STRICKEN LAND

Hokitika Guardian, 20 September 1937, Page 7

STRICKEN LAND

CANADIAN PRAIRIE SEVERE TOLL BY DROUGHT. VANCOUVER, August 18. During the past week the Canadian Government commenced moving cattle from the drought-stricken districts of the Prairie to fresh pastures in other parts of Canada and in the United States. Portion of the herds will be marketed immediately, in order to give their owners some cash to maintain their homes. With the season’s crop only a little more than one-fifth of the 1928 harvest, farmers are facing a condition under which lack of moisture and high winds have combined to turn once rich Prairie wheat lands into desert. Saskatchewan, formerly the most productive of til© Prairie provinces, is the most seriously affected. Alberta is also hard hit. Some distressing pictures are to be seen from train windows, without leaving the beaten track. Long-term Programme A vast number of farmers and their families will be entirely dependent on the Federal and Provincial Governments for the necessaries of life and for feed for such domestic cattle as "ill be retained. Where the crop is not , worth Harvesting, cattle have been turned into it; where the surface soil has been blown away, there is no resource but to move to fresh land where water is available. The Dominion Government is at , work on a long-term programme of rehabilitation. Farmers will be carried on relief until their next crop is available. Afforestation, to provide wind breaks, is being hastened. Small irrigation and water storage schemes are also being rushed, to fid immed ate needs until national projects are under way. Past Report Recalled Relief lands, away from the railway, but in the ramtall belt, are being opened up. Of the ultimate cost no one is at present aware, but the neglect of past years lias forced drastic emergency measures to be adopted to save the public domain, which is the life blood of the Prairie. Mention of neglect recalls vividly the recommendation of a Royal Commission that toured the Prairie in the “seventies,” before it was opened up, that certain sections be used only lot giaz ing. and not for wheat-growing. In those districts there has been a successioq of droughts. Crops, pasturage, even weeds are dead.