What Are The Causes Of The Dust Bowl
Causes Of The Dirty Thirties
Up, up, and away! Dust is flying and blowing around in the sky like airplanes. It is the 1930’s and America is facing the sad times of the Great Depression. But the Great Depression is not the only problem the U.S. is facing. Banks were failing, businesses were closing, and workers were being fired. A big struggle was faced by farmers in the Southern Great Plains, and that was the Dust Bowl. The question at mind now is what caused this tragedy to hit us when we thought we were already at our worst? Here are some supposed causes of the Dust Bowl.
The first cause of the Dust Bowl was the progress in technology. Farmers were thrilled when faster and more effective tools were made to harvest crops instead of the horse-drawn plow. Tractors, plows, and combines were added to most farmers daily routines, the tools that helped change everything. 10 horses were the equivalent to the work of one tractor. Combines cut and threshed the grain in one swoop, using less than half as much labor. Plows worked faster at uncovering more soil and ripping up more grass. Harvesting was going great and …show more content…
money was coming in faster than it ever had before. From 1879 to 1899 the number of acres of crops harvested jumped from 10 million to 50 million, and from 50 million to 105 million in 1929. Of course, when everything starts going right, something is bound to go wrong. And that wrong was the dust storms created from exposing too much land at one time.
In addition to technology advancements, the removal of grass really killed farmers. “Grass is what counts. It’s what saves us all-far as we get saved...Grass is what holds the earth together.” Grass is needed to grow crops. When farmers began to tear and rip up all of the shortgrass, the top layer of soil came up with it. This exposed the rich and healthy soil and made it easier for the wind to pick it up and carry it away. The removal of trees also hurt farmers. Roots help the soil stay together and minerals from the trees and grass kept it plentiful. The static electricity in the air picked up the topsoil and carried it for miles, leaving farmers with poor land, land that was impossible to grow crops on. These dust clouds were called “black blizzards.” These blizzards were blinding and filled people and cattle’s lungs with sand and debris. People hoped for rain to help their soil and eliminate these dust storms, but they were extremely unlucky.
The last cause of the Dust Bowl was the lack of rain.
According to John Wesley Powell, 20 inches of rain annually was necessary to grow crops in regions like the Southern Great Plains, and that was the minimal. The average rainfall between the five states the Dust Bowl hit the hardest, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, and Kansas, was 17 inches of rain. From 1931 to 1940 in Dalhart, Texas, only one year reached Powell’s minimum rainfall average. This absence of rain distressed farmers. Some left in hope for a better paying job and better life, one with clean lungs. Most stayed however and fought out the storm. They would sleep with washcloths over their noses and try to lie still, careful not to stir up the dust on their sheets. Cattle would run in circles until they fall and breathe in so much dust that they die. This decade was one of great
remorse.
The Dust Bowl was a devastating time for farmers and others in the states it touched. For once, technology advancements were a bad thing, and planting too many crops was the wrong idea. Rain did not come in their favor. The battle of the Dust Bowl was truly one you would not want to live through. How would you have dealt with the storms as a farmer in 1930?
Up, up, and away! Dust is flying and blowing around in the sky like airplanes. It is the 1930’s and America is facing the sad times of the Great Depression. But the Great Depression is not the only problem the U.S. is facing. Banks were failing, businesses were closing, and workers were being fired. A big struggle was faced by farmers in the Southern Great Plains, and that was the Dust Bowl. The question at mind now is what caused this tragedy to hit us when we thought we were already at our worst? Here are some supposed causes of the Dust Bowl.
The first cause of the Dust Bowl was the progress in technology. Farmers were thrilled when faster and more effective tools were made to harvest crops instead of the horse-drawn plow. Tractors, plows, and combines were added to most farmers daily routines, the tools that helped change everything. 10 horses were the equivalent to the work of one tractor. Combines cut and threshed the grain in one swoop, using less than half as much labor. Plows worked faster at uncovering more soil and ripping up more grass. Harvesting was going great and …show more content…
money was coming in faster than it ever had before. From 1879 to 1899 the number of acres of crops harvested jumped from 10 million to 50 million, and from 50 million to 105 million in 1929. Of course, when everything starts going right, something is bound to go wrong. And that wrong was the dust storms created from exposing too much land at one time.
In addition to technology advancements, the removal of grass really killed farmers. “Grass is what counts. It’s what saves us all-far as we get saved...Grass is what holds the earth together.” Grass is needed to grow crops. When farmers began to tear and rip up all of the shortgrass, the top layer of soil came up with it. This exposed the rich and healthy soil and made it easier for the wind to pick it up and carry it away. The removal of trees also hurt farmers. Roots help the soil stay together and minerals from the trees and grass kept it plentiful. The static electricity in the air picked up the topsoil and carried it for miles, leaving farmers with poor land, land that was impossible to grow crops on. These dust clouds were called “black blizzards.” These blizzards were blinding and filled people and cattle’s lungs with sand and debris. People hoped for rain to help their soil and eliminate these dust storms, but they were extremely unlucky.
The last cause of the Dust Bowl was the lack of rain.
According to John Wesley Powell, 20 inches of rain annually was necessary to grow crops in regions like the Southern Great Plains, and that was the minimal. The average rainfall between the five states the Dust Bowl hit the hardest, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, and Kansas, was 17 inches of rain. From 1931 to 1940 in Dalhart, Texas, only one year reached Powell’s minimum rainfall average. This absence of rain distressed farmers. Some left in hope for a better paying job and better life, one with clean lungs. Most stayed however and fought out the storm. They would sleep with washcloths over their noses and try to lie still, careful not to stir up the dust on their sheets. Cattle would run in circles until they fall and breathe in so much dust that they die. This decade was one of great
remorse.
The Dust Bowl was a devastating time for farmers and others in the states it touched. For once, technology advancements were a bad thing, and planting too many crops was the wrong idea. Rain did not come in their favor. The battle of the Dust Bowl was truly one you would not want to live through. How would you have dealt with the storms as a farmer in 1930?