Volume 18 , Issue 24

1935 - Residents Of Nation's Dust Bowl Looking Hopefully For Rains Falling On All Sides

Four or five days after the last news reports of April, 1935, the corsicana Semi-Weekly Light, of Corsicana, Texas, dated 19 April 1935, Friday, page 1, reported: "Residents of Nation's Dust Bowl Looking Hopefully ForRains Falling On All Sides."

Found on Newspapers.com

Farmers and stockmen of the nation's dust bowl looked hopefully today for a share of the spring rains which were falling on nearly all sides of the sector.

Light showers and sprinkles invaded scattered parts of the affected area, but the fall was far short of the amount needed to settle the dust and supply moisture with which to start spring crops and revive the grass lands. Over most of the sector - embracing parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado - a dust haze still lingered along with tantalizing clouds.

There was hope in showers which fell Wednesday at Scott City, Kansas, and Syracuse, Kansas and dust-laden sprinkles at Dodge City, Kansas, and Beaver, Oklahoma. Early on that day a promising storm cloud was moving down the Arkansas river valley in Colorado. It left both rain and snow along the upper reaches of the stream.

A heavy fall of snow on the slopes of Pikes Peak relieved an acute water shortage of Colorado Springs.

From the east showers came near the affected area. Blackwell, Oklahoma, had 1.7 inches of rain, and there were showers to the North as far as Beloit, Kansas.

In Morton county, Kansas, the standing order was: "No rain, no school."

Acting upon the request of parents, who feared that school buses might be stranded in the storms, school boards announced schools would not be reopened until it rains.

Meanwhile, state and federal officials hurried through a survey of the stricken areas.

M. L. Wilson, assistant secretary of agriculture, continued his inspection tour, moving into Oklahoma and texan after meeting with soil experts at Garden City, Kansas.

Representatives of the five states recommended a two-phase program.

The one - a temporary measure - would extend the Kansas dust barrier program across the entire breeding ground of the dust and sand storms. This plan, was underway in Kansas, involved the listing of deep furrows at right angles to the prevailing winds.

The other - a long-time antirust plan - included the residing of land susceptible to blowing with grass crops, and a determination of the best cropping methods.
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