The Dust Bowl and Agriculture

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One has not experienced the life of living in dirt until he has been in the dust bowl. It was a decade-long dust storm that impacted hundreds of farmers and their farmlands. Hardship was among one of the influences of the storm, which affected both farm workers and city folks. The storm also brought the elements of destruction and darkness, which reigned chaos across the Plains. Together, these issues gave the storm its popular name, “black blizzard” (Documentary, 2014). Such a name was given due to the storm’s visibility as a large black cloud, which made it look evil and scary. Although the black blizzard is what some people call the dust storm, most will refer it as the dust bowl.
The dust bowl has a long history for its impact on agriculture. Starting around the early 1930s, the dust storms were becoming visible in the middle region of the United States (Ganzel, 2003). This middle region was known to farmers as the Great Plains, which consisted of several states such as Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico (Ganzel, 2003). These middle states were recognized for the farmers who grew wheat. Farmers worked day and night to establish large wheat fields in the Great Plains. The fields of the Great Plains were mainly grown with wheat, for it was the crop that farmers thought will lead them to a wealthy life (Documentary, 2014). Unfortunately, the land of the Great Plains was being overran by too many wheat fields. To make matters worse, farmers did not know what good agricultural techniques were; as a result, the land was tilled, over-plowed and abused (Documentary, 2014). The farmers did not know that the land has its limits, and ignoring it will have a consequence. In this case, the consequence was the dust bowl.
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...er to cope with risk and expect the unexpected.

Works Cited

Documentary Daily. (2014, January 5). Surviving the Dust Bowl: Full Documentary [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=158QogedxFk.
Ganzel, B. (2003). The Dust Bowl. [General format]. http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/water_02.html.
Marsh, A. (2014). Early Agriculture In The New World: Agriculture In Mesoamerica. [PDF document]. Retrieved from Cal Poly Pomona Blackboard Learn: https://blackboard.csupomona.edu/.
Rosenberg, J. (n.d.). Dust Bowl: An Ecological Disaster During the Great Depression. About.com. Retrieved from http://history1900s.about.com/od/1930s/a/Dust-Bowl.htm.
Trimarchi, M. (2008, September 17). What caused the Dust Bowl? HowStuffWorks.com. Retrieved from http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/dust-bowl-cause1.htm.

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