What Caused the Dust Bowl?

As the years went by, farmers gained more advanced machines to harvest their crops. When the farmers gained new machines, they ended up over farming their land because the machines could harvest more crops in shorter time. In 1879, 10 million crops were harvested by a horse-drawn plow,  1899, 50 million crops were harvested by middle-aged machines, and 105 million crops were harvested by tractors in 1929  (Document D). Timothy Egan stated “Folkers plowed nearly his entire square mile,and then paid to rent nearby property and ripped up that grass as well” (Document C). However, the machines and over farming was not the only thing that caused the Dust Bowl.

The period between 1870 and 1900 was a time to change politics. The country was for once free from war and was united as one nation. However, as these decades passed by, the American farmer found it harder to live comfortably. Crops such as cotton and wheat, once the cash crop of agriculture, were selling at prices so low that it was nearly impossible for farmers to make a profit. Improvements in transportation allowed larger competitors to sell more easily and more cheaply, making it harder for American yeoman farmers to sell their crops. Finally, years of drought in the Midwest and the fall of business in the 1890s devastated the farming community. Most notably, the Populist Party arose to fight what farmers saw as the issues affecting

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

Farmers came to the Great Plains is great abundance, as this was heavily encouraged by government land policies and cheap land that was readily available. One of these policies was The Homestead Act, which would provide free or inexpensive land to farmers. The ever-growing railroad industry also offered attractive deals to those wishing to move onto the plains. All of these incentives were very enticing at first for farmers, but when they arrived in their new land they were met with a few problems. This new environment was difficult and dry. The animal and plant life was strange to the farmers. Not only that, but the native inhabitants of this land were warlike. However, farmers soon adapted to their new environment by implementing a few solutions. Lack of wood was solved by sod houses and barbed wire. Windmills and dry farming techniques were used to overcome the lack of water, and new machinery was used for farming. But expensive machinery soon led to debt and this debt led to bankruptcy. Farmers were faced with the same issue as the cattleman and many had to sell out to corporate

The dust bowl was an outcome of various problems that were accumulated during the years. The

Rays of golden sunlight were piercing the blue sky. Today was a hot day. There had been no rain in the last month. A young child was playing in the field while his father was harvesting the crops. The boy was playing among the newly harvested golden vegetables. There were a lot more vegetables than he remembered from years past. The boy knew they were going to sell most of this harvest. Where are the other plants that he remembered? Why was corn the only thing growing? Why is it in straight lines instead of winding around the property like it normally did? He pondered these questions on the way to school. Today, unlike normal, his teacher let him out of school early. Though he thought nothing of it at the time the sky was turning dark. It

Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.” Money was extremely scarce due to the war, farmers tried to balance this out by overusing the land. The problems escalated due to the drought and the Great Depression. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt brainstormed the New Deal to help guide the United States out of the Great Depression. Recurring events will help farmers and landowners preserve their soil in the future. The Dust Bowl of the 1930s worsened the economic conditions of the United States but led to the advancements in agriculture.

Farmers did well after the Civil War and into the 1880s with plentiful rainfall and easy credit from banks. In the 1890s, however, American farmers suffered from drought, poor harvests, restrictive tariff and fiscal policies, low commodity prices, and competition from abroad. A downward swing in the business cycle exacerbated their plight, and many farmers in the Plains filed for

The Dust Bowl was a treacherous storm, which occurred in the years of the 1930’s, which affected the Midwestern people, an example the farmers, which taught us new technologies and methods of farming. John Steinbeck wrote in his novel from 1939 The Grapes of Wrath: "And then the dispossessed were drawn west- from Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Texas; from Nevada and Arkansas, families, tribes, dusted out, Caravans, carloads, and homeless. Totals of 20,000, 50,000, 100,000, and 200,000 people. They streamed over the mountains, hungry and restless. We got no place to live. Like ants scurrying for work, food, and most of all for land." The early thirties opened with prosperity and growth. At the time the Midwest was full of agricultural

`Many farmers settled in the Southern Plains and started to grow their crops their. The were prosperous for decades. The crops grew extremely well, and the farmers prospered. However when the 1930s hit, so did droughts and clouds of dust. They plagued nearly seventy-five percent of the U.S.

With many farmers having such high yields, there was an abundance of crops so the prices fell and a farmer had to plant more in order to have enough money to support their families. The Enlarged Homestead Act guaranteed 320 acres of land to farmers who were willing to take land that were considered to be marginal and could not be irrigated well. They plowed up the virgin soil and planted acres and acres of golden wheat, leaving the land vulnerable to the elements after the yearly harvest. The farmers also implemented the use of fossil fuel ran machinery that made it easier to plow up hundreds of acres in a short period of time, which exposed even more soil than what would have been open to the elements had the farming been done by an animal pulled plow. The massive influx of farmers because of that act caused major soil erosion which was made worse by the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.

What caused the Dust Bowl? I stopped in my tracks, all my cattle were dead, lying on the ground. I took another step and was blinded. This is what the Dust Bowl was like for many people living in the southern plains. The Dust Bowl was a time period in the 1930’s when a strip of states were hit with countless dust storms that killed animals and people.

And, the fact that the farmers were rotating the soil to plant wheats and vegetables without giving the grass a chance to regrow, the area was no longer suitable for the native plants and species, which leads to a distraction on the ecosystem. So, after years of practicing the same routine, the lands become more vulnerable to bad weather because the grass was no longer there to hold the soil in place, keeping the nutrients in the soil, or reserving the rain water to protect the soil from drying. Therefore, the soil becomes desolated. Yet, they still had a chance to give the land a break to regain its stability, but instead the farmers expended more lands for agriculture project. By doing so, they get rid of the buffalos and the coyotes, which lead the rabbets population to become overpopulated. In addition, they also force more area of the land to become more vulnerable, and unprotected from bad

During the 1920 's, the United States was incredibly prosperous. Urban businesses and industries were bustling; it was a golden era. But with all this attention directed to the big cities, farmers didn 't get much market for their crops, thus they began to struggle. As a response, farmers began removing millions of acres of natural grass sod to plant mostly wheat and other crops to gain money to support their families. In 1926, farmers had a very successful year and began plowing and planting even more crops. Millions of acres of unsuitable farmland were uprooted and destroyed because of this. Most of the land that was plowed was unsuitable for farming because they had deep roots that held tightly to the ground and when they were

It started off as a normal day for the Johnson boys, They woke up, ate breakfast and headed off to the fields to start their chores. Their chores included feeding and tending the livestock and taking care of the crops. There were two boys, Rick and Morty the youngest son, Morty loved feeding the cows and sheep his favorite was a calf named Chad. Chad and Morty have been best friends ever since Chad was born. When Morty was feeding Chad he looked over and saw a cloud of dust that ranged for miles. He yelled at his brother to look and together they put away all the livestock and went inside for shelter. Four hours goes by and the storm finally passes. The two boys go outside to see that everything has been covered in dust. They run to the barn and see that all their livestock had died from dust suffocation. Rick and Morty go in a panic everything they worked hard for was gone. They had no other choice but to migrate to try and find a job so they can survive. So the next day they packed everything they could carry and got the next ticket to California. This was very usual for the farmers in the midwest to do this. The Dust Bowl affected people's way of life in the Midwest forcing them to migrate to California in search of a job and food.