Crawford County, Robinson, Illinois | Bobby Greif - 6/26/2012 21:59 . Illinois John Dappert, How is my memory? Anything too correct or add. Things may have been different in East Illinois than Central Iowa.
Your memory is pretty good, Bobby, even remembering some things before you were born. I understand, I still remember the great depression, but I was born the same year as you. We heard so much about bad times when young, it sticks in our minds as a life lesson not to get too egotistic about our farming abilities, as it can all be lost in a few bad years. Makes us more careful, perhaps too careful sometimes. I always knew I should be chasing more land to purchase, but also knew too much debt could make us lose what we had.
What I was waiting for you to mention was the year of the blight, which hit harder than some droughts. Chemically detasseled corn did not do well, hand detasselled corn produced much better. Perhaps it didn't happen in your area. It was a year USDA allowed fifty percent set aside, which helped those that participated. Some even didn't plant corn, those were the ones that really did well, as soybeans produced normally that year. A few planted all corn, intending to profit from large prices in the fall due to reduced corn acreage. It took many years for those that only planted corn to recover from that disaster. What year was that? I don't remember for sure, thought it was the late 70's or early 80's.
Also, around 81 we had a drought that hit us hard, the drought you mention in 83 wasn't so bad for us as the ones north of I70, which included your recount.
Good memory, Bobby. I can't remember what happend yesterday very well. |
Past Droughts
