Actually even though the numbers were high as to how many folks moved ,the percentage numbers were actually low. our place was very near what was considered the epicenter of the affected area.and surprisingly few folks who actually owned land here moved away. of course nearly every sharecropper or folks who rented land left,they simply couldnt make it and they werent tied down.it was very common for folks to send their children back east to relatives and things, and often the whole family would move back east to relatives and just the men and older boys stayed.out of our whole bunch, only one aunt and uncle left. they went to california when their oldest son got the dust pnemonia. the boy wound up dying there. every letter they sent home warned the folks that they were worse off there. they were so poor in california, that my grandma would write them letters on one side of a piece of paper,and include a pencil stub, and a stamp or two in the envolope.aunt would turn the letter over, write a reply,because they couldnt buy paper or stamps.all the older folks developed lung and eye problems later in life that drs said was related directly to the dust, and sand.my great grandad hung hisself in the barn the day the gov came out and shot all our cattle ,and the neighbors cattle. as far as farming practices go the best we had was lister plows for row crops, and one way disc plows that left the trash on top of the ground to help control wind erosion. it didnt take a really smart person to figure out his soil was blowing away. and we used every thing we could to stop it. after the locusts came through and ate every bit of ground cover there was left, it was a losing battle. in the end for all the retoric it wasnt the farming practices that stopped it,it was simply the rain. the practices after the rains started again was what made the difference in the succeeding droughts,and these were implemented by the farmers them selves.but they had no affect whatsoever during the dust bowl days,,you ouldnt plant trees as windbreaks,you couldnt water them ,the wind would sand blast the bark off, and the locusts/ jack rabbits would eat them right to the ground.we survived only because of a spring that help throughout these years.one thing that folks need to remember,most of the places that had it worse was shortgrass prairie. this grass doesnt grow without rain,if fact its never greened up this year around me. once the locusts and rabbits got so bad it was eaten down to bare ground,that blew as bad as any other. Our families were mostly cattle folks,and farmed little. we had been on these places before statehood,we knew the land and the way it worked.we knew how it could dry out. But we suffered right along with the rest. could it happen again?of course it can,and i have news for you,no amount of better tillage practices will stop it,no amount of irrigation would even likely have much effect. the plain and simple fact is that without rain,you cant grow stuff.ten years of no rain was the biggest problem. that strip tillage wont stop it,nothing grows and whats there dries up and rots away leaving bare ground. min till wont work for the same reason.quite honestly, those folks who think they have an answer to conditions as they were then,a way to stop it, hasnt ever seen ten years of no rain. look at the deserts in the world,does their practices work there? of course not,not without water.
