Postcards from 1938-1939

In 1938, Walter C. Lowdermilk, Vice-Director of the Soil Conservation Service, was dispatched by then Secretary of Agriculture, Henry Wallace, on a world tour to learn of soil conservation successes and failures. Lowdermilk called the enterprise, “agricultural archaeology.” Lowdermilk packed the family Buick with provisions and his wife, son and daughter, niece, and his own Passepartout.

37
Walter C. Lowdermilk taking movie of a market scene in North Africa, possibly Tunisia.
103-33 Holland
Farmer in pre-WW II Holland unloading what look to be cantaloupes.
128-15 Iraq
Wife and niece smile for the camera. The Lowdermilks brought rain to some normally parched areas. This is in Iraq.
127-23 Iraq
WC Lowdermilk with a shepherd in Iraq.

Published by Norm Benson

My name is Norm Benson and my Lowdermilk manuscript is out for beta review. This is the story of Walter and Inez Lowdermilk, an American couple who came to see soil erosion as a threat to civilization. Their pursuit of land conservation carried them from China and the Dust Bowl to Palestine, where their ideas about reclaiming the land helped build the case for the creation of Israel.

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