Synopses & Reviews
When Franklin D. Rooseveltand#8217;s agriculture secretary and vice-president, Henry A. Wallace, had completed his junior year at Iowa State College in 1909, his family sent him on a western tour and#147;in search of the Corn Belt farmer.and#8221; Young Henry was to report to the family journal, Wallaceand#8217;s Farmer, how former Corn Belt farmers were prospering in the districts newly irrigated under public or private auspices, such as Arizonaand#8217;s Salt River, Idahoand#8217;s Boise-Payette and Twin Falls, and farms on the Arkansas River near Garden City, Kansas.
Wallaceand#8217;s articles, collected and reprinted here for the first time, are lively descriptions of up-and-coming western locales such as Amarillo, Texas; Phoenix, Arizona; the orange groves of southern California; the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys; and the Greeley District of Colorado. Along the way, the young reporter and agriculturist critiqued dry farming in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and wrestled calves on a Matador Land Company ranch in the Texas panhandle.
Henry Wallace made a specialty of down-home conversation with farmers and their wives and of cross-examining the real-estate agents who profited from the governmentand#8217;s commitment to sell water rights to the new property owners. He wrote what today we call New History, concentrating on the impact of irrigation on individuals more than technology, law, or institutions.
Modern-day readers will prize Wallaceand#8217;s clear, expert analysis of the different environments that he visited and his farmer-conservationist ethic. Social historians will be interested as he explains how the closer proximity of irrigated farms and greater abundance of neighbors would produce prosperous communities with schools, roads, and social institutions better than most that then prevailed in Americaand#8217;s rural regions. They will be fascinated to learn how the cooperative aspects of irrigation farming tempered the independence of the immigrants from the Corn Belt.
Synopsis
When Henry A. Wallace had completed his junior year at Iowa State College in 1909, his family sent him on a western tour on the trail of the Corn Belt Farmer. Wallace's articles, collected and reprinted here for the first time, are lively descriptions of up-and-coming western locales such as Amarillo, Texas; Phoenix, Arizona; the orange groves of southern California;the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys; and the Greeley District of Colorado. Wallace made a specialty of down-home conversation with farming families and of cross-examining the real-estate agents who profited from the government's commitment to sell water rights to the new property owners. Modern day readers will prize Wallace's clear, expert analysis of the different environments that he visited and his farmer-conservationist ethic. Social historians will be interested as he explains how the closer proximity of irrigated farms and greater abundance of neighbors would produce prosperous communities. They will be fascinated to learn how the cooperative aspects of irrigation farming tempered the independence of the immigrants from the Corn Belt. Wallace, a future Secretary of Agriculture, Vice President, and candidate for the presidency, had not yet celebrated his twenty-first birthday when he made the tour on which his contribution to the book was based, and his essays testify to the strength of the young man's intellect and his talents as a traveler and illustrate his point of view.---Richard S. Kirkendall, University of Washington
About the Author
Richard Lowitt,, Professor of History at the University of Oklahoma, is well known for his books on twentieth-century American history.
Judith Fabry is a Ph.D. candidate and teaching assistant in the department of History at Iowa State University.