DESERT ENCROACHMENT

Taranaki Daily News, 25 March 1935, Page 7

DESERT ENCROACHMENT

AMERICAN DUST STORMS 1 THREAT TO MIDDLE WEST ■ ■ ■’■ ■ • t POSITION GROWS SERIOUS WORSE DISASTER FEARED By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Rec. 7 p.m. . Kansas City, March 22. In connection with the dust storms that swept the middle west States yesterday the Federal Directors of Soil Erosion stated there was a danger of large sections of the great plains area becoming useless desert. The terrific dust storms are only Another step in the long series of soil disasters beginning two years ago. They have forced a serious crisis, drought and the destruction of sod and other ground cover having become progressively worse in the last few years. “The Kansas storm yesterday was probably the most destructive in the history of the region,” the director said, “but it is only the forerunner of even more severe storms which will follow unless the soil of the great plains is anchored by vegetable cover and other measures of control.

“The intensity and frequency of these storms are steadily increasing,' and the damage is spreading at an alarming rate. The restoration of adequate cover and the adoption of other measures through co-operative action by fanners, who now see their soil blown to the four winds, is the answer to the problem.” A form of pneumonia induced by breathing dust-laden air has claimed a heavy toll of human life and livestock in eastern Colorado and western Kansas, which have been particularly ravaged by dust storms.