The Dust Bowl, commonly known as the Dirty Thirties, lasted for about a decade and was a period in time where dirt clouds billowed over the Great Plains, these dust storms severely impacted over 75% of the country (Riney-Kehrberg 32). The Dust Bowl affected a section of the Great Plains that extended to Colorado, Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma and Northeastern New Mexico. In the 1930s, the United States suffered severe dust storms as high winds and suffocating dust swept the region. The Dust Bowl was both a man created and natural disaster that received its name from the "bowl-shaped" area that was affected. Man-made choices and decisions interfered with what could have been a well cultivated plantation. The act was the inevitable result of intentionally …show more content…
exploiting the grasslands to its fullest extent (Richardson). The Homestead Act, which was established in 1862, provided up to 160 acres of government land to any citizen who would cultivate the land for a maximum of five years (Hurt 77). For example, soon after the Act followed the rush of new and inexperienced farmers. The Dust Bowl led to a damaged economy, soil erosion, and Black Blizzards because of the contributing factors: deep plowing, drought and wind corrosion. The first cause of the Dust Bowl was deep plowing.
Plowing is when a machine is drawn and used to cut soil, then is repeatedly turned over. The purpose of plowing was to give farmers the fresh nutrients at the surface, but bury weeds at the same time. What this did was push previous crops below the surface, once they are deep in the ground they would break down and allow new fields to be opened. Deep plowing was not effectively used by farmers. In the 1930s, farmers believed in the myth "rain follows the plow." With expectations of rainfall in the future, farmers kept plowing and sowing wheat. They plowed up to five million acres of land attempting to make profit. But for many years, the farmers plowed the soil too fine. With the wheat market flooded and reduced prices, people were too poor to buy. With people being too poor farmers did not receive their financial gain. Following the market farmers were convinced that if they tear up more grassland they could break even. Although, the over plowing of the land for wheat reduced the agricultural value of the …show more content…
land. As a result of the deep plowing it damaged the economy. Farmers were forced out of business, they lost their homes and livelihoods. The wheat market aggravated farmers because they deep plowed the five million acres to boost their profit not lose it. Farm equipment had to be reposed by the bank as farmers were not able to keep up with their mortgages. This led farmers into debt because without their machinery they cannot pay back their loans. Nationwide, around one in twenty were losing their land which resulted in major migration. As families realized that their land was no longer fertile and could not make a living, homes were abandoned. Many once-proud farmers packed up their families and moved to California hoping to find work as day laborers on huge farms, but jobs were scarce. The United States passed a federal law that allowed the government to pay farmers to reduce production and it also provided guidelines to preserve natural resources. Soon after deep plowing, major drought took a toll on the soil. The second cause of the Dust Bowl was drought. Drought covered the entire plains for nearly a decade. The reason drought occurred was due to the changes in the sea surface temperature. The changes in the sea surface temperature created shifts and low-level winds that reduced the normal supply of moisture, this restricted rainfall. Climatic conditions in the 1920s consisted of good rainfall and reasonable winters, which increased cultivation in the region and accumulated settlement (Deneke). What these climatic conditions did was give many false impressions. This thus allowed the massive heat waves to do their worst on the grassland that was left. Consequently, the extended period of drought contributed to soil erosion. The persistent dry weather triggered failure for crops to grow because there was not enough moisture necessary for seeds to sprout. The soil was left helpless from the sun. The drought, then killed off the vegetation, which would help hold soil together in conditions of high winds. As the vegetation continuously dried out the plants, the plants root system died. If no seeds sprouted, the loose crumbled topsoil was impotent to fighting back against the heat waves. This entitles the heat waves to dry the grassland into a fine-grained dust consistency, evidently leading to storms. A survivor from the Dust Bowl stated, "Severe, extended drought and high winds easily blew my farms soil, leaving it useless and vulnerable, my hard work was destroyed in an instant" (Henderson). According to this survivor, farmers suffered a great loss, not only in their land but their future. The unanchored topsoil then turned into tiny particles, in which continental winds billowed huge clouds that blackened the sky. After drought killed off crops, massive winds then took their turn as a leading factor in the Dust Bowl. While natural prairie grasses can survive a drought, the wheat planted could not and when the precipitation depleted dust shriveled and died exposing the bare earth to winds (Richardson). The pressure of the wind was so strong due to the solar heating of the ground creating friction that when generated dust flew into the combination (Richardson). There had never been dust storms in the Plains like the ones experienced in prior droughts, so farmers and families were left unaware of the upcoming destruction caused by storms. The winds kicked up dry soil and created clouds of dust. These storms were the result of farmers pulverizing deep roots and drought leaving the soil less protected from wind action (Riney-Kehrberg 12). After the spring of 1934, the weather offered no relief, only intense sun, drought and gale-force winds. As a result, the wind blew out huge clouds of dusts that were called "Black Blizzards" that blackened the sky. Dorothy Williamson, a survivor stated, "It was almost surreal the dust...looking back on it I think I carried with it, a feeling of I don’t know the word exactly, of well, being unreal-but almost being evil" (Henderson).
Dorothy comments on how Dust Storms felt like she was in what she and others wished were just a nightmare. Black Blizzards were huge clouds that carried dust in them creating a terrible dust storm. Blazing winds were responsible for the creation of Black Blizzards. Winds that rolled across the plains picked up massive amounts of dry soil, which was then deposited everywhere (Hurt 47). The insides of houses became layered with dirt. Vehicles and farm equipment became buried in the deep drifts of soil that were caused by Black Blizzards. Livestock choked to death after they ate dirt thinking that what they were consuming was grass, they were also engulfed by the dust suffocating them. Doctors saw patients that were coughing up dirt that filled their lungs, commonly known as "Dust Pneumonia," which resulted in suffocation or death from complications (Hurt 142). The Dust Bowl then ended in 1936, rain finally returned in significant amounts to many areas of the Great
Plains. The Dust Bowl was a man-made disaster that prompted erupted cultivation, soil disintegration and Black Blizzards due to deep plowing, drought and wind corrosion. Farmers had plowed the soil too fine in an attempt to break even, which then changed their business. Crops began to fail with the onset of drought, exposing the bare farmland to the sun. High winds blew across the Great Plains dirt swept off the ground, causing the particles in the air to create massive dust storms. The Dust Bowl affected thousands of farmers and families in the Southwest/Midwest, which forced them to adapt to the new farming practices that would improve soil conservation.
Egan notes, “No group of people took a more dramatic leap in lifestyle or prosperity, in such a short time, than wheat farmers on the Great Plains” (Egan 42). The revenue from selling wheat far exceeded the cost of producing the wheat, so the large profit attracted people to produce more and more wheat. On top of the high profit from wheat, the Great War caused the price of wheat to rise even more. The supply of wheat rose with the price, but Egan points to information to demonstrate that the rapid increase in production can lead to overproduction, which is damaging to the land. Also, the invention of the tractor also lead to overproduction of the land by creating the ability to dramatically cut the time it took to harvest acres. When the prices for wheat began to fall due to overproduction, this caused the farmers to produce even more output to be able to make the same earnings as when the prices were higher. The government also played a part in promoting the overproduction of the land. The Federal Bureau of Soils claimed that, “The soil is the one indestructible, immutable asset that the nation possessed. It is the one resource that cannot be exhausted, that cannot be used up” (Egan 51). Egan points to factors such as a high profit margin, the Great War, tractors, increased outputs when wheat prices fell, and governmental claims that caused the people to overproduce the land of the Great Plains. Egan then gives examples of how the overproduction destroyed the land. Egan explains that the farmers saw their only way out was to plant more wheat. This overproduction tore up the grass of the Great Plains, thus making the land more susceptible to the severe dust storms of the Dust
The Jazz Age which is also referred to as the Roaring Twenties began after World War I took place and lasted until 1929, when the Great Depression began. The 1920s opened up a world of change to Americans; some did not approve and others, especially those in the big cities, celebrated with music and dance every day. There were numerous inventions that were being created throughout the 1920s and because of nationwide advertisement; people all over America were able to buy all the same stuff as one another. But unfortunately, times were different for those that lived in Colorado.
In the 1930's, farmers in the Great Plains region began deep plowing and destroyed the top soil and natural grasses so that they would be picked up in the wind (Boundless.com 1) The Great Plains area consists of parts of Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. Also a combination of a long drought and high winds led to dust storms creating the dust bowl that affected many people. Dust storms are giant clouds of dust that are thrown into the air and gathered into clouds that flew violently across the Great Plains. One expert describes one of these dust storms saying, “One of the most frightening days during the decade of the Dust Bowl is referred to as Black Sunday. On April 14, 1935, what started out as a clear sunny day suddenly transformed into a giant black cloud on the horizon — a huge dust storm. Residents fled their morning chores and sought cover in cars, houses, and shelters before they would be blinded and en...
The Dust Bowl occurred for many reasons, most all our fault. “Some of the reasons that the Dust Bowl occurred were over-farming, livestock overgrazing, drought and poor farming practices.” (Dust Bowl facts and summary) Because of this negative experience it now teached us to be careful and now we know what to do to prevent this.“When drought struck from 1934 to 1937, the soil lacked the stronger root system of grass as an anchor.”("Dust Bowl Facts and summary") That's really bad for the farmers because then the wind can easily pick up the dirt off the
“Farming techniques such as strip cropping, terracing, crop rotation, contour plowing, and cover crops were advocated.” ("About the Dust Bowl")These new techniques were advocated in order to try and prevent more dust from getting picked up by wind and starting the dust storm again. “But for years, farmers had plowed the soil too fine, and they contributed to the creation of the Dust Bowl.”(Ganzel) This was a big mistake farmers had made. This was one of the huge factors in contributing to the Dust Bowl. This has definitely changed now. “Now, many farmers are learning how to raise crops without tilling their fields at all. (Ganzel) Farmers now not tilling their fields at all is a new farming
The Dust Bowl in the 1930s was a very horrific event in the Southern Plains region of the United States. This was a period of severe windstorms & dust-storms that would blow over hundreds of miles. This stripped the soil of nutrients, and damaged the ecology and agriculture of these American lands. The 2012 drought in the Central Great Plains was a period that lasted only 4 months, through May to August, that eclipsed the record of the Dust Bowl, for the driest period. The Dust Bowl and the 2012 drought compare and contrast in many ways.
The Dust Bowl, a tragic era lasting from 1930 to 1939, was characterized by blinding dust storms. These dust storms were composed of strong winds that blew across dry, cultivated soil for hundreds of miles, which could remain active for ten hours or more (Hansen, 667). The storms actually had the potential to drag on for days on end. In 1939, for example, one storm stop blowing for more than one hundred hours.
The “Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s”, was written by Donald Worster, who admits wanted to write the book for selfish reasons, so that he would have a reason o visit the Southern Plains again. In the book he discusses the events of the “dirty thirties” in the Dust Bowl region and how it affected other areas in America. “Dust Bowl” was a term coined by a journalist and used to describe the area that was in the southern planes in the states of Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas, between the years of 1931 and 1939. This area experienced massive dust storms, which left dust covering everything in its wake. These dust storms were so severe at times that it made it so that the visibility in the area was so low to where people
The nature of the Southern Plains soils and the periodic influence of drought could not be changed, but the technological abuse of the land could have been stopped. This is not to say that mechanized agriculture irreparably damaged the land-it did not. New and improved implements such as tractors, one-way disk plows, grain drills, and combines reduced plowing, planting, and harvesting costs and increased agricultural productivity. Increased productivity caused prices to fall, and farmers compensated by breaking more sod for wheat. At the same time, farmers gave little thought to using their new technology in ways to conserve the
The country at the time was in the deepest and soon to be longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world and this caused years of over-cultivation of wheat, because “during the laissez-faire, expansionist 1920’s the plains were extensively and put to wheat - turned into highly mechanized factory farms that produced highly unprecedented harvests” (Worster 12). ¬The farmer’s actions were prompted by the economic decline America was facing. With the economy in a recession, farmers were looking for a way to make a living and in 1930 wheat crop were becoming very popular. In 1931 the wheat crop was considered a bumper crop with over twelve million bushels of wheat. Wheat was emerging all over the plains. The wheat supply forced the price down from sixty-eight cents/bushel in July 1930 to twenty-five cents/bushel in July 1931. Many farmers went broke and others abandoned their fields, but most decided to stay despite the unfavorable
The Dust Bowl was "the darkest moment in the twentieth-century life of the southern plains," (pg. 4) as described by Donald Worster in his book "The Dust Bowl." It was a time of drought, famine, and poverty that existed in the 1930's. It's cause, as Worster presents in a very thorough manner, was a chain of events that was perpetuated by the basic capitalistic society's "need" for expansion and consumption. Considered by some as one of the worst ecological catastrophes in the history of man, Worster argues that the Dust Bowl was created not by nature's work, but by an American culture that was working exactly the way it was planned. In essence, the Dust Bowl was the effect of a society, which deliberately set out to take all it could from the earth while giving next to nothing back.
...elful of fine sand flung against the face. People caught in their own yards grope for the doorstep. Cars come to a standstill, for no light in the world can penetrate that swirling murk... We live with the dust, eat it, sleep with it, watch it strip us of possessions and the hope of possessions. It is becoming Real." said by Avis D. Carlson (Ganzel, The Dust Bowl). The farmers could have colorful fruits on one day, and then the next it would turn black the next. People were getting really tired of the drought and were desperate to try anything to let rain fall. This one guy named Tex Thorton had a crazy idea that explosions would give some excitement to the atmosphere and rain fall would happen. Surprisingly, after a couple of explosions; a little bit of snow began to fall from the sky. But it wasn’t what the people were looking for. Then on one random day a group
Imagine standing outside trying to farm your dying crops. All of a sudden, the sky gets dark. You look up and see a big, black cloud heading straight towards your town. You attempt to seek shelter, but it is too late. Cars come to a complete stop, and people rush to get cover. The cloud of dirt sweeps into your small town, and you can no longer see anything but only feel the gritty dirt blowing against your skin. This occurrence is what people experienced during the Dust Bowl. In the historical fiction book, Out of the Dust, the author, Karen Hesse, describes the hardships that Billie Jo and her family faced during the worst years of the Dust Bowl. Hesse depicts the effects of the dust storms, reasons for the occurrence of the dust storms,
To begin with, the “Dust Bowl” was one of the causes of economic fallout which resulted in the Great Depression. Because the “Dust Bowl” destroyed crops which were used to sell and make profit, the government had to give up a lot of money in order to try and help the people and land affected by the “Dust Bowl”. The “Dust Bowl” refers to a time during the 1930’s where the Great Plains region was drastically devastated by drought. All of the areas (Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico) all had little to no rainfall, light soil, and high winds, which were not a very suitable combination. The drought lasted from 1934 to 1937, most of the soil during the drought lacked the better root system of grass.
Farming has been an occupation since 8,500 B.C. On that year in the Fertile Crescent farming first began when people grew plants instead of picking them in the wild. Then nearly 5,000 years later oxen, horses, pigs, and dogs were domesticated. During the middle ages, the nobles divide their land into three fields. The reasoning for this was to plant two and leave one to recover. This was the start of crop rotation which is a big part of farming today. Burning down forest and then moving to another area is a farming technique used by the Mayans called Slash and burn. Mayan farmers also were able to drain swampy areas to farm them buy building canals. In 1701 Jethro Tull invented the seed drill and a horse drawn how that tilled the land. In Denmark they would plant turnips in the previously unplanted field. The turnips help restore the nutrients in the ground thus crop rotation is born. In England people began moving there fields closer to each other for a more efficient way of planting. Later in the 18th century selective breeding was introduce which made bigger, stronger, and more milk producing livestock. In the mid 1800’s a steam plough was invented. By the 1950 tractors, milking machines, and combines were used by almost farmers. The latest f...