The Land Smiles Again

After the droughts and dust storms of the 1930’s, nearly half the cropland in the Great Plains was badly eroded, and seventy-five per cent of the range was in decline. Three quarters of this desolation is now under active repair, and the good work goes on. The results, throughout the Plains, recall the lines Walt Whitman wrote many years ago: “A child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands; / How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more than he. /I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven. …

… Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord, A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropt.”