History Lesson

Our local newspaper is in the habit of running a short history factoid on the the weather page every day. On Saturday they ran one that stated so much dust became airborne over Kansas and Iowa on April 10, 1935 that schools and the highway were closed. Many of the horrific consequences of the dust bowl were blamed not only on an aberration in the climate, but also on misuse of the land.

FYI, I am a farmer's daughter. No, I've never driven cat (a Caterpillar tractor, which were used in our area during the "old"days. Now farmers use wheeled tractors.), and the only time I drove the Johnny Popper (a John Deere wheel tractor) I drove it into the ditch. Even so, as a child, farming became ingrained within me. Part of my soul. It still is.

I hesitate to date myself, but I remember bringing projects home from school during the 50s that advocated good farming practices. In our tiny rural school system, even the girls were taught about crop rotation, the need to summer fallow to conserve moisture, and to plow around a hill, not up and over, to prevent erosion. Smart new farming methods became the norm. I can't imagine such a thing being taught in today's schools, can you?

Next time you take a drive and see the fields burgeoning with crops destined to feed the world, spare a thought for the farmer and his dependency on climate; too much rain, not enough rain, rain at the wrong time. Too cold, too hot, too windy. The lessons learned from the dust bowl years will surely prevent such a catastrophe from happening again, but I, for one, appreciate a reminder now and then.