May 1938. New Madrid County, Missouri. "Interior of house without windows, home of sharecropper, cut-over farmer of Mississippi bottoms." 35mm nitrate negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration.My understanding of a "cut-over" is that it is an area where loggers have removed the trees from a forest; the land can then be re-planted, or, as above, offered for farming. Of course in a mature forest the vast bulk of the biomass is incorporated in the trees themselves; the soil is often rather poor, and farming a fresh cut-over would be expected to be a formidable endeavor.
This photo was taken in 1938 - not that long ago. The children on the floor would be in their mid-70s now, and likely would have some interesting stories to tell. Most modern Americans - especially American children - have no concept of what real poverty is like.
Click to enlarge to fullscreen in order to appreciate the flies...
Credit to the superb Shorpy photoblog. The outside of the (?communal) home is shown in a companion photo.
I don't know if it was true of all forests but at least in Indiana and Ohio the massive forests that were cut down there by settlers were cut down for the express purpose of the getting to the great soil underneath the trees. It produced some of the best farmland in the world.
ReplyDeleteA. Fischer is probably correct. New Madrid County is Mississippi bottom land. There are literally hundreds of large farms there today growing cotton, soybeans, corn, and other major crops.
ReplyDeleteThe downside to New Madrid County is it is home to one of the largest faultlines in the United States. If and when the New Madrid fault ever does decide to do a major shift it is probable that the resultant earthquake will destroy several major cities (Memphis, St. Louis, possibly others) and cause major havok with crop farming and interstate commerce in the US. Nothing in that region of the country is designed to withstand an earthquake unfortunately. At least Tennessee has stepped up and started retro-fitting bridges in an attempt to survive a major earthquake.
i agree and believe in this day and age the youth as well as some adults dont really understand the circumstances of poverty, Noone deserves that fate at which they are poor.
ReplyDeleteI suppose my view on cutover farming is biased because of the experience in northern Minnesota, which was clearcut to remove the world's finest stand of white pine. The soil underneath was sandy and poorly fertile for anything other than pine trees; during the Depression era many people tried to farm the land and failed.
ReplyDeleteTropical forests, especially rainforests, also have notoriously marginal soil beneath the magnificent tree canopy. Perhaps the situation is different in other parts of the country.
The trees in this portion of the country are typically Gum and Cypress. Most are stunted or otherwise not very useful for timber or any purpose than burning for firewood. Once you get another 50-75 miles west it is a different story. But here it actually was a better use of the land to clear cut, fill in the low spots and farm.
ReplyDeleteI grew up about 100 miles from where this picture was taken. That portion of the country during that period was extremely poverty stricken. My mothers family used to pick cotton and other crops to make money to last out the winter. It was quite sad, but the people did what they had to to survive. Once all the land was clear large scale farming quickly took over and provided better conditions due to skill labor being needed.
If you ever want to see what welfare counties look like, head to the area between Poplar Bluff, MO and Branson, MO. Few factories and poor land. The counties average as many workers at minimum wage as people on welfare. The few with good jobs stand out and are labeled rich. A "good" job will pay you $10-15 an hour. Easy to see why I moved to a large city.
@Minnesotastan
ReplyDeleteThe other thing about northern MN is under all those white pine stands the soil tends to be very acidic from all the needles dropping. I spent most of my summers as a kid in International Falls (Fort Frances on the Canadian side actually) because my dad's side of the family owns a fishing cabin on an island up there. We would get in early in the season and the native grasses would be about waist high everywhere except under the big pines where they were about shin height.
Plus the glaciers pushed all our good topsoil down to Indiana and Ohio...
ReplyDelete