Throughout the Canadian Prairies, farmers were burning their stubble off during field preparations long before the 1930s. Burning stubble in areas with soil containing a high clay content sometimes makes sense according to Agriculture Manitoba, because this kind of soil is prone to drainage and compaction problems, making this option more appealing than tillage. Certain areas, such as the clay soils around Winnipeg produce high yielding crops, but the abundance of straw is difficult to integrate into the earth. So, it鈥檚 become a tradition for farmers to continue burning off their stubble in parts of the prairies to this day, because this method can be cost effective.
Innovations in agricultural technology are helping farmers to gain more awareness of sustainable practices. Technology has been developed to incorporate all the available residue into the soil. Also, there鈥檚 modern advances through using either new or revised older traditions, such as the employment of cover crops, adjusting the soil鈥檚 nutrient management or reducing tillage for the soil鈥檚 health.
In the south central Saskatchewan, crops were grown after many consecutive years with few nutrients 小蓝视频 added to the soil since the pioneering age from the late 1800s to the 1930s. By the time of the so-called Dirty Thirties, the soil in the Fife Lake region, along with many other areas throughout the Canadian Prairies and the American Midwest, had lost nourishment and became powdery dry. Erosion soon followed
Breezes came through and blew off the dusty topsoil in the mid-1930s. The sky above browned as the soil drifted into ditches and farmyards from Alberta to Manitoba. Sections of southern Saskatchewan such as the farming regions surrounding the Fife Lake area were drastically affected by periods of drought and the loss of topsoil.
In Gathering Memories, a history of Fife Lake and region, the dust storms of the Depression were so surreal, they had the appearance of scenes taken from a science fiction movie. 鈥淭he sky was so filled with dust that the sunrise and sunset were usually a blood red glow. It was everywhere; there was no place safe from it. The curtains were grey from it; the floors were covered in it; the tables were set and covered over with a cloth to keep the dust out of the dishes until everyone was ready to eat. People would leave their storm windows on all summer in an attempt to keep it out, but try as they might, nothing helped.鈥�
Wells in the area also dried, so the people in the Fife Lake region travelled several kilometres to haul water using waggons or stone boats. A stone boat is a sled with a flat bottom built of planks and is capable of sliding over snow or soft ground, carrying heavy objects including stones, hay bales or water barrels.
Fife Lake, along with other regional waterbodies, completely dried in 1937. Local man Wes Grant lost a gun when he went boating on Fife Lake years before, so he walked across the dried lakebed and returned to spot where he鈥檇 dropped the gun, only to discover the weapon intact. 聽聽
If the drought wasn鈥檛 bad enough, grasshoppers arrived in clouds to eat anything in their flight paths, because these winged creatures are typically attracted to areas undergoing extreme dehydration. The cure against these infestations worsened the environment by killing off scores of animals. Because grasshopper sprays didn鈥檛 exist at the time, farmers entered their fields in the early mornings or evenings to spread poison over their crops. They received the poison from the municipality. According to Gathering Memories, 鈥淭his poison consisted of bran, arsenic, and sawdust mixed with water. The grasshoppers would suck the juice from the bait. Unfortunately, many small animals perished to this poison.鈥�
