Lessons from the dust bowl: Dryland agriculture and soil erosion in the United States and South Africa, 1900-1950

Environmental History

Volumn 4, Issue 2, 1999, Pages 245-266

  Phillips, Sarah T ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

AGRICULTURAL HISTORY; DRYLAND FARMING; HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE; SOIL EROSION; TWENTIETH CENTURY;

SOUTH AFRICA; UNITED STATES;

NEXUS; TRITICUM AESTIVUM;

EID: 0032859114     PISSN: 10845453     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3985305     Document Type: Article

References (94)

1. E. B. Dickinson, "Wheat Development in the Orange tree State: Some Recollections," Fertilizer Society of South Africa Journal 2 (1978): 74. Though "dryland farming" or "dryland agriculture" now refers to all rain-fed agricultural systems, the terms will be used interchangeably here with "dry farming" to designate a specific set of agricultural techniques developed in North America and imitated in other arid regions.
2. William Beinart and Peter Coates, Environment and History: The Taming of Nature in the USA and South Africa (London: Routledge, 1995), 67.
3. For a discussion of how the politics of soil erosion contributed to the "second colonial occupation" of Eastern and Southern Africa after World War II see David Anderson, "Depression, Dust Bowl, Demography, and Drought: The Colonial State and Soil Erosion in East Africa During the 1930s," African Affairs 83 (1984): 321-43; Steven Feierman, Peasant Intellectuals: Anthropology and History in Tanzania (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990); Pamela A. Maack, "We Don't Want Terraces! Protest and Identity Under the Uluguru Land Usage Scheme," in Custodians of the Land: Ecology and Culture in the History of Tanzania, ed. Gregory Maddox, James Giblin, and Isaria M. Kimambo (London: James Currey, 1996); David Throup, Economic and Social Origins of Mau Mau (London: James Currey, 1987); William Beinart, "Soil Erosion, Conservationism, and Ideas about Development: A Southern African Exploration, 1900-1960," Journal of Southern African Studies 11 (October 1984): 52-83, and "Introduction: The Politics of Colonial Conservation," Journal of Southern African Studies 13 (January 1989): 143-62.
4. For a discussion of how the politics of soil erosion contributed to the "second colonial occupation" of Eastern and Southern Africa after World War II see David Anderson, "Depression, Dust Bowl, Demography, and Drought: The Colonial State and Soil Erosion in East Africa During the 1930s," African Affairs 83 (1984): 321-43; Steven Feierman, Peasant Intellectuals: Anthropology and History in Tanzania (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990); Pamela A. Maack, "We Don't Want Terraces! Protest and Identity Under the Uluguru Land Usage Scheme," in Custodians of the Land: Ecology and Culture in the History of Tanzania, ed. Gregory Maddox, James Giblin, and Isaria M. Kimambo (London: James Currey, 1996); David Throup, Economic and Social Origins of Mau Mau (London: James Currey, 1987); William Beinart, "Soil Erosion, Conservationism, and Ideas about Development: A Southern African Exploration, 1900-1960," Journal of Southern African Studies 11 (October 1984): 52-83, and "Introduction: The Politics of Colonial Conservation," Journal of Southern African Studies 13 (January 1989): 143-62.
5. For a discussion of how the politics of soil erosion contributed to the "second colonial occupation" of Eastern and Southern Africa after World War II see David Anderson, "Depression, Dust Bowl, Demography, and Drought: The Colonial State and Soil Erosion in East Africa During the 1930s," African Affairs 83 (1984): 321-43; Steven Feierman, Peasant Intellectuals: Anthropology and History in Tanzania (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990); Pamela A. Maack, "We Don't Want Terraces! Protest and Identity Under the Uluguru Land Usage Scheme," in Custodians of the Land: Ecology and Culture in the History of Tanzania, ed. Gregory Maddox, James Giblin, and Isaria M. Kimambo (London: James Currey, 1996); David Throup, Economic and Social Origins of Mau Mau (London: James Currey, 1987); William Beinart, "Soil Erosion, Conservationism, and Ideas about Development: A Southern African Exploration, 1900-1960," Journal of Southern African Studies 11 (October 1984): 52-83, and "Introduction: The Politics of Colonial Conservation," Journal of Southern African Studies 13 (January 1989): 143-62.
6. For a discussion of how the politics of soil erosion contributed to the "second colonial occupation" of Eastern and Southern Africa after World War II see David Anderson, "Depression, Dust Bowl, Demography, and Drought: The Colonial State and Soil Erosion in East Africa During the 1930s," African Affairs 83 (1984): 321-43; Steven Feierman, Peasant Intellectuals: Anthropology and History in Tanzania (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990); Pamela A. Maack, "We Don't Want Terraces! Protest and Identity Under the Uluguru Land Usage Scheme," in Custodians of the Land: Ecology and Culture in the History of Tanzania, ed. Gregory Maddox, James Giblin, and Isaria M. Kimambo (London: James Currey, 1996); David Throup, Economic and Social Origins of Mau Mau (London: James Currey, 1987); William Beinart, "Soil Erosion, Conservationism, and Ideas about Development: A Southern African Exploration, 1900-1960," Journal of Southern African Studies 11 (October 1984): 52-83, and "Introduction: The Politics of Colonial Conservation," Journal of Southern African Studies 13 (January 1989): 143-62.
7. For a discussion of how the politics of soil erosion contributed to the "second colonial occupation" of Eastern and Southern Africa after World War II see David Anderson, "Depression, Dust Bowl, Demography, and Drought: The Colonial State and Soil Erosion in East Africa During the 1930s," African Affairs 83 (1984): 321-43; Steven Feierman, Peasant Intellectuals: Anthropology and History in Tanzania (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990); Pamela A. Maack, "We Don't Want Terraces! Protest and Identity Under the Uluguru Land Usage Scheme," in Custodians of the Land: Ecology and Culture in the History of Tanzania, ed. Gregory Maddox, James Giblin, and Isaria M. Kimambo (London: James Currey, 1996); David Throup, Economic and Social Origins of Mau Mau (London: James Currey, 1987); William Beinart, "Soil Erosion, Conservationism, and Ideas about Development: A Southern African Exploration, 1900-1960," Journal of Southern African Studies 11 (October 1984): 52-83, and "Introduction: The Politics of Colonial Conservation," Journal of Southern African Studies 13 (January 1989): 143-62.
8. For a discussion of how the politics of soil erosion contributed to the "second colonial occupation" of Eastern and Southern Africa after World War II see David Anderson, "Depression, Dust Bowl, Demography, and Drought: The Colonial State and Soil Erosion in East Africa During the 1930s," African Affairs 83 (1984): 321-43; Steven Feierman, Peasant Intellectuals: Anthropology and History in Tanzania (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990); Pamela A. Maack, "We Don't Want Terraces! Protest and Identity Under the Uluguru Land Usage Scheme," in Custodians of the Land: Ecology and Culture in the History of Tanzania, ed. Gregory Maddox, James Giblin, and Isaria M. Kimambo (London: James Currey, 1996); David Throup, Economic and Social Origins of Mau Mau (London: James Currey, 1987); William Beinart, "Soil Erosion, Conservationism, and Ideas about Development: A Southern African Exploration, 1900-1960," Journal of Southern African Studies 11 (October 1984): 52-83, and "Introduction: The Politics of Colonial Conservation," Journal of Southern African Studies 13 (January 1989): 143-62.
9. Mark A. Carleton, "Successful Wheat Growing in Semiarid Districts," Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture, 1900 (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1900), 534; J. H. Arnold and R. R. Spafford, "Farm Practices in Growing Wheat," Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture, 1919 (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1919), 124; James C. Malin, Winter Wheat in the Golden Belt of Kansas: A Study in Adaption to a Subhumid Geographical Environment (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1944), 22.
10. Mark A. Carleton, "Successful Wheat Growing in Semiarid Districts," Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture, 1900 (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1900), 534; J. H. Arnold and R. R. Spafford, "Farm Practices in Growing Wheat," Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture, 1919 (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1919), 124; James C. Malin, Winter Wheat in the Golden Belt of Kansas: A Study in Adaption to a Subhumid Geographical Environment (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1944), 22.
11. Mark A. Carleton, "Successful Wheat Growing in Semiarid Districts," Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture, 1900 (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1900), 534; J. H. Arnold and R. R. Spafford, "Farm Practices in Growing Wheat," Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture, 1919 (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1919), 124; James C. Malin, Winter Wheat in the Golden Belt of Kansas: A Study in Adaption to a Subhumid Geographical Environment (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1944), 22.
12. In order to document the international movement of American agricultural methods and attitudes, I analyze the actions of white South African farmers and white government leaders who received and promoted these techniques. Thus, an issue not explicitly dealt with here is how apartheid-era land policy purposely promoted white farming and marginalized the African population. For these aspects of the agricultural changes I discuss, see Charles Van Onselen, The Seed is Mine: The Life of Kas Maine, a South African Sharecropper, 1894-1985 (New York: Hill and Wang, 1996); Ellen Kuzwayo, Call Me Woman (San Francisco: Spinster's Ink, 1985); and William Beinart and Colin Murray, "Agrarian Change, Population Movements, and Land Reform in the Free State," Working Paper No. 51, Land and Agriculture Policy Centre, Johannesburg, 1996.
13. In order to document the international movement of American agricultural methods and attitudes, I analyze the actions of white South African farmers and white government leaders who received and promoted these techniques. Thus, an issue not explicitly dealt with here is how apartheid-era land policy purposely promoted white farming and marginalized the African population. For these aspects of the agricultural changes I discuss, see Charles Van Onselen, The Seed is Mine: The Life of Kas Maine, a South African Sharecropper, 1894-1985 (New York: Hill and Wang, 1996); Ellen Kuzwayo, Call Me Woman (San Francisco: Spinster's Ink, 1985); and William Beinart and Colin Murray, "Agrarian Change, Population Movements, and Land Reform in the Free State," Working Paper No. 51, Land and Agriculture Policy Centre, Johannesburg, 1996.
14. In order to document the international movement of American agricultural methods and attitudes, I analyze the actions of white South African farmers and white government leaders who received and promoted these techniques. Thus, an issue not explicitly dealt with here is how apartheid-era land policy purposely promoted white farming and marginalized the African population. For these aspects of the agricultural changes I discuss, see Charles Van Onselen, The Seed is Mine: The Life of Kas Maine, a South African Sharecropper, 1894-1985 (New York: Hill and Wang, 1996); Ellen Kuzwayo, Call Me Woman (San Francisco: Spinster's Ink, 1985); and William Beinart and Colin Murray, "Agrarian Change, Population Movements, and Land Reform in the Free State," Working Paper No. 51, Land and Agriculture Policy Centre, Johannesburg, 1996.
15. Works on dry farming by Australians and South Africans, for example, are cited in G. Plehn, Das Trockenfarmen im Westen der Vereinigten Staaten von Nordamerika (Hamburg: L. Friederichsen & Co., 1913), 8. Plehn was a German diplomat stationed in Denver, Colorado.
16. Hubert D. Leppan, The Agricultural Development of Arid and Semi-Arid Regions with Special Reference to South Africa (South Africa: Central News Agency, Ltd., 1928), 215, 197-98.
17. John A. Widtsoe, Dry-Farming: A System of Agriculture for Countries Under a Low Rainfall (New York: Macmillan, 1911), 354-61; Mary W. M. Hargreaves, "The Dry-Farming Movement in Retrospect," Agricultural History 51 (January 1977): 149-65; Malin, Winter Wheat, 186-87; Mark A. Carleton, "Hard Wheats Winning Their Way," Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture, 1914 (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1914), 398.
18. John A. Widtsoe, Dry-Farming: A System of Agriculture for Countries Under a Low Rainfall (New York: Macmillan, 1911), 354-61; Mary W. M. Hargreaves, "The Dry-Farming Movement in Retrospect," Agricultural History 51 (January 1977): 149-65; Malin, Winter Wheat, 186-87; Mark A. Carleton, "Hard Wheats Winning Their Way," Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture, 1914 (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1914), 398.
19. John A. Widtsoe, Dry-Farming: A System of Agriculture for Countries Under a Low Rainfall (New York: Macmillan, 1911), 354-61; Mary W. M. Hargreaves, "The Dry-Farming Movement in Retrospect," Agricultural History 51 (January 1977): 149-65; Malin, Winter Wheat, 186-87; Mark A. Carleton, "Hard Wheats Winning Their Way," Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture, 1914 (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1914), 398.
20. John A. Widtsoe, Dry-Farming: A System of Agriculture for Countries Under a Low Rainfall (New York: Macmillan, 1911), 354-61; Mary W. M. Hargreaves, "The Dry-Farming Movement in Retrospect," Agricultural History 51 (January 1977): 149-65; Malin, Winter Wheat, 186-87; Mark A. Carleton, "Hard Wheats Winning Their Way," Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture, 1914 (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1914), 398.
21. Malin, Winter Wheat, 210-45.
22. Carleton, "Successful Wheat Growing," 538-40; Elwood Mead, "The Relation of Irrigation to Dry Farming," Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture, 1905 (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1905), 426-27; Malin, Winter Wheat, 245; R. Douglas Hurt, The Dust Bowl: An Agricultural and Social History (Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1981), 72. Hargreaves points out that by the 1860s farmers east of the plains in the Red River district had also experimented with summer fallow in cultivating wheat. "Dry-Farming," 150.
23. Carleton, "Successful Wheat Growing," 538-40; Elwood Mead, "The Relation of Irrigation to Dry Farming," Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture, 1905 (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1905), 426-27; Malin, Winter Wheat, 245; R. Douglas Hurt, The Dust Bowl: An Agricultural and Social History (Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1981), 72. Hargreaves points out that by the 1860s farmers east of the plains in the Red River district had also experimented with summer fallow in cultivating wheat. "Dry-Farming," 150.
24. Carleton, "Successful Wheat Growing," 538-40; Elwood Mead, "The Relation of Irrigation to Dry Farming," Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture, 1905 (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1905), 426-27; Malin, Winter Wheat, 245; R. Douglas Hurt, The Dust Bowl: An Agricultural and Social History (Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1981), 72. Hargreaves points out that by the 1860s farmers east of the plains in the Red River district had also experimented with summer fallow in cultivating wheat. "Dry-Farming," 150.
25. Carleton, "Successful Wheat Growing," 538-40; Elwood Mead, "The Relation of Irrigation to Dry Farming," Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture, 1905 (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1905), 426-27; Malin, Winter Wheat, 245; R. Douglas Hurt, The Dust Bowl: An Agricultural and Social History (Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1981), 72. Hargreaves points out that by the 1860s farmers east of the plains in the Red River district had also experimented with summer fallow in cultivating wheat. "Dry-Farming," 150.
26. Carleton, "Successful Wheat Growing," 538-40; Elwood Mead, "The Relation of Irrigation to Dry Farming," Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture, 1905 (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1905), 426-27; Malin, Winter Wheat, 245; R. Douglas Hurt, The Dust Bowl: An Agricultural and Social History (Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1981), 72. Hargreaves points out that by the 1860s farmers east of the plains in the Red River district had also experimented with summer fallow in cultivating wheat. "Dry-Farming," 150.
27. Hargreaves, "Dry-Farming," 152; Hardy W. Campbell, Campbell's 1902 Soil Culture Manual, excerpts reprinted in Readings in the History of American Agriculture, ed. Wayne D. Rasmussen (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1970), 172; Mary W. M. Hargreaves, Dry Farming in the Northern Great Plains, 1900-1925 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1957), 87-88.
28. Hargreaves, "Dry-Farming," 152; Hardy W. Campbell, Campbell's 1902 Soil Culture Manual, excerpts reprinted in Readings in the History of American Agriculture, ed. Wayne D. Rasmussen (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1970), 172; Mary W. M. Hargreaves, Dry Farming in the Northern Great Plains, 1900-1925 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1957), 87-88.
29. Hargreaves, "Dry-Farming," 152; Hardy W. Campbell, Campbell's 1902 Soil Culture Manual, excerpts reprinted in Readings in the History of American Agriculture, ed. Wayne D. Rasmussen (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1970), 172; Mary W. M. Hargreaves, Dry Farming in the Northern Great Plains, 1900-1925 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1957), 87-88.
30. Hargreaves, "Dry-Farming," 154; Hargreaves, Dry Farming, 19.
31. Hargreaves, "Dry-Farming," 154; Hargreaves, Dry Farming, 19.
32. Widtsoe, Dry-Farming, 372-78; Hargreaves, "Dry-Farming," 155.
33. Widtsoe, Dry-Farming, 372-78; Hargreaves, "Dry-Farming," 155.
34. James McCann, Green Land, Brown Land, Black Land: An Environmental History of Africa (Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann, 1999). See papers by Australians and South Africans mentioned by Plehn in Das Trockenfarmen; Beinart cites the works of Macdonald in "Soil Erosion, Conservation, and Ideas about Development," 57.
35. James McCann, Green Land, Brown Land, Black Land: An Environmental History of Africa (Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann, 1999). See papers by Australians and South Africans mentioned by Plehn in Das Trockenfarmen; Beinart cites the works of Macdonald in "Soil Erosion, Conservation, and Ideas about Development," 57.
36. James McCann, Green Land, Brown Land, Black Land: An Environmental History of Africa (Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann, 1999). See papers by Australians and South Africans mentioned by Plehn in Das Trockenfarmen; Beinart cites the works of Macdonald in "Soil Erosion, Conservation, and Ideas about Development," 57.
37. Timothy Keegan, Rural Transformations in Industrializing South Africa (London: Macmillan, 1987), 206, xii. Keegan focuses on the nature of capital accumulation in the Free State to emend the radical thesis that the repression of a servile black tenantry was essential to the rise of commercial agriculture. He concludes that a new industrial imperialism fostered rural white populism and state aid for white farmers, factors more decisive than the need for cheap labor in industrializing the agriculture of the highveld.
38. Keegan, Rural Transformations, 203, 211, 107-8. Land area in South Africa was measured in "morgen" before the widespread use of metric units; one morgen equals 2.1 acres.
39. Union of South Africa, Department of Agriculture, Handbook for Farmers in South Africa (Pretoria: 1929), 336; Leppan, Agricultural Development, 200-201.
40. Union of South Africa, Department of Agriculture, Handbook for Farmers in South Africa (Pretoria: 1929), 336; Leppan, Agricultural Development, 200-201.
41. H. D. Leppan and G. J. Bosman, Field Crops in South Africa (South Africa: Central News Agency, Ltd., 1923), 226-58.
42. Leppan and Bosman, Field Crops, 340-54.
43. Leppan, Agricultural Development, 224, 237-38.
44. Union of South Africa, Handbook, 310, 313.
45. Union of South Africa, Handbook, 313, 371-72.
46. The Handbook asserted that 50 percent of the winter wheat was grown in the winter rainfall area of the southwest Cape. The Orange Free State and the Transvaal (in the summer rainfall area) produced 16 percent and 12 percent of the total, respectively (p. 362).
47. Union of South Africa, Handbook, 608, 363.
48. Stuart Jones and André Müller, The South African Economy, 1910-1990 (London: Macmillan, 1992); Francis Wilson, "Farming, 1866-1966," in Oxford History of South Africa, vol. 2, ed. Monica Wilson and Leonard Thompson (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971), 104-71.
49. Stuart Jones and André Müller, The South African Economy, 1910-1990 (London: Macmillan, 1992); Francis Wilson, "Farming, 1866-1966," in Oxford History of South Africa, vol. 2, ed. Monica Wilson and Leonard Thompson (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971), 104-71.
50. Jones and Müller, South African Economy, 141; Wilson, "Farming," 165; Beinart and Coates, Environment and History, 67.
51. Jones and Müller, South African Economy, 141; Wilson, "Farming," 165; Beinart and Coates, Environment and History, 67.
52. Jones and Müller, South African Economy, 141; Wilson, "Farming," 165; Beinart and Coates, Environment and History, 67.
53. Beinart and Coates, Environment and History, 67.
54. In addition to the works by Hargreaves, Hurt, McDean, and Worster cited above and below, the reader is referred to Great Plains Quarterly 8 (Spring 1986), an entire issue devoted to Dust Bowl scholarship. For a fascinating inspection of plains historiography as postmodern puzzle, see William Cronon, "A Place for Stories: Nature, History, and Narrative," Journal of American History 78 (March 1992): 1347-76.
55. In addition to the works by Hargreaves, Hurt, McDean, and Worster cited above and below, the reader is referred to Great Plains Quarterly 8 (Spring 1986), an entire issue devoted to Dust Bowl scholarship. For a fascinating inspection of plains historiography as postmodern puzzle, see William Cronon, "A Place for Stories: Nature, History, and Narrative," Journal of American History 78 (March 1992): 1347-76.
56. Hargreaves, "Dry-Farming," 161; Harry C. McDean, "M. L. Wilson and the Origins of Federal Farm Policy in the Great Plains, 1909-1914," Montana: The Magazine of Western History 34 (Autumn 1984): 50-59, and "Federal Farm Policy and the Dust Bowl: The Half-Right Solution," North Dakota History: Journal of the Northern Plains 47 (Summer 1980): 24-25.
57. Hargreaves, "Dry-Farming," 161; Harry C. McDean, "M. L. Wilson and the Origins of Federal Farm Policy in the Great Plains, 1909-1914," Montana: The Magazine of Western History 34 (Autumn 1984): 50-59, and "Federal Farm Policy and the Dust Bowl: The Half-Right Solution," North Dakota History: Journal of the Northern Plains 47 (Summer 1980): 24-25.
58. Hargreaves, "Dry-Farming," 161; Harry C. McDean, "M. L. Wilson and the Origins of Federal Farm Policy in the Great Plains, 1909-1914," Montana: The Magazine of Western History 34 (Autumn 1984): 50-59, and "Federal Farm Policy and the Dust Bowl: The Half-Right Solution," North Dakota History: Journal of the Northern Plains 47 (Summer 1980): 24-25.
59. McDean, "Federal Farm Policy," 26-27.
60. Ibid., 26-28; "Dust Bowl Historiography," Great Plains Quarterly 8 (Spring 1986): 123.
61. Ibid., 26-28; "Dust Bowl Historiography," Great Plains Quarterly 8 (Spring 1986): 123.
62. Hargreaves, "Dry-Farming," 161; Hurt, Dust Bowl, 17-31; McDean, "Federal Farm Policy," 28-30.
63. Hargreaves, "Dry-Farming," 161; Hurt, Dust Bowl, 17-31; McDean, "Federal Farm Policy," 28-30.
64. Hargreaves, "Dry-Farming," 161; Hurt, Dust Bowl, 17-31; McDean, "Federal Farm Policy," 28-30.
65. Hurt, Dust Bowl, 47, 68.
66. Ibid., 68-72.
67. Ibid., 72-86.
68. Donald Worster, Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979), 5.
69. Beinart, "Soil Erosion" and "Introduction"; Kate Showers, "Soil Erosion in the Kingdom of Lesotho: Origins and Colonial Response," Journal of Southern African Studies 15 (January 1989): 263-86.
70. Beinart, "Soil Erosion" and "Introduction"; Kate Showers, "Soil Erosion in the Kingdom of Lesotho: Origins and Colonial Response," Journal of Southern African Studies 15 (January 1989): 263-86.
71. Dickinson, "Wheat Development," 73-74.
72. The term "veld degradation orthodoxy" comes from Beinart, "Soil Erosion, Animals, and Pasture over the Longer Term," in The Lie of the Land: Challenging Received Wisdom on the African Environment, ed. Melissa Leach and Robin Mearns (Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann, 1996); Beinart, "Soil Erosion," 55-56, 61. For eighteenth and nineteenth-century conservation efforts, see three articles by Richard Grove: "Early Themes in African Conservation: The Cape in the Nineteenth Century," in Conservation in Africa: People, Politics, and Practice, ed. David Anderson and Richard Grove (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 21-39; "Scotland in South Africa: John Croumbie Brown and the Roots of Settler Environmentalism," in Ecology and Empire: Environmental History of Settler Societies, ed. Tom Griffiths and Libby Robin (Edinburgh: Keele University Press, 1997); and "Scottish Missionaries, Evangelical Discourses, and the Origins of Conservation Thinking in Southern Africa, 1820-1900," Journal of Southern African Studies 15 (January 1989): 163-87.
73. The term "veld degradation orthodoxy" comes from Beinart, "Soil Erosion, Animals, and Pasture over the Longer Term," in The Lie of the Land: Challenging Received Wisdom on the African Environment, ed. Melissa Leach and Robin Mearns (Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann, 1996); Beinart, "Soil Erosion," 55-56, 61. For eighteenth and nineteenth-century conservation efforts, see three articles by Richard Grove: "Early Themes in African Conservation: The Cape in the Nineteenth Century," in Conservation in Africa: People, Politics, and Practice, ed. David Anderson and Richard Grove (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 21-39; "Scotland in South Africa: John Croumbie Brown and the Roots of Settler Environmentalism," in Ecology and Empire: Environmental History of Settler Societies, ed. Tom Griffiths and Libby Robin (Edinburgh: Keele University Press, 1997); and "Scottish Missionaries, Evangelical Discourses, and the Origins of Conservation Thinking in Southern Africa, 1820-1900," Journal of Southern African Studies 15 (January 1989): 163-87.
74. The term "veld degradation orthodoxy" comes from Beinart, "Soil Erosion, Animals, and Pasture over the Longer Term," in The Lie of the Land: Challenging Received Wisdom on the African Environment, ed. Melissa Leach and Robin Mearns (Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann, 1996); Beinart, "Soil Erosion," 55-56, 61. For eighteenth and nineteenth-century conservation efforts, see three articles by Richard Grove: "Early Themes in African Conservation: The Cape in the Nineteenth Century," in Conservation in Africa: People, Politics, and Practice, ed. David Anderson and Richard Grove (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 21-39; "Scotland in South Africa: John Croumbie Brown and the Roots of Settler Environmentalism," in Ecology and Empire: Environmental History of Settler Societies, ed. Tom Griffiths and Libby Robin (Edinburgh: Keele University Press, 1997); and "Scottish Missionaries, Evangelical Discourses, and the Origins of Conservation Thinking in Southern Africa, 1820-1900," Journal of Southern African Studies 15 (January 1989): 163-87.
75. The term "veld degradation orthodoxy" comes from Beinart, "Soil Erosion, Animals, and Pasture over the Longer Term," in The Lie of the Land: Challenging Received Wisdom on the African Environment, ed. Melissa Leach and Robin Mearns (Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann, 1996); Beinart, "Soil Erosion," 55-56, 61. For eighteenth and nineteenth-century conservation efforts, see three articles by Richard Grove: "Early Themes in African Conservation: The Cape in the Nineteenth Century," in Conservation in Africa: People, Politics, and Practice, ed. David Anderson and Richard Grove (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 21-39; "Scotland in South Africa: John Croumbie Brown and the Roots of Settler Environmentalism," in Ecology and Empire: Environmental History of Settler Societies, ed. Tom Griffiths and Libby Robin (Edinburgh: Keele University Press, 1997); and "Scottish Missionaries, Evangelical Discourses, and the Origins of Conservation Thinking in Southern Africa, 1820-1900," Journal of Southern African Studies 15 (January 1989): 163-87.
76. The term "veld degradation orthodoxy" comes from Beinart, "Soil Erosion, Animals, and Pasture over the Longer Term," in The Lie of the Land: Challenging Received Wisdom on the African Environment, ed. Melissa Leach and Robin Mearns (Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann, 1996); Beinart, "Soil Erosion," 55-56, 61. For eighteenth and nineteenth-century conservation efforts, see three articles by Richard Grove: "Early Themes in African Conservation: The Cape in the Nineteenth Century," in Conservation in Africa: People, Politics, and Practice, ed. David Anderson and Richard Grove (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 21-39; "Scotland in South Africa: John Croumbie Brown and the Roots of Settler Environmentalism," in Ecology and Empire: Environmental History of Settler Societies, ed. Tom Griffiths and Libby Robin (Edinburgh: Keele University Press, 1997); and "Scottish Missionaries, Evangelical Discourses, and the Origins of Conservation Thinking in Southern Africa, 1820-1900," Journal of Southern African Studies 15 (January 1989): 163-87.
77. Union of South Africa, Final Report of the Drought Investigation Commission (Pretoria: U. G. 49, 1923); Drought Investigation Commission Interim Report, April, 1922, reprinted in Desertification: Environmental Degradation in and Around Arid Lands, ed. Michael H. Glantz (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1977), 252.
78. Union of South Africa, Final Report of the Drought Investigation Commission (Pretoria: U. G. 49, 1923); Drought Investigation Commission Interim Report, April, 1922, reprinted in Desertification: Environmental Degradation in and Around Arid Lands, ed. Michael H. Glantz (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1977), 252.
79. Interim Report, 252, 254 (italics in original).
80. I suspect the latter, as Leppan in 1928 recommended that dryland farmers in the northwestern Free State and the southwestern Transvaal adopt the inexpensive American practice of listing to prevent the soil from blowing. Agricultural Development, 204.
81. G. V. Jacks and R. O. Whyte, The Rape of the Earth: A World Survey of Soil Erosion (London: Faber and Faber Ltd., 1939).
82. Union of South Africa, Handbook, 343, 346.
83. Union of South Africa, Handbook, 347-50; Beinart, "Soil Erosion," 60-61, and "Introduction," 152; Farieda Khan, "Soil Wars: The Role of the African National Soil Conservation Association in South Africa, 1953-1959," Environmental History 2 (October 1997): 441.
84. Union of South Africa, Handbook, 347-50; Beinart, "Soil Erosion," 60-61, and "Introduction," 152; Farieda Khan, "Soil Wars: The Role of the African National Soil Conservation Association in South Africa, 1953-1959," Environmental History 2 (October 1997): 441.
85. Union of South Africa, Handbook, 347-50; Beinart, "Soil Erosion," 60-61, and "Introduction," 152; Farieda Khan, "Soil Wars: The Role of the African National Soil Conservation Association in South Africa, 1953-1959," Environmental History 2 (October 1997): 441.
86. Union of South Africa, Handbook, 347-50; Beinart, "Soil Erosion," 60-61, and "Introduction," 152; Farieda Khan, "Soil Wars: The Role of the African National Soil Conservation Association in South Africa, 1953-1959," Environmental History 2 (October 1997): 441.
87. D. Hobart Houghton, The South African Economy (Cape Town: Oxford University Press, 1964), 59-60; Hugh H. Bennett, "Land and the Union of South Africa," Survey Graphic: The British and Ourselves, May 1945, 233; Bennett, Soil Erosion and Land Use in the Union of South Africa (Pretoria: Department of Agriculture and Forestry, 1945), 9-11.
88. D. Hobart Houghton, The South African Economy (Cape Town: Oxford University Press, 1964), 59-60; Hugh H. Bennett, "Land and the Union of South Africa," Survey Graphic: The British and Ourselves, May 1945, 233; Bennett, Soil Erosion and Land Use in the Union of South Africa (Pretoria: Department of Agriculture and Forestry, 1945), 9-11.
89. D. Hobart Houghton, The South African Economy (Cape Town: Oxford University Press, 1964), 59-60; Hugh H. Bennett, "Land and the Union of South Africa," Survey Graphic: The British and Ourselves, May 1945, 233; Bennett, Soil Erosion and Land Use in the Union of South Africa (Pretoria: Department of Agriculture and Forestry, 1945), 9-11.
90. Bennett, Soil Erosion, 26-28.
91. Wellington Brink, Big Hugh: The Father of Soil Conservation (New York: Macmillan, 1951), 131-40; Houghton, South African Economy, 60-61; Beinart and Murray, "Agrarian Change," 77-79.
92. Wellington Brink, Big Hugh: The Father of Soil Conservation (New York: Macmillan, 1951), 131-40; Houghton, South African Economy, 60-61; Beinart and Murray, "Agrarian Change," 77-79.
93. Wellington Brink, Big Hugh: The Father of Soil Conservation (New York: Macmillan, 1951), 131-40; Houghton, South African Economy, 60-61; Beinart and Murray, "Agrarian Change," 77-79.
94. Dickinson, "Wheat Development," 73.