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Farm
A Farmer Without A Farm

Farm
Farm

A Farmer Without A Farm
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Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 3 to 4
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   6.03

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    aquifer, prunes, rainfall, entire, irrigation, region, left, rented, beginning, whatever, picking, girl, farmland, stayed, lasted, packed
     content words:    Claire Demmer, New Mexico, Isadore Joseph Demmer, In Texas, Dust Bowl, Washington State, Lytt Demmer, World War II

A Farmer Without A Farm
By Joyce Furstenau 		  
1     In 1936, a nine-year-old girl named Claire Demmer left the only home she had ever known to begin a new life in New Mexico. Even though she was a young girl, Claire never forgot the time her family had to leave everything behind. You might wonder why Claire's family had to move. Here is their story.
 
2     For more than ten years, Claire's father, Isadore Demmer, had made a fine living off his cotton farm in Shamrock, Texas. Then a drought changed all that. A drought is a long period of time when there is not enough rainfall. There was a drought in the 1930s that lasted several years. Crops could not grow. The soil became so dry the wind blew it away. The dust storms called "black blizzards" swept the region often. The area became known as "the Dust Bowl." The drought didn't just affect Texas. The Dust Bowl was a large area that included all or parts of nine states in the Midwest. Claire's father tried to keep his cotton farm going during the drought years without enough rain. It was impossible. In 1932, there were fourteen dust storms. In 1936, the number of dust storms had increased to sixty-eight. Most of the topsoil blew away.
 
3     Mr. Demmer realized he would have to leave his farm. He talked it over with his wife, Lena. There was not much to discuss. They could not sell the farm because there was no one who would buy it. They would simply have to leave. Claire had two brothers, Paul and Lytt. The Demmer family packed up all their personal belongings. They put whatever they could pack into the family car. Then, Isadore and his family simply drove away from their home. They left everything behind except what would fit in the car. Isadore had a friend in Farmington, New Mexico, who promised him a job in construction. Isadore would take any work he could get, so that's where he and his family went. Times were tough, but Isadore never gave up his dream of being a farmer.

Paragraphs 4 to 6:
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