federal drought planning in the great plains — a first look

F E D E R A L D R O U G H T P L A N N I N G IN T H E G R E A T P L A I N S - A

F I R S T L O O K

M.-L. Q U I N N

Asst. Professor, Water Resources, Nebraska Water Resources Center, Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Room 7, Forage Laboratory, University of Nebraska, East Campus, Lincoln, Nebraska 68583, U.S.A.

Abstract. Drought - the climatic nemesis of the Great Plains - has long been a topic of concern. With this situation in mind, one might wonder if the United States government ever engaged in efforts geared toward strengthening the region's resistence to this recurring phenomenon. That inquiry is explored here. In so doing, the paper presents an historical sampling of the federal role in drought planning - by the way of legislative and other means - for the period, late 1870's to 1940. Included in the sampling are the J. W. Powell report, dryqand farming, irrigation, shelterbelts, and crop insurance - to name but a few. When these drought planning measures are examined as a unit, it provides a basis for some interpretative observations - summarized in the conclusions. The postscript is a commentary on the concept of a national drought planning policy.

Categorized as the precursor to an impact assessment study, this work can serve as a reference point for additional interdisciplinary research not only on the subject of drought planning but also on the manner in which segments of society interact with climate and (as in this case) its varying components. The climatically intense Great Plains, its diversity hidden beneath a cape of perceived sameness, offers an ideal research focus but is but one example. Thus, the way seems clear for geographers, historians, sociologists, political scientists, economists, and others to continue to become increasingly involved in, and make significant contributions to, such climate-related investigations.

1. Prologue

The Great Plains, as the te rm is used here, refers to that large region in the Uni ted States

stretching f rom Texas to the Canadian border and f rom the Rocky Mountains to the

western edge o f the prairies. Al though of ten depicted as a homogeneous uni t , the plains

actually exhibi t much diversity - physical, social, economic . Precipi ta t ion provides a

good example. Its spatial and temporal variability can bring drought to one part o f the

region while another is relatively well watered. Even the impacts of drought - the climatic

nemesis o f the plains - can differ quite marked ly among communi t i es located in areas

exper iencing similar condi t ions of mois ture shortage. Yet , the reasons for such variat ion

(related perhaps to social s tructure or to economic ties roo ted in his tory) m a y no t always

be readily apparent to the interested but untra ined observer or even to the researcher

schooled solely in the physical sciences.

Intraregional heterogenei t ies , then, need to be kept in mind when investigating the

general subject o f drought in the Great Plains, when examining h o w people have approached

the region's recurrent p roblem of prolonged mois ture deficiency, or when assessing what

Climatic Change 4 (1982) 273-296. 0165-0009/82/0043-0273502.40. Copyright �9 1982 by D. Reidel Publishing Co., Dordrecht, Holland, and Boston, U.S.A.

274 M.-L. Quinn

effects this climatic phenomenon has had on the land and its people. Over the past half

decade, in fact, the growing appreciation of these differences (particularly in the social,

economic, and institutional realm) has fostered an increasingly interdisciplinary approach

to drought research, with the flurry of activity on impact assessment being a case in point.

The paper which follows here could be classified as the precursor to an impact assessment

study in that it delineates a number of federal drought planning endeavors, all of which have had some impact ana several of which would clearly merit a detailed assessment. 1

2. Planning for Drought

From June 1980 through February 1981, much of the United States received below

normal precipitation. 2 During the subsequent eight months, droughty conditions existed

for shorter periods in some parts of the country (the northeast, for example) and were

quite persistent in others, notably the southeast. Except in areas of natural aridity, a prolonged period of moisture deficiency stimulates

interest in drought planning - that is, how to strengthen resistance to drought; how to be

better prepared the next time drought occurs. 3 Across the Great Plains, where the recur-

rence of dry weather is regarded as one of the region's principal characteristics, 4 there

are numerous examples of this practice. Several levels of government have participated

in these efforts over the years, employing various approaches and techniques.

Thus, the purpose of this paper, based on the first known research work of its kind, s is to explore the question: What has been the federal role in Great Plains drought plan-

ning? In addressing the subject, an historical sampling of that federal involvement - by way of legislative and other means - is presented for the period, late 1870's to 1940. 6

(Emergency drought relief programs were not part of this investigation.) To qualify for

the sampling, a drought planning measure had to meet three simple criteria: (1) that it

was (or included) an activity of the federal government; (2) that one of its major intents, either stated or inferred, was to plan for drought; and (3) that the Great Plains was

directly involved. When examined as a unit, several interesting points emerged from this

survey. These are summarized in the conclusions, with the postscript providing room for further comment.

2.1. Underlying Themes

The underlying themes (or goals) for drought planning activities have been expressed in a variety of ways, as illustrated in the following list of examples:

- to encourage readjustment to natural conditions, - to make agriculture immune from drought, - to allow the abundance of good years without causing excessive hardships in bad

years, - to lower the public cost of emergency drought programs,

- to show people how to make do with less when less is all that is available, - to allay the consequences of dry weather.

Federal Drought Planning in the Great Plains - A First Look 275

There are no doubt others which could have been included, but this list gives some flavor for the range of objectives which have been considered at one time or another.

For the Great Plains, the intent of many past drought planning efforts was to allow the abundance of good years without causing excessive hardships in bad years. This theme is particularly fitting for the plains because i tno t only acknowledges the occur- rence of good and bad years (that is, wet and dry years), but also implies that both conditions must be considered for a sustained, successful agricultural program. Most individuals familiar with Great Plains climate agree that this is a realistic tenet for drought planning in the region. 7

3. The Great Plains Challenge

The Homestead Act of May 1862, the Timber Culture Act of March 1873, and the Desert Land Act of March 1877 made available to permanent settlers specified acreages within the public domain, including lands in the Great Plains. The result was a large influx of people into a little-known region, one climatically different from those lands lying east of the Mississippi River. This climatic difference created problems and provided

challenges not previously encountered on a large scale by white settlers on the North American continent. 8 Over the ensuing one hundred years, this set of circumstances was

destined to have a profound effect on Great Plains people, practices, programs, and planning.

3.1. The Powell Report

What might safely be called this country's most far-reaching plan for drought, John Wesley Powell's Report on the Lands o f the Arid Region o f the United States, was published in 1878. This report was the product of several years' field investigation by Powell, who was then the geologist in charge of the U.S. Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region. 9 Unlike most subsequent writings on the subject, this 1878 publication was prepared in anticipation of, rather than in response to, drought.

Powell's def'mition of the arid region included that part of the Great Plains lying west of the one hundredth meridian) ~ The "redemption" of these lands would require "exten- sive and comprehensive plans", wrote the geologist, and he then described how this region could best be used, given its particular characteristics - the most important of which was recurrent drought, n The following are three of the principle ideas contained in the report:

(1) In regions where rainfall is less than 20 inches (50 cm), much of the land is best suited for range and should be used only for this purpose.

(2) Consistently successful crop cultivation in these regions is not possible without a supplemental water supply, geared toward the driest known years.

(3) Farmsteads in these regions must be large in order to provide a buffer during times of recurring drought. These three concepts reappeared frequently in subsequent plains literature and provided the basis for several federal drought planning efforts implemented decades later. 12 Yet, in

276 M.-L. Quinn

the years following its release, many of those who were aware of Powell's report either

paid little heed to his observations 13 or refuted them. 14 Drought planning in the Great

Plains was destined to be a slow process, learned year by year through trial and error.

3.2. Dry-Land Farming

The region's severe moisture deficiency of 1893, 1894 and 1895 forced a number o f farmers to move to more humid parts of the country. Another "almost immediate reaction"

to the drought of the mid-1890's, writes Thornthwaite, "was a phenomenal increase in dry farming throughout the Plains". is In fact, the popularity of dry-land farming had

been on the rise since the 1880's, due in part to the publicity the practice had received

from railroads and other interests anxious to encourage settlement in the Great Plains. x6

Just what was meant, in the late 1800's and early 1900's, by the term dry farming

(ordry-land farming)? MacDonald described it as "the conservation of soil moisture

during long periods of dry weather by means of tillage, together with the growth of

drought-resistent plants". 17 In the opinion of Widtsoe, the business of the dry-farmer was

always to farm so as to be prepared for the "driest year" whenever it came. If the farmer

did this, in wet years his crop would be large; in the driest years, it would be "sufficient to sustain him". 18 Widtsoe went on to say that the dry-land farmer entering the summer

season with a soil well stored with water "cares little whether summer rains come or not,

for he knows his crops will mature in spite of external drought". ~9 By 1905, z~ interest in this farming method was so great that the Office of Dry Land

Agriculture was established within the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Plant

Industry. zl Much of the USDA's early work on the subject of dry-land farming involved efforts to "foster use of crops adapted to semiarid conditions". 22 These efforts actually

preceded the formation of the Office of Dry Land Agriculture 23 and, according to

agricultural historian Hargreaves, were accelerated in the late i890's. ~ Some of the

federally-supported agricultural experiment stations (established in March 1887 with the

passage of the Hatch Act) also conducted research to provide farmers and farmer/ranchers with more reliable information on dry farming. 2s Particulady active were the stations in Montana, Utah, and South Dakota. 26

At the February 1909 Dry Farming Congress held in Cheyenne, Wyoming, one ardent supporter of dry farming expressed the view that those who follow the method as closely as local conditions allow ''will never have a crop failure". ~7 During the ensuing decade,

though, the uncertain scientific basis of the practice, along with the realities of recurrent d roughty dampened some of the earlier enthusiam for dry-land farming. 29 It was

becoming increasingly clear that this agricultural method could not free the plains farmer

from crop loss resulting from inadequate rainfall; that "climatic risks still existed in the Great Plains". a~

3.3. Irrigation

During the last several decades of the 19th century, there were numerous debates con-

cerning the role the federal govermnent should play in the irrigation of the arid and semi-


arid west. The argument was closely entwined, and at times synonymous, with the issue

of western settlement and the disposal of public lands. Well-intended legislation often

under-estimated the potential for fraud and demonstrated how little was really known

about the west. The March 1877 Desert Land Act, referred to earlier, is an example.

For the price of $1.25 per acre ($3.08 per hectare), this Act provided that any person

could purchase up to 640 acres (260 hectares) of desert lands, upon the condition that the lands be irrigated. 31 ["Desert lands" were defined by the act as "all lands, exclusive of

timber lands and mineral lands which will not, without irrigation, preduce some agricul-

tural crop". 32 ] Five Great Plains states (then territories) were included in the original

Desert Land Act - Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, and New Mexico,

with the state of Colorado being added in 1891.33 The vagueness of this legislation

allowed stockmen as well as speculators to acquire large acreages, in many instances lands not regarded as desert. 34

The combined effects of a particularly severe winter across the Plains in 1886 and

below normal precipitation the next few years swelled the ranks of those wanting to see

an expansion of irrigation in the west. as In March 1888 both houses of Congress passed

a Joint Resolution which directed the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the

Director of the Geological Survey,

"to make an examination of that portion of the arid region of the United States where agriculture is carried on by means of irrigation, as to the natural advantages for the storage of water for irrigation purposes, with the practicability of constructing reservoirs, together with the capacity of streams and the cost of construction and capacity of reservoirs, and such other facts as bear on the question of storage of water for irrigation purposes;...

In October of that year, the Sundry Civil Appropriations Act provided funds for this

examination (which became known as the irrigation survey) to be conducted under the direction of J. W. Powell, he then being the Director of the U.S. Geological Survey. 3~

The Appropriations Act also called for a temporary cessation of the sale and settlement of the lands to be examined, 38 and this was interpreted as including virtually all the arid

region. 39 The intent of this 'reservation clause' was to prevent the speculator from laying

claim to reservoir and canal sites as soon as they were identified. Many western senators

and representatives, a number of whom had supported the initial idea for a survey, were

angered by this unexpected development, feeling that it would prohibit settlement for years to come. 4~ 41

During Senate committee hearings held in the early months of 1890, the need for the

irrigation survey was questioned, and Powell was accused of financial mismanagement

in its operation. Combining these accusations with the antagonism created by the reser-

vation clause, opponents were able to cut drastically the program's funding. The temporary

ban on sale and settlement o(public lands in the arid region was repealed in August 1890, and the irrigation survey all but ceasedY"

Congress made another effort to deal with the question of irrigation and settlement in the drought-prone west when it passed the Sundry Civil Expenses Appropriation Act of August 1894. Under Section 4 (popularly referred to as the 'Carey Act'), 43 the federal government agreed to donate to certain of the western states, "a quantity of land, not

278 M.-L. Quinn

over 1 000 000 acres [404 500 hectares] which they should cause to be settled, irrigated, and in part, cultivated". 44 Subsequent legislation modified these provisions. While its ultimate aim was to help settlers reclaim small tracts of land in the dry west through irrigation, the so-called 'Carey Act' met with only a modicum of success.

When Theodore Roosevelt assumed the presidency in September 1901, direct federal involvement in western irrigation gained the support of the White House. 4s The following June, passage of the Newlands Act created the Reclamation Service within the U.S.

Department of the Interior. [In July 1923, the agency was renamed the Bureau of Recla-

mation.] This 1902 legislation put the federal government in the business of reclaiming the arid and semi-arid west through irrigation. The resulting program developed a number

of serious problems which, by 1924, had cast the undertaking in a quite unfavorable light. 46 It was, though, a form of federal drought planning - one of the intents being to help stabilize agriculture, through irrigation projects, in areas with either insufficient or highly variable precipitation. In response to the hydrologic and meteorologic events experienced during the 1930's, the government's reclamation effort was both strengthened

and expanded.

3.4. Larger Agricultural Units

U.S. House of Representative Moses Kinkaid, from O'Neill, Nebraska, made the next small step forward in behalf of federal drought planning efforts in the plains. While a large farm was no guarantee against losses from drought, Kinkaid and others argued that

the 160 acres (65 hectares) allowed a settler under the 1862 Homestead Act was too small for unusual areas such as the Nebraska sandhills, where additional impediments faced prospective farmers. 47 In April 1904 Congress passed the Kinkaid Act, allowing settlers to acquire 640 acres (260 hectares) in most of western Nebraska (Figure 1). (Lands deemed irrigable were excepted.) 4s In most cases, though, even the larger acreage proved to be inadequate for sustained, successful crop farming in this setting where not only is precipitation limited and variable, but where soils are composed largely of sand. 49

Similar upward adjustments were made in the acreage provisions of the Homestead Act itself. The February 1909 Enlarged Homestead Act, sometimes referred to as the Dry Farming Act, s~ made it possible to acquire 320 acres (130 hectares) of nonirrigable

public lands in Colorado, Montana, Wyoming (plains states), Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, plus the territories of Arizona and New Mexico. st Droughty conditions

returned to the plains between the years 1910 and 1913. Then in December 1916, the Stock-Raising Homestead Act was passed. This law allowed the acquisition of 640 acres (260 hectares) of "unappropriated, unreserved public land" if the tract had been designated as stock-raising land. s2

Commenting on these two changes in the 1862 Homestead Act, a study committee wrote in 1936 that "most of the damage had been done prior to the passage of these later acts", s3 Whether or not this assessment was correct, the fact remains that these revisions in the Homestead Act do represent an attempt on the part of Congress to adapt its land policies to the conditions of the semi-arid west. They are, then, drought planning measures, even if their timing and extent later were deemed inappropriate, s4

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Fig. 1. The Great Plains region generally is thought of as including parts of ten states: North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. Nebraska, darkened in on the lower map, is located in the plains' midsection. The shaded zone in the upper map delineates that part of Nebraska subject to the provisions of the 1904 Kinkaid Act. How- ever, within the shaded zone, a few areas with lands deemed irrigable were excepted. (My thanks to fellow geographer C. Barton McIntosh for his assistance in locating what I have called the 'Kinkaid line', marking the eastern-most extent of the Kinkald Act.) (Cartography by David C. Schuman.)

3.5. Setting the Stage

During the teens and early 1920's, the plains agricultural sector underwent considerable

expansion, cultivating additional land (regarded by some as submarginal) in response to

such contributing factors as: farm mechanization, ss World War I food needs, and generally

favorable moisture conditions, s6 This extension of cultivation decreased the amount of

acreage under a natural vegetative cover, s7 It also placed increased grazing pressure on

the remaining range, where more cattle were being run to supply the temporarily higher meat demands of the period, s8

As the 1920's progressed, a post war decline in the wheat market created a financial

280 M.-L. Quinn

squeeze for many of the region's farmers. In an effort to recoup losses, they planted

even more of that crop. s9 Hurt reports that between 1925 and 1929, about 15 000 000

acres (6 070 400 hectares) in the plains were plowed for the first time. 6~ Years with

intermittent drought conditions, as in 1924 and 1925 (plus 1928 and 1929 in the north-

ern tier of states), were causing further hardship. 61 In addition, sharp fluctuations in live-

stock prices during this time had caused many ranchers to retain their stock, giving little

rest to the range. 62 Thus, the advent of the 1930's, a turning point in American history,

found the physical as well as economic environment of the Great Plains ill-prepared for what lay ahead. 63

4. The Impact of the Thirties

The persistent dry weather during the 1930's 64 stimulated great interest in drought and

produced a vast literature on the subject. Sifting through this wealth of material, one

finds a number of federal efforts aimed at alleviating the impact of future droughts in the

Great Plains (Figure 2).

4.1. The Concept of Planning

Whether the focus was on social, economic, or meteorologic phenomena, the general

concept of planning gained increasing popularity during the 1930's. At the federal level, the creation in July 1933 of the National Planning Board epitomized this trend. A year

later this Board became known as the National Resources Board, in 1935 the National

Resources Committee, and in 1939 the National Resources Planning Board. 6s Together

with its various working groups and subcommittees, this federal unit produced a number of insightful reports dealing with a whole host of resource-related topics. 66 Plans to

mitigate the effects of future drought ranged from land-use studies to programs for water

development within particular drainage basins. Although the agency was abolished in 1943, 67 the ideas of the National Resources Planning Board (and its predecessors) con-

tributed to the philosophy of the time on man-land interaction in the Great Plains, and

thereby influenced drought planning programs for the region.

4.2. Taylor Grazing Act

By the early 1930's, years of serious overgrazing had resulted in low forage production

on much of the western range. 68 In addition, the poor condition of these lands contributed to a wind erosion problem during drought years. 69 In an effort to address this situation, Congress passed the Taylor Grazing Act in June 1934. The purposes of this Act were,

first: to prevent overgrazing and consequent range and soil deterioration; and second:

to provide for the orderly use, improvement and development of the public range. ~ The law applied to lands located in thirteen western states, six of which lie at least in the Great Plains. 71 These lands were to be administered so that stockmen could "plan their annual operations over a period of years, with knowledge, based upon the average


To t h e Rescue --Shoemaker ill tile Chicago Daily News

Fig. 2. This cartoon by Vaughan Shoemaker first appeared in the Chicago Daily News and then was reprinted in the June 16, 1934 Literary Digest. Accompanying a Digest article entitled, 'Drought Leads to Provision for Lean Years', the cartoon depicted the federal government coming to the rescue of the struggling farmer caught in the grips of vulturous drought. Yet, in a broader sense, Shoemaker's drawing could also symbolize the basic concept of federal drought planning. The U.S. government would then be interpreted as attempting to 'rescue' the agricultural community from the dire consequences of future drought. (�9 Field Enterprises, Inc. ;Reprinted with permission.)

rainfall, of the amount of grazing that will be available". 72 In other words, ranchers,

working together in grazing associations, were encouraged to take into consideration the

recurrence of drought and its impact on pastures - carrying capacity, recovery rate, and

other related factors.

4.3. Shelterbelts

Interest in planting trees to modify the physical environment was not uncommon on the

prairies and plains. In 1866, for example, the Commissioner of the General Land Office

proposed a strong tree-planting program, pointing out the several improvements which

282 M.-L. Quinn

might ensue. 7a A few years later, Congress passed the 1873 Timber Culture Act, previous-

ly cited as a stimulus to settlement in the plains. 74 Yet, the federal government's 1934 shelterbelt program, a responsibility of the U.S.

Forest Service, was distinct from earlier tree-planting activities. The "stern forces of nature" had brought severe drought and economic despair to the Great Plains during the

thirties, making apparent the need for a "planned use of the Plains region". 7s The shelter-

belt program, officially labeled the "Prairie States Forestry Project", was viewed as just

one part of an effort to achieve that planned use. A shelterbelt zone was delineated (Figure 3), extending 1150 miles (1850 km) from the

United States/Canadian border in North Dakota to northern Texas. 76 Data on softs, pre-

cipitation, evaporation, existing vegetation, groundwater, and topography were used to

identify this 100 mile-wide (160 km wide) zone. Thus, this tree-planting program was scientifically-based, drawing upon such information sources as the agricultural experiment

stations, particularly the one at Mandan, North Dakota. Here, researchers had been

growing, distributing, and experimenting with trees since 1916 and had kept careful

records "on the behavior and successes of different species and methods of culture under

different conditions... , ,77 The experiment station at Woodward, Oklahoma, played a

lead role in the shelterbelt work on the southern plains. 78 Writing in 1935, Zon described the effect of shelterbelts as "a means of protection

against damage by drought". 79 Within reasonable limits, he stated, this "beneficial effect

increases with the increase in drought", reaching its maximum during moderately dry

years, s~ Zon pointed out, however, that prolonged, severe drought could decimate even

the shelterbelts. Between 1935 and 1942, some 218 000000 trees were planted on an estimated

31 000 farms, sl Perhaps more than any other measure, the shelterbelt program carried

the message of federal drought planning across the entire Great Plains and through the

years.

4.4. Soil Conservation Service

As early as 1894, a unit within the Weather Bureau (then part of the U.S. Department

of Agriculture) was established to study 'agricultural softs' - a reflection of growing interest in the subject, s2 This unit became a separate Division of Soils the next year,

and by 1901 had been elevated to a Bureau of Soils. s3 The following years brought

increased apprehension for the welfare of the soil resource. In October 1933, the Soft Erosion Service was formed within the Department of the Interior 84 and a year and a half later transferred to the Department of Agriculture. There it was consolidated into

the Soft Conservation Service (SCS), created when Congress passed the April 1935 Soil Conservation Act. ss Thus, the study of soils or concern for soil erosion was not new,

nor was it solely a byproduct of drought. Yet, under the guidance of its first director, Hugh H. Bennett, the Soil Conservation

Service embarked on a program quite different from the previous research-oriented work. Organized around newly-formed soil and water conservation districts, heavy emphasis


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Fig. 3. The 100-mile (160-km) wide zone where shelterbelts were to be planted is delineated on this map modified from: Zon, op. cit., in Possibilities of Shelterbelt Planting in the Plains Region, U.S. Forest Service, Washington, D.C., p. 6. An idea implemented on a grand scale, the shelterbelt program has had effects on the Great Plains which are both physical and psychological. [Precipitation figures, in cm, corresponding to those in inches shown on the map are (from top to bottom): 38, 41, 45, 48, 52, and 56 cm]. (Cartography by David C. Schuman.)

284 M.-L. Quinn

was placed on the practical problems of farm rehabilitation. As a case in point, Hurt reports that in the area of the plains known as the 'dust bowl', SCS staffhelped farmers adopt such techniques as strip cropping, contour plowing, and terracing. 86 This and other

related work was undertaken by the agency in an effort to mitigate the effects of future drought .87

4.5. Bankhead-Jones Acts of 1935 and 1937

With the Bankhead-Jones Act of June 1935, Congress provided strong financial support

for "research into basic laws and principles relating to agriculture". 8s One of the early

funded projects - involving the USDA's Bureau of Agricultural Economics, the Weather

Bureau, Harvard University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - was a

survey and appraisal of long-range forecasting methods, both in the United States and

abroad. Another, a cooperative effort among several USDA units, studied the relation-

ship between weather and crop yields. Yet a third research project was an investigation of

the relationships between solar and terrestrial phenomena and how these might bear on long-range weather forecasting. 89 Thus, this federal legislation advanced basic agricultural

and meteorological research, and drought-related topics were included.

In July 1937, the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act became federal law. 9~ The provi-

sions in Title III gave the United States government the authority to purchase lands unsuited for cultivation. While not a new idea, 91 this 1937 Act firmly established the

program as a drought planning tool in the Great Plains. Initially placed under the administration of the Soil Conservation Service, the effort involved not only the purchase of

deteriorated acreage but also the development of a land use program for that acreage. 92

The intent was to make possible "the conservation and permanent use of land resources

for the benefit of local communities...-93

4.6. Report of the Great Plains Committee

A reading of the December 1936 publication, The Future of the Great Plains (Figure 4),

provides many insights into attitudes - prevalent at the federal level - on planning for both wet and dry years in the plains. Prepared by the presidentially-appointed Great

Plains Committee, 94 Parts I and II contain an analysis of the drought then at hand and

its impact on the region. Part III, entitled 'Program of Readjustment and Development', discusses the lines of action the Committee believed were essential to develop "a type of

economy that will withstand the shocks of recurrent periods of severe and prolonged drought". 9s The Committee recommended that the federal government focus attention

on such topics as: acquisition of land in range areas and compensation to local govern- ments, measures to increase the size of farms, development of water resources, resettle- ment, and others. Topics for state government included: zoning land for its best use, needed changes in community organization and fiscal arrangements, and patterns of land occupancy. 96

Another recommendation of the Committee was that there be established a 'continuing


Fig. 4. Today, 45 years after its publication, The Future o f the Great Plains is a valuable reference for historians, geographers, climatologists, and others. It provides useful insights into a number of the attitudes - prevalent at the federal level during the 1930's - regarding plains drought and what adap- tations seemed appropriate to deal successfully with that recurrent climatic phenomenon. A strong theme in this historical volume is the idea that much of the plowed plains should be returned to grass and grazing. Could it be symbolic, therefore, that a beef cow figures so prominently on the cover? Perhaps this animal was regarded as 'the future of the Great Plains'.

territorial agency' within the Great Plains. The mission of this agency would be "the

promotion of readjustments of the many different kinds that have been discussed and

which in total will make effective a salutary long-range plan". 97, 98

4. 7. Water Facil i t ies A c t

In another attempt to help agriculturists in the arid and semi-arid regions adapt to the

realities of climate, Congress passed the Water Facilities Act in August 1937. 99 This Act.

286 M.-L. Quinn

which applied to all the 17 western states, directed the Department of Agriculture to assist in the construction of ponds, wells, springs, pumping units, water spreaders, and stock water tanks. It was felt that the lack of such small water facilities was often all that stood between a farmer or rancher and "success in his struggle against the handicaps of an adverse natural environment". ~~176 One provision of the law was that no small water facility was to be built in a location where it would encourage the cultivation of submarginal lands. 1~ The purpose of the program, then, was to help "toward stabilizing agriculture in the areas of irregular and limited rainfall", clearly making it an effort in drought planning. The Soil Conservation Service and the Farm Security Administration were the agencies within the Department of Agriculture placed in charge of this programJ ~

4.8. Crop Insurance

For a number of years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture had been examining ways by which some form of insurance could be provided against (uncontrollable) crop lossJ ~ The crushing drought of the 1930's, in combination with other factors, stimulated a

great deal of renewed interest in the subject. Proposed legislation to set up a federal crop insurance program - initially only for wheat - worked its way through Congress in 1937

and became law in early 1938. a~ Some might contend that crop insurance encourages rather than discourages the

cultivation of lands regarded as agriculturally borderline, particularly in the plains states. Yet, the program's overall objective was to ease the burden of unavoidable crop losses, a~ making it another of the drought planning measures to emanate from the nation's capitol

and have an impact onthe Great Plains.

4.9. Small Irrigation Projects

The Secretary of Agriculture's 1938 Annual Report contains the following comment: "Irrigation does not insure against drought. In long periods of low rainfall and deficient winter snows, the run-off from the watersheds declines, and the water shppiy may be inadequate for the irrigated lands", x~ Thus, surface irrigation projects were not regarded as a panacea against prolonged drought. At the same time, though, it was recognized that water was generally the limiting factor for farming in the Great Plains, thus requiring its careful husbandry. '~l'he fullest practicable use should be made of the resource through irrigation", said the Northern Great Plains Committee, "particularly because each irrigated acre may make possible the optimum use of 20 to 25 acres [8-10 hectares] of neighboring

grazing land through properly integrated farm programs"J ~ The Interior Department Appropriation Act for 1940 (passed in May 1939), appro-

priated money for the construction of water conservation and utility projects "in the Great Plains and arid and semi-arid areas of the United States". 1~ Actual authorization was contained in the August 1939 Wheeler-Case ActJ ~ Projects considered for immediate construction in the northern plains were: Buffalo Rapids and Saco Divide Unit in Mon- tana, Buford-Trenton and Bismarck in North Dakota, Rapid Valley in South Dakota,


and Mirage Flats in Nebraska 11~ (Figure 5). Each was listed as having an irrigable area of

less than 13 500 acres (5463 hectares) - mere specks in the vastness of the Great Plains.

With this in mind, once can appreciate the down-to-earth wisdom expressed by the Northern Great Plains Committee in its May 1940 report:

"At the risk of unnecessary repetition, it may be affirmed that irrigated oases in the Northern Plains, even if created wherever it is technically and economically practicable to do so, will be only one factor in the rehabilitation and stabilization of the Northern Plains as a whole. Irrigation presupposes water as well as land; no device for supplying water to land can succeed without the water. Wishful thinking cannot alter these plain facts". 111

No pie-in-the-sky dreamers, these Committee members were in touch with the real world and were aware of some of its constraints.

5. Conclusions

"Has there been federal involvement in Great Plains drought planning?" As a result of the

preceding discussion, the answer to this question now goes without saying. In addition,

this study has presented brief sketches - snapshots, really - of that federal role from the

1870's to 1940. When all assembled, these 'snapshots' reveal a continuing effort on the

part of the U.S. government to cope with what many regard as the most troublesome facet of plains climate, recurrent drought. Yet, the 'album' still contains numerous blank

IRRIGATION PROJECTS CONSIDERED FOR IMMEDIATE CONSTRUCTION UNDER AUTHORITY OF INTERIOR APPROPRIATION ACT, 1940',~

~ ! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . - . . . . . ~- . . . . . J 'L._,.

'\ " - " ' ~ ~ - - J ~ - .,.~L~s NORTH \;

3 ~ ~ p ~ ~ L . ..~ MINN. G.'~ M O N T A ~ ~ ~ l~---~-'~--:-~----~6-U-f~- /

t,, / ~ A Ln~ UlVf ,~ " ~ > ~ DAKOTA

' RA;ID ;A ~L E Y' ----x'~'~"~-~ \ !

i , ' W Y O M I N G I _~f#m ~ R A R A#~---"- ' - -- '~ ~

N E - ~ / b T , ~ H ~ ~MIRAGE FLATs . . . . . ~'~ i i NEBRASKA

Fig. 5. Following the passage of the 1940 Interior Appropriations Act, six proposed irrigation projects were considered f9 r early construction in the northern Great Plains, and their locations are shown here. Of these potential 'irrigated oases' dotting that vast region, Buffalo Rapids, Buford-Trenton, Rapid Valley, and Mirage Flats are today active irrigation projects operated by the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Reclamation. They provide irrigation service which is either full, temporary, or supplemental to 53 432 acres (21 600 hectares). (Map redrawn by David C. Schuman from: Northern Great Plains Committee, 'Northern Great Plains', 1940, p. 10.)

288 M.-L. Quinn

pages as other related activities await a closer look. These include, for example: improved

credit operations for the farmer/rancher, programs to encourage crop diversification,

attempts to address the farm tenancy problem of the 1930's, m and the work of the

Great Plains Agricultural Council.

Detailed analyses of the federal role in drought planning for the plains could provide up-to-date, objective evaluations, 11a and work of this kind would seem to fit in nicely

with the current interdisciplinary interest in climate impact assessment. While such

assessments would be useful and are needed, n4 degrees of success or failure were not at

question here. For purposes of this study and as was specified earlier, a drought planning

measure had to meet but three simple criteria, to wit: (1) that it was (or included) an

activity of the federal government; (2) that one of its major intents, either stated or

inferred, was to plan for drought; and (3) that the Great Plains was directly involved.

The major points to emerge from the compilation of this sampling can be summarized

as follows:

(1) federal drought planning in the Great Plains is not new;

(2) the concept was not a child of the 1930's, although it did receive impetus during

those years; (3) when interpreted broadly, the U.S. government's involvement dates back to the

1860's and 70's;

(4) at least until 1940, a number of different approaches were used - some direct and physical, others indirect and organizational, and still others a combination ;~ls

(5) drought planning has proven to be a product of experience - a facet of plains

agriculture developed over the years through trial and error by the individual plainsman

as well as the federal government. Occasionally, though, the lessons of the past have had to be relearned by succeeding generations. At first blush, this situation appears unfortunate.

Yet, when one considers the many forces of change that now affect and alter Great Plains agriculture, such renewed awareness and renewed adaptation may actually be useful;

(6) a number of the measures discussed here as representing federal drought planning in the Great Plains were not developed specifically for that region. In fact, the federal government has never adopted an explicit drought policy for the Great Plains. n6 More

thoughts on this particular point appear in the last section; (7) and finally, just as drought will continue to be a part of life in the Great Plains,

it can be expected that some form of drought planning will too. It also seems clear that

the United States government will continae to play a significant role in these efforts - perhaps primarily as financier.

If we are to meet the demands resulting from projected world population growth,

resources must be used and cared for in a manner that holds promise for their health and endurance. In the Great Plains and other like regions, this means planning for recurrent dry periods. Thus, it is to our distinct advantage to understand the evolution of

resource management programs - to know what worked, what didn't work, and why. Need for such information will probably encourage subsequent studies of government involvement in drought planning, and the way seems clear for geographers, historians, sociologists, ecologists, economists, and others to make significant contributions to these


climate-related questions, n7 This review - by laying the groundwork - can now serve as

a reference point and as a basis for additional interdisciplinary research.

6. Postscript

6.1. A Question o f Policy

Some readers of this paper may conclude that the foregoing sampling of drought planning

measures (spanning 75 years of our nation's history) illustrates the 'glaring' need for a national drought planning policy. A national policy, these people will say, would have

assured that, from the beginning, the federal government would have known what to do and how to do it. 118 Thus, much of this 'wasteful' trial and error - and its accompanying

hardship - would have been avoided. Based on this (facetious) thesis, research proposals to the National Science Foundation (NSF) may well materialize, requesting several

hundred thousand dollars to study the 'obvious need' for such a national policy on

drought. A contrasting, perhaps less popular, interpretation is offered here which could save

NSF (and the U.S. tax payers) a goodly sum of money. The hypothesis is that, for the

period covered in this study and even perhaps up to current times, the nonexistence of a

precise national drought policy has been the best 'policy' for the Great Plains. It was

J. W. Powell, of course, who first proposed a broad, all-encompassing approach. His plan

was rejected (and as the ignored 'prophet' , he has enjoyed considerable adulation and

praise for more than half a century), lw Yet, neither Powell nor anyone else could have

devised a permanent, workable land classification system in the Great Plains to guide

proper development) 2~ Regional heterogeneities abound (as mentioned earlier), too

many factors about the plains remain unknown to us even today, and - perhaps more

importantly - the interactions between this region and society, between this region and

other regions are dynamic, are always changing. Expressed another way, the definition

of 'proper' development is never fixed. Providing a case in point, geographer Kollmorgen wrote of the west, "Even the classification of irrigable lands was - and is - a tentative

matter because of changing technology, subsidies, and transfers of water within a basin

and from without"J ~1 How true, and how important it is that we recognize these facts. Our trial and error method in the Great Plains has, over the years, brought personal

hardship and caused physical injury to the land resource - of this there is no doubtJ 22

It is incorrect to assume, though, that a national drought policy would have eliminated

these past ills. And it is also incorrect to assume that the adoption of a carefully-defined drought policy now will pave the way to a trouble-free future in the plains. Although more work is needed on the subject (as suggested in the previous section), history seems to be telling us that while the past federal role in drought planning was not without

mistakes, in the long run it has helped make the plains more resistant to drought.

Furthermore, and despite all the condemnation, the taking of small (one might say hesitating) steps by Congress during the early years of plains settlement is at least under-

standable - given the time, past traditions, aspirations for the future, and knowledge

290 M.-L. Quinn

then available. Later, during the 1930's, the application of numerous programs - w h i c h may appear somewhat disjointed to the researcher examining these activities many years

after the fact - seems to have been a wise move. An individual program (if it later proves to

be unsatisfactory or out of step with the time) can generally be modified with less diffi-

culty than can a national policy on a major hazard) 2a Flexibility, then, is clearly a key issue.

In sum, the federal government has had a substantial involvement in drought planning,

with a direct impact on the Great Plains. At the same time, the absence - to 1940 and

even to this day - of an explicit national drought policy on how to strengthen the plains'

resistance to drought seems to have had little, if any, negative effect on the establishment of federal programs. Indeed, its absence may well have been beneficial.

A Partial Chronology of Events Related to Federal Drought Harming in the Great Plains

Prior to 1878

Homestead Act 1862

Timber Culture Act (repealed 1891) 1873

Desert Land Act 1877

1878 to 1940

J. W. Powell's A Report on the Land o f the Arid Region o f the

United States

Creation of the U.S. Geological Survey

Dry-Land Farming Movement

Dry Years in the Great Plains

U.S. Agricultural Experiment Stations established

U.S.G.S. Irrigation Survey (under J. W. Powell)

Sundry Civil Expenses Appropriation Act (Section 4 the so-called 'Carey Act')

Serious Drought in the Great Plains U.S. Reclamation Service established

Kinkaid Act

U.S.D.A. Office of Dry Land Agriculture established Enlarged Homestead Act

Dry Years in the Great Plains Stock-Raising Homestead Act Dry Years in the Great Plains Severe and Protracted Drought in the Great Plains National Resources Planning Board (and its predecessors) Taylor Grazing Act U.S. Forest Service Shelterbelt Program

U.S.D.A. Soil Conservation Service created

1878

1879

1885-1920

1886-1890

1887

1888-1890

1894

1893,1894,1895

1902 1904

1905 1909

1910-1913 1916 1924-1925 1930's

1933-1943 1934 1934 1935


Bankhead-Jones Act

Great PlaNs Committee's The Future o f the Great Plains

Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act

Water Facilities Act

Federal Crop Insurance established

Interior Department Appropriation Act /

Wheeler-Case Act f

1935

1936

1937

1937

1938

1939

Note: Because of the spatial variability of precipitation in the Great Plains, years listed

in this chronology as having been dry may not have been dry in the entire region. By the

same token, certain years not listed here at all may indeed have been dry in particular

areas within the Plains.

Acknowledgments

Sincere appreciation is extended to Dr. Wayne D. Rasmussen, historian with the U.S.

Department of Agriculture, for his encouragement and long-standing interest in this

work, which began in 1978. Comments on a preliminary draft of this paper were provided

by Dr. Norman J. Rosenberg, head of the University of Nebraska's Center for Agricultural

Meteorology and Climatology. Full responsibility for content, however, rests solely with

the author. Thanks also go to David C. Schuman for his quality cartographic work.

References and Notes

1 Over the years, some evaluative work has been done on these drought planning activities, although in many - if not all - cases the specific words 'drought planning' were not used. One exarnple which quickly comes to mind is Mary Hargreaves' excellent Dry Farming in the Northern Great Plains, Harvard University Press, 1957; and several authors have looked at the effectiveness of the shelterbelt program, as in Ralph A. Read's 'The Great Plains Shelterbelt in 1954', Great Plains Agricultural Council Publication No. 16, University of Nebraska Experiment Station, 1958. Yet, current work is scarce. Moreover, Bonnifield has suggested that a few of the early evaluative studies may have been excessively laudatory, citing Vance Johnson's 1947 Heaven's Tableland: The Dust Bowl Story as a case in point (Paul Bonnifield, The Dust Bowl: Men, Dirt, and Depression, Univer- sity of New Mexico Press, 1979, p. 3-4). An interdiscipllnairy project presently being considered for funding (and headed by M.-L. Quinn) would study the federal government's purchase and management of western submarginal lands over the past 40 to 50 years - one of the drought planning measures mentioned in this paper.

2 U.S. Department of Commerce (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and U.S. Department of Agriculture, 'Weekly Weather and Crop Bulletin', June 1980-February 1981, Vols. 67-68, Washington, D.C.

a Numerous examples of drought planning exist in the literature. As a fairly recent case in point, the February 1981 issue of Waterfacts, published by the New England River Basins Commission, Boston, Massachusetts, is devoted to the subject. The lead article is entitled, 'Drought: Planning Ahead is Key to Coping'. (The date of that Waterfacts issue coincided with a serious but short-lived precipitation shortage in the northeastern United States.)

4 Many sources could be cited here. For example: J. W. Powell, Report on the Lands o f the Arid Region of the United States, Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C., 1878. Reprinted Bel- knap Press of Harvard University Press, 1962, Wallace Stegner, editor, page 13;C. Warren Thornth- waite, 'The Great Plains', in Migration and Economic Opportunity, Carter Goodrich et al., Univer-

292 M.-L. Quinn

sity of Penna. Press, 1936, pages 2 1 7 - 221 ; and Harold E. Dregne, of ask Group on Technology', in Drought in the Great Plains, Norman J. Rosenberg (ed.), Water Resources Publications, Colorado, 1980, p. 19.

s The author's research which resulted in this article also produced an earlier, preliminary statement on drought planning: M.-L. Quinn, 'An Historical Survey of Drought Planning With Emphasis on the U.S. Great Plains', in Drought in the Great Plains, Norman J. Rosenberg (ed.), op. cit., pp. 135-167. The present study, which has both defined geographic and time boundaries, is consider- ably more substantive.

6 Although some references date to the 1860's, the late 1870's appear to mark the beginning of the federal government's drought planning activities (broadly defined) in the plains. The year 1940 provides a convenient cut-off point for this,paper. The serious drought of the previous decade had ended and World War II - a watershed in American history - was about to begin.

7 See, for example, Dregne, `Task Group on Technology', op. cir., page 19. 8 Two recent additions to the literature provide us modern-day plainsmen (and non-plainsmen as well)

with some idea of what these problems and challenges were. See: Gilbert C. Fire, 'Agricultural Pioneering in Dakota: A Case Study', in Great Plains Quarterly, Summer 1981, Vol. 1, No. 3, pages 169-180; and, C. Barron Mclntosh, 'One Man's Sequential Land Alienation on the Great Plains', in GeographicalReview, October 1981, Vol. 71, No. 4, pp. 427-445 .

9 Powell, op. cir., pp. 3 - 5 . lo Ibid., p. 13. 11 Ibid.,pp. 12-13 . 12 Iii fact, it was at the hands of later plains specialists like Thomas Shaw, Ellery Chilcott, M. L.

Wilson, and others - influential during the 1920's and 1930's - that some of Powell's ideas had a significant and lasting impact on the region. A few researchers have taken a somewhat negative view of this turn of events. See, for example, Harry C. McDean, 'Federal Farm Policy and the Dust Bowl: The Half-Right Solution', in North Dakota History, Summer 1980.

13 Wallace Stegner, Beyond the Hundredth Meridian, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1953, pp. 202-242.

14 Gilbert C. Fite, The Farmers' Frontier, 1865-1900, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1966, p. 114.

1,5 C. Warren Thornthwaite, 'Climate and Settlement in the Great Plains', in Climate and Man - Year- book of Agriculture, 1941, Washington, D.C., p. 184. Another interpretation is that drought in the plains stimulated interest in irrigation (see Timothy J. Rickhard, 'The Great Plains as Part of an Irrigated Western Empire, 1890-1914' , in The Great Plains Environment and Culture, Brian W. Blouet and Frederick C. Luebke (eds.), Lincoln, Nebraska 1979, pp. 81-82) . Actually, it appears that both interpretations are correct; that is, at various times particularly between 1890 and 1920, dry-farming had a strong group of advocates in the plains and irrigation did also. In fact, some competition existed between the two. Gradually, though, and as noted by Thornthwaite in his 1936 article cited in note 4, people began to recognize that what was needed in the Great Plains was probably a combination of these two agricultural methods.

16 See, for example, Mary W. M. Hargreaves, 'Dry Farming Alias Scientific Farming', in Agricultural History, Vol. 22, No. 1, 1948, pp. 39-56 .

17 Willia m MacDonald, Dry-Farming: lts Principles and Practice, The Century Co., New York, 1911, p. 6.

18 John A. Widtsoe, Dry-Farming, A System of Agriculture for Countries Under a Low Rainfall, The MacMillan Company, New York, 1911, p. 402.

19 1bid., p. 130. 20 Interestingly enough, 1905 was a quite wet year in the Great Plains and was part of a string of wet

years. In his Annual Report for the year ending June 1906, the Secretary of Agriculture expressed concern that this period of above-normal precipitation, plus the misleading statements of land agents and others would result in 'grievously disappointed' settlers when semi-arid conditions returnecl (p. 40).

21 Annual Reports of the Department of Agriculture, for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1906, Wash- ington, D.C., p. 236; and Mary Wilma M. Hargreaves, Dry Farming in the Northern Great Plains, op. cir., pp. 101-102.


22 Hargreaves, 'Dry Farming Al ia s . . . ' , op. cit., p. 50. i3 Annual Reports o f the Department o f Agriculture, 1906, op. cit., p. 236. 24 Hargreaves, 'Dry Farming Al i a s . . . ' , op. cit., p. 50. 2s A. C. True, 'Agricultural Experiment Stations in the United States', Yearbook o f the United States

Department o f Agriculture, 1899, Washington, D.C., p. 545. See also Karl Quisenberry, 'The Dry Land Stations: Their Mission and Their Men', Agricultural History, Vol. 51, 1977, pp. 218-228.

26 Hargreaves, 'Dry Farming Al ias . . . ' , op. cit., pp. 39, 41, and 49. 27 W. X. Sudduth, as quoted in Hargreaves, ibid., p. 43. 28 See E. C. Chflcott, 'Some Misconceptions Concerning Dry Farming', Yearbook o f the United States

Department o f Agriculture, 1911, Washington, D.C., pp. 247-256 . Chilcott refers to the drought of 1911 and how certain dry-farming practices failed to alleviate its effect on crops.

29 In her 1957 book, Dry Farming in the Northern Great Plains, Hargreaves, op. cit., writes that, ' the drought of 1917 and 1921 brought conditions more severe in Montana than any previously recorded and but little less acute in the Dakotas' (pp. 208-209) . And while the first reaction in the North- ern Plains 'was a revival of interest in irrigation', Hargreaves notes that the drought of 1917 in particular brought renewed life to the dry-farming movement, persisting into the 1920's (pp. 2 1 1 - 212).

ao Thornthwaite, 'Climate and Set t lement . . . ' , op. tit. , p. 185. 31 U.S. Statutes at Large, Chapter 107, 44th Congress, 1875-1877, Vol. 19, p. 377. 32 Ibid. 33 Walter P. Webb, The Great Plains, Ginn and Co., 1931; reprinted University of Nebraska Press,

Lincoln, 1981, p. 413. 34 Benjamin H. Hibbard, A History o f the Public Land Policies, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison,

1924 and 1965, pp. 424-434 . 35 See Stegner in Powell, op. cit. p. xix; also Everett W. Sterling, 'The Powell Irrigation Survey, 1888-

1893~; The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 27, 1940, pp. 421 -422 ; also John T. Ganoe, ~ h e Beginnings of Irrigation in the United States', The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 25, 1938, pp. 59 -78 .

36 U.S. Statutes at Large, Joint Resolution No. 7, 50th Congress, 1887-1889, Vol. 25, pp. 618-619 . 37 Powell became the second director of the U.S. Geological Survey in 1881. See Thomas G. Manning,

Government in Science, University of Kentucky Press, 1967, p. 69. 38 U.S. Statutes at Large, Chapter 1069, 50th Congress, 1887-1889, Vol. 25, pp. 526-527 . 39 Institute for Government Research, The U.S. Reclamation Service, Service Monographs of the U.S.

Government, No. 2, D. Appleton and Company, New York, 1919, pp. 10-11 . 40 Manning, op. cit., pp. 182-201. 41 The October 1888 Sundry Civil Appropriations Act also provided that the President could, at any

time, open any portion or all of the reserved lands to settlement under the homestead laws. When asked to do so, however, neither President Grover Cleveland or later President Benjamin Harrison would open these lands. They both felt such action would not be in the best interests of the public. (See Sterling, op. cit., pp. 426 and 429.)

42 Sterling, op. cit., p. 432. 43 Section 4 of this Appropriations Act is called the Carey Act, in honor of Senator Joseph M. Carey

from Wyoming, then chairman of the Public Lands Committee. This designation can be a little misleading, though, particularly when the term 'Carey Act' is used without reference to the law of which it is but a part. Readers are then apt to get the impression that there is a specific law entitled the Carey Act, and this is not the case.

44 Hibbard, op. cit., p. 436. 45 1bid., p. 440. 46 Committee of Special Advisors on Reclamation, 'Federal Reclamation by Irrigation', Senate Docu-

ment No. 92, 68th Congress, 1924, pp. xi-xvi. 47 Arthur R. Reynolds, 'The Kinkaid Act and Its Effects on Western Nebraska', Agricultural History,

Vol. 23, 1949, pp. 20-23 . Note: There were those who felt that Kinkaid's real motive was to make it easier for ranchers - already using sandhills land - to legally acquire larger tracts. This accusation appears to be unproven.

48 U.S. Statutes at Large, Chapter 1801, 58th Congress, 1903-1905, Vol. 33, pp. 547-548 .

294 M.-L. Quinn

49 See Reynolds, op. cit., pp. 20-23 ; also C. L. Forsling et al., 'Range Conservation the Exception', in The Western Range, U.S. Senate Document No. 199, 74th Congress, 2nd Session, 1936, p. 299. Note: For the past 40 years or so, the Nebraska sandhills have been devoted largely to cattle ranching, the drought of the 1930's driving out most of the remaining crop farmers. Based on the 1978 U.S. Agricultural Census, there are approximately 2500 ranches/farms within the sandhills per se, plus the immediately surrounding area (based on boundaries suggested by geographer C. Barton Mclntosh). Some 40% or 1044 of these agricultural units consist of 2000 acres (809 hectares) or more. A few ranches contain as many as 100 000 acres (40 469 hectares).

so M. L. Wilson, 'Economic and Social Aspects of Agriculture in the Plains Region', in Possibilities of Shelterbelt Planting in the Plains Region, U.S. Forest Service, Washington, D.C., 1935, p. 78.

sx U.S. Statutesat Large, Chapter 160, 60th Congress, 1907-1909, Vol. 35, p. 639. s~ U.S. Statutes at Large, Chapter 9, 64th Congress, 1915-1917, Vol. 39, p. 862. Note: The opinion has

been expressed that (misleading) favorable reports on the impact of the 1904 Kinkaid Act influenced the passage of this 1916 law. (See Walter M. Kollmorgen, 'The Woodman's Assaults on the Domain of the Cattleman', inAnnals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 59,1969, p. 234.)

s3 The Great Plains Committee, The Future of the Great Plains, Washington, D.C., 1936, p. 45. s4 The literature is replete with material on federal land laws, their various inadequacies, and the

problems created. For a partial listing, see footnote 2 in Kollmorgen, op. cit., p. 216. s5 Paul Bonnifield, The Dust Bowl: Men, Dirt, and Depression, op. cit., p. 49. s6 R. Douglas Hurt, 'Agricultural Technology in the Dust Bowl, 1932-1940 ' , in The Great Plains:

Environment and Culture, Brian W. Blouet and Frederick C. Luebke (eds.), University of Nebraska Press, 1979, p. 139.

s7 The 'plow that broke the plains' has long been regarded as a major contributor to the 1930's dust storms. Bonnifield, op. cit., p. 10 offers a different point of view on the issue.

58 George Stewart, 'History of Range Use', in The Western Range, Senate Document No. 199, 74th Congress, 2nd Session, Washington, D.C., 1936, p. 130.

59 Bonnifield, op. cit., p. 57; also Hurt, op. cit., p. 139. 6o Hurt, ibid., p. 13. 61 U.S. Department of Agriculture, Weather Bureau, Climatological Data for the United States by

Section, Annual Summary, Washington, D.C., 1920 to 1929. Precipitation data and descriptive material for the 10 Great Plains states were carefully examined.

62 Stewart, op. cit., p. 131; also see Marl Sandoz, Love Song to the Plains, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 1961, p. 265.

63 For a similar interpretation see Bonnifield, op. cit., p. 52. 64 The amount of average annual precipitation over much of the Great Plains is generally regarded as

agriculturally borderline. This means that only a slight decrease below average can bring droughty conditions. During the decade of the 1930's, for example, the state of Nebraska as a whole received 85% of its long-term average precipitation - a much higher percentage than often.assumed for that period. (This 85% is based on statewide averages and individual areas within the state would have differed.) See M.-L. Quinn, 'Summary Report on Water-Facts Computer Game', Nebraska Water Resources Center Occasional Paper No. 3 -80 , July 1980, pp. 8 -10 .

65 A. Hunter Dupree, Science in the Federal Government, Harper Torchbooks, New York, 1957, pp. 354-355 ; 359; 361.

66 See, for example, National Resources Board Report, Washington, D.C., 1934, 455 pp. 67 M. Gordon Wolman, 'Crisis and Catastrophe in Water-Resources Policy', Journal of the American

Water Works Association, 1976, Vol. 68, p. 138. 68 The Western Range, Senate Document No. 199, 74th Congress, 2rid Session, Washington, D.C.,

1936, p. vii. 69 Hurt, op. cit., pp. 147-148. 70 U.S. Statutes at Large, Chapter 865, 73rd Congress, March 1933-June 1934, Vol. 48, p. 1269. 71 The six Great Plains States affected by the 1934 Taylor Grazing Act were: Colorado, Montana,

Wyoming, New Mexico, North Dakota and South Dakota. Only small acreages were involved in the latter two states.

72 The Great Plains Committee, op. cit., p. 176. 73 Hibbard, op. cir., p. 411-414 .


74 The history of the Timber Culture Act is well-documented in an article by C, Barton Mclntosh, 'Use and Abuse of the Timber Culture Act', in Annals of the Association of American Geogra- phers, Vol. 65, No. 3, September 1975, pp. 347-362.

7s Raphael Zon, 'What the Study Discloses', in Possibilities of Shelterbelt Planting in the Plains Region, U.S. Forest Service, Washington, D.C., 1935, p. 3.

76 F . A . Hayes, ~rhe Shelterbelt Zone: A Brief Geographical Description', in Possibilities of Shelter- belt Planting in the Plains Region, U.S. Forest Service, Washington, D.C., 1935, p. 11.

77 John H. Hatton, 'A Review of Early Tree-Planting Activities in the Plains Region', in Possibilities of Shelterbelt Planting in the Plains Region, U.S. Forest Service, Washington, D.C., 1935, p. 52.

~8 Quisenberry, op. cit., p. 226. 79 Zon, op. cit., p. 7. 80 1bid. 81 Paul W. Griffith, 'Introduction of the Problems', in Shelterbelts on the Great Plains, Proceedings

of Symposium, Richard W. Tinus (ed.), Great Plains Agricultural Council Pub. No. 78, 1976, p. 4. 82 Report of the Secretary of Agriculture, 1894, Washington, D.C., printed 1895, p. 22. The new

unit was 'to investigate the relation of soils to climate and organic life'. (See Annual Reports of the Department of Agriculture, 1901, p. LI).

83 Annual Reports of the Department of Agriculture, 1901, Washington, D.C., p. xxxix. 84 Annual Report for the Secretary of the Interior, for fiscal yea1 ended June 30, 1933, Washington,

D.C., p. 353. 8s Wayne D. Rasmussen, 'History of Soil Conservation: Institutions and Incentives', U.S. Depart-

ment of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., 1981, p. 7. 86 Hurt, op. cit., pp. 145-151. 87 Hugh H. Bennett, Soil Conservation, McGraw-Hill Company, Inc., New York, 1939, p. 730.

U.S. Statutes at Large, Chapter 338, 74th Congress, January 1935-June 1936, Vol. 49, p. 436. Report of the Secretary of Agriculture, 1936, Washington, D.C., pp. 36 -37 . U.S. Statutes at Large, Chapter 517, 75th Congress, 1937, Vol. 50, pp. 522-534. Several state universities, agricultural experiment stations, and later the U.S.D.A.'s Bureau of Agricultural Economics had been examining the subject of cultivation on submarginal land for at least 20 years prior to passage of the 1937 Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act.

92 Some criticism has been directed toward this program, but a discussion of these views is beyond the scope of this paper.

93 U.S. Department of Agriculture, 'Planning for a Permanent Agriculture', Miscellaneous Publica- tion 351, 1939, p. 40.

94 The members of this Committee were: Morris L. Cooke, Harlan H. Barrows, Hugh H. Bennett, L. C. Gray, Richard C. Moore, F. C. Harrington, John C. Page, and Harlow S. Person.

9s The Great Plains Committee, op. cit., p. 85. 96 /bid. ,pp. 71-84 . 97 Ibid., p. 87. 98 Some have felt that the present Great Plains Agricultural Council, which has been active in pro-

moting drought preparedness in the plains for many years, was the descendant of this committee recommendation. While the recommendation may well have had some influence, the Council's formation in 1946 was not a direct response. (See Howard W. Ottoson, et. al., Land and People in the Northern Plains Transition Area, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 1966, pp. 87-89.)

99 U.S. Statutes at Large, Chapter 870, 75th Congress, 1937, Vol. 50, pp. 869-870. 10o U.S. Department of Agriculture, 'Planning for a Permanent Agriculture', op. cit., p. 45. lol U.S. Statutes at Large, Chapter 870, op. cit., p. 869. lo2 U.S. Department of Agriculture, 'Planning for a Permanent Agriculture', op. cit., pp. 45 and 47. lo3 Willimn H. Rowe, 'Events Leading Up to the Passage of the Federal Crop Insurance Act in 1938',

U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1965, p. 2. lo4 1bid., p. 9; see also Title V of U.S. Statutes at Large, Chapter 30, 75th Congress, 1938, Vol. 52,

pp. 72-77 . 1o5 Report of the Secretary of Agriculture, 1938, Washington, D.C., p. 37. 1o6 Ibid.,p.132. 1o7 Northern Great Plains Committee, 'Northern Great Plains', National Resources Planning Board,

Washington, D.C., 1940, p. 6.

88 :$9

90

91

296 M.-L. Quinn

lo8 U.S. Statutes at Large, Chapter 119, 76th Congress, 1939, Vol. 53, p. 719. to9 U.S. Statutes at Large, Chapter 717, 76th Congress, 1939, Vol. 53, pp. 1418-1419. 11o Northern Great Plains Committee, op. cit., pp. 8-12. 111 Ibid., p. 20. (One wonders whether the pun in the last sentence was intended.) 112 Although not directly addressing the topic of farm tenancy per se, historian Harry G. McDean,

San Diego State University, has done some interesting work on U.S. policy toward chronic farm poverty in the Great Plains for the years 1933-1940. He presented a paper on this topic at the March 1982 Annual Symposium of the Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

113 Some work, of course, has been done along these lines as mentioned in footnote No. 1. 114 Allan G. Bogue, for example, recently asked the question, "To what extent did government

activity assist in the adjustments of the dry-country farmer?" (See Bogue, "The Heirs of James C. Malin: A Grassland Historiography', in Great Plains Quarterly, Spring 1981, pp. 121-122.)

11s In contrast, it appears that during the 1970's drought in the Great Plains, the federal government followed a more singular approach - that of providing large amounts of money. Thus, Qulnn has elsewhere raised the question, "have dollars become a substitute for ideas?" (See M.-L. Quinn, 'An Historical Survey of Drought Planning With Emphasis on the U.S. Great Plains', op. cit., p. 155.)

116 During different periods of time, there have been various philosophies toward resource management which have had considerable influence on the direction of federal programs. One example prevalent during the 1930's and for many years afterward was the belief that much of the plains should be returned to, and maintained as, a grassland. Yet, no specific blueprint for drought mitigation in the Great Plains was ever adopted by the federal government.

117 A similar theme was emphasized in chapter 11.4, "Task Group on Social and Informational Prob- lems', by W. Decker, V. Yevjevich, and M.-L. Quinn, in Drought in the Great Plains edited by Norman J. Rosenberg, op. cit. See in particular pp. 97-99.

118 The source of all this know-how? It would, of necessity, remain obscure - buried behind profound-sounding, multi-syllabic adjectives or hidden within convoluted sentences. Perhaps those few souls who dare make such inquiry should simply assume the existence of some vast information bank of undefinable, cosmic origin.

119 See, for example, Wallace Stegner, Beyond the Hundredth Meridian, op. cit. 12o For a variation of this thought, see Kollmorgen, op. cit., p. 234. 121 Kollmorgen, op. cit., p. 235. 122 A major body of literature exists on this subject, ranging from treatises on grassland deterioration

to an examination of conditions in the 'dust bowl' area during the 1930's drought. 123 Examples of such modification within the federal government's drought planning activities were

the Kinkaid Act of 1904 and the revised Homestead Acts of 1909 and 1916. It is acknowledged, though, that even changes of this kind can sometimes be difficult to secure.

(Received 14 December, 1981;in revised form 31 March, 1982)

federal drought planning in the great plains — a first look

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