Volume 18 , Issue 25

1935 - Scores 'Rich Quick" Tillers

The Wilkes-Barre Record, dated Friday, December 13, 1935, reported how the "Scores 'Rich Quick' Tillers" (suitcase farmers) leave worthless soil, hiring tenant farmers to do the work.

Found on Newspapers.com

Lincoln, Neb., Dec. 12 (1935) - "Suitcase farmers," who leave a trail of eroded and ravaged soil, must halt their activities, Dr. L. C. Gray, national director of the Land utilization Program said on this date.

Dr. gray said the "suitcase farmer" was responsible for plowing up much range land that should never have been touched and made necessary the present government program. It seeks to conserve the soil of the agricultural lands of the Middle West for the future and was undertaken by the Rural Resettlement administration.

"Suitcase farmers," Gray said are tillers of the soil who plant large acreages of grazing and submarginal land to what when prices are high in the hope of making a large profit in one ear and then retired, leaving the land broken by being used.

Under the new Federal program, the "suitcase farmers" will not be tolerated Dr. Gray said.

"The best solution to the problem of wind erosion is to have the government buy in the eroded areas and take them out of active production in an attempt to get some kind of a grass cover on the soil. It will be possible to leave the farmers on the heavier soil, but much of the lighter soils need to be reclaimed. Then when there is a cover of vegetation the government can lease land to farmers on the condition that they adjust their farming to the area."

This method, he said, has been found the most efficient way of bringing the dust bowl ban to lief. Listing, once advanced as the solution, found no favor with Dr. Gray, who said it did "little or now good."
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