Word: drought
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...government corporation had plenty of excuses. First there were heavy rains, then a severe drought. The bush in the Kongwa district had "proved unduly obstinate"; it took eight hours to clear one acre instead of the estimated two. Kongwa soil hardens until it becomes "like a tennis court." Tractors had been mishandled by native labor. Even African animals turned saboteurs. Wild pigs made a goober feast of one experimental farm, and telephone lines were constantly broken by mild but shortsighted giraffes who got entangled in the wires...
This year's drought, the worst in ten years, puts Spain in a desperate position. Grain is critically short--Madrid's otherwise fertile surrounding plains were brown scorched dust. Necessary raw materials, except in the relatively prosperous Barcelona section, are virtually non-existent, partly because of Spain's low productivity, and partly because of few favorable trade agreements; mechanical equipment such as tractors is for the far-distant future. Railroad stock, built before the 1936 Civil War, is worn out: trains are the slowest, dirtiest, most uncomfortable in Europe...
...morning sky was grey, and the paraders had bitter words for the priests who had been praying for rain to relieve Italy's drought. Superstitious Communists carried defiant signs: "Is it raining? Will it rain? Certainly not until after the Feast of Unita!" They were right; soon a hot sun enveloped the crowds as they watched bicycle races and boxing matches, played roulette, danced, drank, threw baseballs (50 lire for three shots) at caricatures of priests and bishops and of Premier Alcide de Gasperi and tough Interior Minister Mario Scelba, who was by far the most popular target...
Africa was really hard-hit, suffering the worst drought in a century. In many parts of South Africa, once high corn and grazing land looked, after the 14-month drought, like scorched earth. At Mombasa, the game warden for the Kenya coast reported some 5,000 elephants stampeding toward the coast in search of water...
...brought in two 100-h.p. pumps to sprinkle it with 1,000 gallons of water a minute from a nearby pond. His only cost was gasoline for the pumps, labor to move the sprinklers, a total of only $10 to $15 per acre a season. This year, when drought withered the crops of thousands of New England farmers, Richards' well-watered acres flourished...