The infamous Dust Bowl of the 1930s was one of the most horrific and devastating environmental crises to hit twentieth century North America. The Dust Bowl was a period of unyielding dust storms which inevitably caused major agricultural, ecological and irreversible damage to the American and Canadian prairie lands. The Dust Bowl lasted from 1930 to 1936, in some areas the drought lasted until 1940. The Dust Bowl of the 1930s was mostly a man-made disaster. Some critical factors that played a role in the cause of the dust bowl are: decades of extensive farming without crop rotation, agricultural advances, the great depression, and deep plowing which destroyed the grasses which ultimately damaged the soil and dried it up. The Federal Government had an extensive role during the Dust Bowl which ultimately aided in creating the dust bowl, exacerbating and lastly aiding victims of this crisis. The Federal government did not see the underlying and future problems of deep plowing the Great Plains which consisted of 100 million acres on the other hand the Government did a excellent job in addressing the crisis and aiding the hundreds of thousands Americans who were vastly affected by this environmental crisis.…
In the period 1865-1900, technology, government policy, and economic conditions all changed American agriculture a great deal. New farming machinery had a large role in the late 19th century, giving farmers the opportunity to produce a lot more crops than they used to. The railroads had an enormous influence on agriculture. They were able to charge the farmers large fees, expenses that farmers barely had enough to cover, in order to transport their goods throughout the expansive country. The booming industry also changed American agriculture, creating monopolies and gaining incredible wealth with which the farmers simply could not compete. Economically, the monetary policy along with the steadily dropping prices of agricultural produce led farmers further into debt, eventually producing outcomes such as the crop-lien system and sharecropping. All of these tie into government policy which favored the large and wealthy industries and monopolies over the farmers.…
In 1900-1930 families started buying land and moving to the plains. They would farm cash crops on the land but it was very hard work. The country was already in a depression and also the stock market crash. Their plants failed 5 years in a row. With no income they couldn’t pay mortgages.…
Paragraph 1 –problems facing the farmers and the nation: Outside information: Panics, 1873, 1893; high interest on mortgages ; unfair shipping rates charged by railroad companies; lack of government regulation of business practices and public utilities (transportation & communications), Use of the Oz; Use the worksheet; use the handout given you today.…
The American West was viewed as a land of opportunity and success for many people of different racial and financial backgrounds during the time between 1865 to 1890. However, the extent of success from the opportunity varied on multiple factors. For the homesteader, opportunity was based upon good weather conditions and hard work but mostly only large scale corporations succeeded. Mining provided little for the average miner; large mining industries profited instead.. At some point West was the land of opportunity and at the same time it was not a land of opportunity for Native American Indians and Minorities.…
The Great Depression is one of the most misunderstood events in not only American history but also Great Britain, France, Germany, and many other industrialized nations. It also has had important consequences and was an extremely devastating event in America. It was the longest and most severe depression ever experienced by the industrialized Western world. When the New York Stock Exchange crashed in October 1929, the United States dropped sharply into a major depression. The world was in wide demand for agricultural goods during World War I, but they had rapidly decreased after the war and rural America experienced a severe depression throughout most of the 1920's and even on into the 1930's. One of the major losses for agriculture was due to banks foreclosing farm mortgages because the farmers could no longer pay their mortgages. By the early 1930's, thousands of American farmers were out of businesses. Major businesses, however, had to increase profits through most of the decade although wages remained low and workers were unable to buy the goods they had helped produce. The financial and banking systems were very unregulated and a number of banks had failed during the 1920's. Not only did the Great Depression affect the United States as a whole, there were many different effects on both the North and South.…
“We've transformed agriculture into something that needs far less labor and a lot more capital and technology, and a lot of people have been displaced as a result,” says John Cromartie, a population researcher at the USDA. “In a sense, the Great Plains is a victim of its own success, because…
During the last days of Harrison government the railroads system suffer a major collapsed creating a major panic that impacts the whole nation. Many banks and companies depended on the railroad system and soon the stock market reacted to this. Other countries who had invested started to pull out their funds, leading to a great crisis. The south and the west faced an agricultural crisis and those regions had a chaotic situation. The people were now living in poverty and the monetary issues were heating up.…
plains were plowed extensively into wheat fields. At first, the economy was strong, but then in 1929 the stock market crashed. Farmers would move into the plains and plow the soil to plant wheat, leaving only dust to remain. Millions of acres were plowed. The farmers paid no attention to the drought; they just wanted to make cash. They lay idle, ignoring the drought that would bring terror last for eight years. What the farmers didn’t know was that they were cheated. Encouraged by cheap land, the farmers moved onto the Great Plains. Without knowing that the government was using them as a tool, farmers would come into the land and begin planting wheat and selling it, boosting the economy; but then due to the vast amount of producers, the prices would go into an all time low. With families moving into the Great Plains, population was extremely higher. Geoff Cunfer from Southern Minnesota State University states, “The population of the Great Plains – 450 counties stretching from Texas and New Mexico to the Dakotas and Montana – stood at only 800,000 in 1880; it was seven times that, at 5.6 million in 1930.” This caused more people to be affected by the dust storms than ever recorded in…
Hansen, Zeynep K., and Gary D. Libecap. "Small Farms, Externalities, and the Dust Bowl of the 1930s." Journal of Political Economy 112.3 (2004): 665-94. Print.…
Before the Dust Bowl, The Southeastern Plains was the best place for farmers to go farming and planting. The grass that covered the plains stood six feet high and stretched all the way from Canada south to Texas. People really moved to the midwest certain that they had found the richest soil in the world and the ideal place to settle down. Men began to clear the land — using the endless prairie to grow wheat, and the trees to build houses, barns and outbuildings. During that time, Great Depression and World War I was going around (“United States History”).…
People used the wrong agricultural practices when farming. “With insufficient understanding of the ecology of the plains, farmers had conducted extensive deep plowing of the virgin topsoil of the Great Plains during the previous decade; this had displaced the native, deep-rooted grasses that normally trapped soil and moisture even during periods of drought and high winds.” ("Dust Bowl" ). Farmers didn’t know that deep plowing would cause the area to be too airy and it will get picked up by wind. The farmers should not have kept using these technique after seeing it doesnt work. “After the Land Run of 1889, famers changed the landscape that was…
In the period of time following the end of the Civil War in 1865 to the turn of the century some 35 years later, American’s bore witness to the demise of an almost entirely rural and agricultural nation dominated by farmers to the rise of an urban and industrial society dictated by bankers, industrialists and city dwellers. This momentous transformation enabled the United States to mature into the wealthiest and most powerful it had ever been before. The progress was achieved, however, only with immense adversity for those in the American agricultural community. Farmers, faced numerous obstacles and…
Firstly, one of the challenges Canadians faced during the Great Depression was the disastrous drought in Saskatchewan. Canadians had to face the bitter cold winters and hot dry summers. The land was so dry and had been worked on so many times that the land became very fine. With one gust of wind the soil would blow across the country creating a dust storm. Parts of Saskatchewan and Alberta became to be known as the “Dust Bowl”. (Mennill 14) In 1932, the most damaging grasshopper plague in 50 years hit Manitoba and Saskatchewan. The grasshoppers destroyed the crop fields across the prairies. People could no longer eat the chickens because they began to eat all the grasshoppers and was not safe to eat. (Mennill 15) The farmers would also have to work during the hot dry summers planting seeds. Commonly, the dust storms would blow away the newly planted seed and soil. Farmers were forced to abandon their fields. Roughly 14 000 farms were left behind during the Great Depression. (CBC News) Most of the farmers that left went to Ontario to find work and be able to provide for their families.…
Unfortunately the farmers were affected as well on that time because both a drought and horrendous dust storm took place. As a result of them "The Dust Bowl" happened. It was on an area of Oklahoma and other prairie states of the US affected by severe soil erosion in the early 1930s.That left the farmers with no crops. Everyone was losing his job by that time. Herbert Hoover, the president of the United States, was blamed to be the main reason of the Great Depression. But soon, on the next elections, Franklin D. Roosevelt won Hoover's place. Americans had high hopes for Franklin D. Roosevelt. First of all Roosevelt closed all the banks and he only let them reopen when they start being stabilized. He started a new governmental system called "the new deal". Each program in that system has its own initials and it was made for helping a certain type of people or for solving a problem, For example the AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Administration). That was made to help farmers specifically.…