This is an excerpt from a poem entitled “Out of the Dust" written by Karen Hesse in 1935. We'll be back when it rains,
they say,
setting out with their bedsprings and mattresses,
their cookstoves and dishes,
their kitchen tables,
and their milk goats
tied to their running boards
in rickety cages,
setting out for
California,
where even though they say they'll come back,
they might just stay
if what they hear about that place is true.
What was the main reason for the situation described in this poem?
California manufacturing companies promised high salaries to workers.
Drought, high winds, and soil erosion made it difficult to farm.
The federal government provided farmers with free land in the West.
Immigrants faced less discrimination in the West than on the Great Plains.