9m 5s | 208 view | 6 rating

ACRES OF PLENTY shows some of the 300,000 families migrating out of the Dust Bowl in the midwest, headed west towards California and the "land of plenty". At 52 seconds, you will see the Government Camp set up at Shafter, California. Here the flood of migrants were able to recieve jobs in the agricultural industry, including a wide cross-section of people—young and old, men and women, rural and urban people. Shafter Camp owed its existence to FDR's New Deal and the Resettlement Administration (RA), and later the FSA, which in 1935 began to establish migratory labor camps to house the destitute migrants. Many migrants living in cars, tents, and shacks along “ditchbank” settlements were attracted to the sanitary, newly constructed camps located along a 600-mile-long corridor through central California Shafter was one of the first such camps. At 1:25 the El Solyo Ranch is shown, where diversified farming ensured year-round employment for lucky Okies. El Solyo Ranch had its own store, office, supplies and bunkhouses for the workers. It was run from camps or centers, had its own mess halls to feed people year-round and boasted a fleet that included 10 diesel tractors, 12 trucks and 20 automobiles. At 4:00, black walnut trees are shown being grafted with English walnut trees. The citrus harvest is seen at 6:30. Irrigation canals are seen at the 8 minute mark, yeilding 4500 acres of plenty. We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example: "01:00:12:00 -- President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference." This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com