal and local authorities are taking care of pressing problems of relief and also how they are to work together to defend the people of this country against the effects of future droughts.
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