GREAT DESOLATION

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20334, 26 October 1937, Page 10

GREAT DESOLATION

CANADIAN “DUST-BOWL” DROUGHT-STRICKEN PRAIRIES A visit to Saskatchewan in July after an absence of 25 years was a very sad experience to one who knew the prairie provinces in the prosperous pre-War days, writes Sir Evelyn Wrench in,the London Times. It was difficult to realise that these endless miles of tmrnt-up plains were the same prairies where I had seen wheat waving breast high as far as the eye could reach. Not? long ago I pass.ed through several hundred miles of the droughtstricken area of Southern 'Saskatchewan and South-Eastern Alberta by train and motor-car. There was desolation on all sides. The homesteads looked the same as formerly, but. to-day they are surrounded by miles of burnt-up land. There is an endless succession of huge fields of brown baked earth with no vestige of green, vast prairies of ruined crops, two or three inches high, looking like stubble after the harvest, or perhaps an occasional stunted green crop, just protruding above the ground, the furrows still visible. The Worst Year In 1928, the last year of abundant crops the three prairie provinces produced '556,590,000 bushes of wheat, of which Saskatchewan’s contribution was 321.215,000 bushels. « This year Saskatchewan will probably produce only 75,000,000. A long series of bad years began in 1929. After eight years of bad harvests Saskatchewan faces the worst year in its history. The whole southern part of the province Is practically a desert area, makinfe a great triangle from the south-eastern corner, where it borders Manitoba and North Dakota, to the south-western corner adjoining southeast, Alberta and Montana; the apex of the triangle stretches as far north as Saskatoon and Battleford.

How does Canada intend to rescue her derelict area in the Southern prairie provinces? The Government proposes to classify the land in the drought area into three categories:— (a) The rich clay soil, often 100 ft, deep, which can never be blown away. These lands will produce sufficient crops with reasonable rainfall and there is no need for a permanent policy here. (b) The very poor lands which should never have been settled and which are now being depopulated. (o) Between these two extremes the “reasonably fertile lands,’’ to which protection must be given in times of drought by means of irrigation and by setting aside 100,000 acres of grazing land. This area will be fenced in and very little grazing will be permitted on it, so that in times of great drought even without rain it will provide fodder. Suggested Remedies 'Suggestions include the building of water dug-outs and the construction of irrigation dams and. the redivision of the land so that the farmer will have part of his farm in lands too high to be irrigated and a certain portion available for artificial watering. Some people advocate the division of the land into 80-acre farms in the Irrigated area, adjacent to poor lands, so that the settlers could be moved from the stricken area and yet remain in their adcustomett" locality. Others wish to restore as much of the dry area as possible to pasturage and to plant it as soon as rain falls, with what is termed crested wheat grass, which comes from Russia, and has been introduced into the West by the local authorities. This grass binds the soil and prevents the terrific dust storms from which the area has been suffering in recent years. The Government insists on the employment of extremely conservative methods in future and the creation in every good year of a definite “calamity reserve’’ to provide for feed and seed in bad years. Long-term planning in all the dry areas of the West, will he essential, and the necessity for reckoning only on three good years out of six or seven is emphasised. There are many who champion the | present policy of evacuating settlers from the dry areas to the northern parts of the province: the urgent need of further experimentation to provide a wheat that requires less moisture than existing varieties; the wider adoption of “strip” farming, that Is, the alternating strips of crop and bare land, which may take many years; and the development by every possible means of the mineral and other latent wealth of the vast northern territories. All these suggestions are apart from urgent methods now being put into effect, such as the moving and marketing of cattle from the drought areas. Suffering This Winter Estimates of the numbers needing ; relief this winter vary from 200,000 i to 400.000. The essential needs will j doubtless be provided by the Dominion ! and Provincial Governments. but j much suffering will be borne heroically | by the settlers, many of them of! them of British. Eastern Canadian, and I United Slates origin. The Canadian | Red Cross at Regina is doing what it. j can to help and encourages particu- ■ larly gifts of wool, consisting or “fingering yarn” in grey and bright, colours, which can be given to the womenfolk on the lonely homesteads ; in the stricken area. These gifts serve the double purpose of providing i needed clothing and useful occupation during the severe winter months. English patterns for knitting garments for children and shoes for children j from three to 12 years old. are urI gently needed. i The people of the Old Country will i doubtless follow with deep sympathy flie trials which our fellow-citizens in the West are facing so courageously. Good may emerge out of the present, tribulations if the economic founda!ions f Western Canada are. laid with greater care. That a great, future awaits these vast wesetern territories there can be no doubt. A submarine for torpedoing crocodiles was recently renuested bv King j Vela 111. of Rarotseland. in England's j colony of Northern Rhodesia.

Dare-devil Chinese forgetful of the danger they ran, made a second swift and surprise attack against Japanese shipping and warships in the Whangpoo River, when they seised and scuttled six Japanese merchant ships which had Seen anchored at the Japanese Nissin Risen Kaisha wharf SeverU l“ y wa CblDe ® e na '; al oadets llad torpedoed the Japanese flagship Iduzmo (RIGHT), causing damage which forced the moving of the cruiser down the Whangpoo to join the battle fleet anchored off the Japanese concession. The seizing of Japanese merchant ships was accomplished when picked — 6B ® llne *° rushed the ships, sailed them into the emergency boom and scuttled them just above Pootung, making the upper reaches of ' the Whangpoo Impenetrable. At the Left, above, is Shanghai’s famous bund on the whangpoo River which has been under Are from Japanese warships and artillery.

A target for Japanese aeroplanes In North China, the Suiyan barracks of the Chinese Army are shown (ABOVE), after the Japanese aviators had dropped bombs on the buildings. Scenes like that shown are becoming familiar sights at Shanghai as lighting between the Chinese and Japanese continues, with both sides using heavy artillery effectively.

A preview of what is in store for enemies of Italy in a possible future war is this searing flame-thrower with which most of Italy's newest army tanks are equipped. The flame-throwers are not new, having been used by Italy during the conquest of Ethiopia. This photograph was taken at Sicily, Italy, fluring preparations for Italy’s great war manoeuvres on the Island. The weapon serves a two-fold purpose, providing a smoke screen that hides the advancing tanks and literally consuming everything that stands in its path.

.llisl like I lie baby of a lesser morlal, Princess Maria, daughter of the i:rown Prince Umberto, of Hal}, bestows an enthusiastic greeting on her father at Gastello Hi Sarre, near Home, where the family of the Crown Prince spent the summer months.

A rare occasion for King Victor Kmmanuel to bask in the limelight occurred during the mass manoeuvres of the Italian Army at Sicily, lie is - pictured with Signor Mussolini, while in the background are: I.KKT to RIGHT, General Halo Balbo, the I Mike of Aosta and Grown Prince Humbert, the King's son.