Effects Of The Dust Bowl On The Southern Plains

Imagine living on a farm out west during the 1930s. In the middle of a series of terrible dust storms. The dust storms were so horrific, children were dying from “dust pneumonia” which was a result of breathing the dust in. These dust storms would trap plains settlers in their homes for hours, days at a time. This series of dust storms is better known as the Dust Bowl. It forced 3 million settlers out of their homes. Drought, increased mechanization, and destruction of grass all lead to the Dust Bowl.

But when the Dust Bowl came the american economy dropped. For instance to explain more about the Dust Bowl, in a article written by Marcia Trimarchi, who studied English at Skidmore College wrote. “They settled there to farm. They were prosperous in the decades that followed, but when the 1930s rolled in, so did strong winds, drought and clouds of dust that plagued nearly 75 percent of the United States between 1931 and 1939, The era became known as the legendary Dust Bowl.” (Trimarchi). In a article made by Robin A. Fanslow a writer for the American Folklife Center it illustrates about what the Dust Bowl did. “In 1932, many of the farms dried up and blew away creating what became known as the "Dust Bowl." (Fanslow). Most of the dust from the Dust Bowl created many storms as said in a page written by Cary Nelson, a professor at the University of Illinois. “In 1932, The number of dust storms increase. Fourteen are reported this year; next year there will be 38.” (Nelson). These dust storms were called black blizzards and they came often, then the worst dust storm came in 1935 on April 14. “Black Sunday. The worst "black blizzard" of the Dust Bowl occurs, causing extensive damage.” Writes Cary Nelson (Nelson).

The Dust Bowl, battering the Midwest for nearly a decade with high winds, bad farming techniques, and drought, became a pivotal point in American history. The wind storm that seemed relentless beginning in the early 1930’s until its spell ended in 1939, affected the lives of tens of thousands of Americans and the broader agriculture industry. The catastrophic effects of the Dust Bowl took place most prominently around the Great Plains, otherwise known as the farming belt, including states such as Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas, which were hit extraordinarily hard. Millions of farming acres destroyed by poor farming techniques was a major contributor to what is considered to be one of the worst man-made environmental disasters in American history. This period resulted in almost a decade of unstable farming and economic despair. Thousands of families sought government assistance in order to survive. Luckily, government aid to farmers and new agriculture programs that were introduced to help save the nation’s agriculture industry benefited families and helped the Great Plains recover from the Dust Bowl. Furthermore, the poor conditions in the farm belt were also compounded by the Great Depression as it was in full swing as the Dust Bowl began to worsen. In addition, World War I was also underway which caused a high demand for agricultural products, such as wheat, corn, and potatoes to be at its peak, which lured many people to the farm belt with the false expectation that farming

During the Great Depression farmers had to produce more wheat in order to turn a profit. They expanded their fields, and dug up natural drought resistant grasses, leaving the top soil vulnerable to wind erosion. Plow based farming also played a big role in making the top soil vulnerable to wind erosion. The severe drought taking place at the same time made things worse. Wind kicked up

The Dust Bowl was one of the worst economic and tragic events of the 20th century. The Dust Bowl negatively affected people who lived there in a personal way. Some of them included how badly it had affected the children living in that time, how it had affected families health, and how badly it affected the economy causing a mass corruption.

During the 1930’s,a whole decade was full of dust bowl’s which were causing people to lose everything and becoming poor.The plains were where the dust bowls started spreading to countries like Kansas,Oklahoma,Texas and New Mexico.The dust bowls would kill off all the crops and leave areas with drought.people would start moving out of the countries and others would stay.

The dust storm was a hard decade for most people. People struggling to survive in the dark dust flying around, making everyone sick and causing people to get serious diseases. My opinion is that, The Dust Bowl negatively affected people who lived there in a personal way. The reasons are that diseases spread around and dust was everywhere, life was hard during the Dust Bowl, and it was a depressing, stressful time for people in the Dust Bowl and it was the worst man-made disaster.

The Dust Bowl was a treacherous storm, which occurred in the 1930's, that affected the midwestern people, for example the farmers, and which taught us new technologies and methods of farming. As John Steinbeck wrote in his 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath: "And then the dispossessed were drawn west- from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico; from Nevada and Arkansas, families, tribes, dusted out. Carloads, caravans, homeless and hungry; twenty thousand and fifty thousand and a hundred thousand and two hundred thousand. They streamed over the mountains, hungry and restless - restless as ants, scurrying to find work to do - to lift, to push, to pull, to pick, to cut - anything, any burden to bear, for food. The kids are hungry. We got no place

The first known cause that contributed to the start of the Dust Bowl were farmers who began to try new farming techniques in order to increase profit and minimalize spending. The reasoning behind this was that World War I was going on. This made the demand for wheat sky rocket, and farmers were being paid record prices for their crops. Our nation was making money by feeding other nations, and therefore it was logical to turn every foot of land into farming land. (“United States History.” 1)

The timeline of the dustbowl characterizes the fall of agriculture during the late 1920s, primarily the area in and surrounding the Great Plains. The Dust Bowl was created by a disruption in the areas natural balance. “With the crops and native vegetation gone, there was nothing to hold the topsoil to the ground” (“Dust Bowl and” 30). Agricultural expansion and dry farming techniques caused mass plowing and allowed little of the land to go fallow. With so little of the deeply rooted grass remaining in the Great Plains, all it took was an extended dry season to make the land grow dry and brittle. When most of the land had been enveloped by the grass dust storms weren’t even a yearly occurrence, but with the exponentiation of exposed land, the winds had the potential to erode entire acres. This manmade natural disaster consumed such a large amount of the South's agriculture that it had repercussions on the national level. The Dust Bowl was a “97-million-acre section

People who lived in the Dust Bowl region lost their homes, jobs, and some, even their families. The dust storms were a result of years of treating farmland poorly. Mass migrations of Midwesterners began to occur as dust storms blew away whole houses. The Dust Bowl was an American catastrophe leaving millions of people homeless and jobless. The United States was left in panic as millions of westerners migrated in search of new jobs and homes.

The dust bowl was a long period of time of severe dust storms that created major damage in the ecology and agriculture. During the 1930’s there was a severe drought and failure to apply dryland farming methods to prevent wind erosion. During the drought of the 1930’s all the dry soil turned into dust which the strong winds blew away in huge clouds that sometimes made the sky turn black. The “black blizzard” or “black rollers” traveled across the country reaching as far as the east coast and hitting major cities. Some of the most important causes of the dust bowl were the major drought and wind erosion.

Alabama was one of the hardest states that was hit by the great depression. It was already the poorest state. Most people became homeless because they lost their job and couldn't pay their rent. The homeless then did anything to keep a roof over their head, including making shacks out of anything, forming Hoovervilles. The more people that were homeless, the more competitive the job market became. The Dust Bowl was created by a drought, over plowing of the soil, and the techniques of farmers. When the farmers plowed the soil, they stripped the soils natural defense against bad weather, a thick layer of prairie grasses. When the winds picked up, it also picked up the dark soil. This affected the living conditions on the plains. The dust

The Dust Bowl was a time period in which many dust storms affected the agriculture and economy of the United States. Before the dust storms and droughts, the land being used by the farmers was already being damaged. Overuse had caused the soil to become useless, and by over-cultivating the land, farmers were no longer able to use the once fertile soil, causing a major impact on the lives of those involved in agriculture.

Due to the over plowing of the land, created thicker, more dangerous dust storms. From miles and miles all people could see was darkness, for minutes on end, not knowing when it would stop. Dust soon invade the eye, nose, mouth causing breathing to be more difficult thus using masks to allowing breathing to easy up. These dust bowls were in Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Kansas, and Colorado; you could tell which state by the color of their dust. The dust was so intense that it would trap people into their homes like a snow storm. Year after year the dust storms came more and more, invading in all places. Farmers continued to plow, and hope for rain so they could harvest wheat, but in reality they should have waited for the plains