Farmers in the Dust Bowl

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The Dust Bowl probably had more of an impact on the farming industry then on any other industry in America. The Dust Bowl hit farmers hard but they had only themselves to blame. The way in which the farmers cultivated and produced their crops destroyed the land and after severe droughts left much of the land useless.
First to understand what impact the Dust Bowl had on the farmers it needs to be determined what the farmers did to cause the Dust Bowl. Farmers in the early 1900’s prior to the Dust Bowl understood many basic agricultural practices like rotating crops and the importance of grasslands in maintaining topsoil. During the 1920’s though many farmers got too greedy and decided to only grow the crops that would make them the most money ignoring the impact this decision would have on the soil. Farmers continually grew the same crops year after year slowly diminishing the nutrients in the soil until there was almost nothing left (Source 1.) As if this decision wasn’t bad enough farmers then proceeded to cultivate grasslands and plant enormous wheat fields. In the past this would have proved pointless as the farmer could not have dreamed to be able to harvest all of that wheat but with the invention and advancement of the tractor farmers could now plow much more land and increase profit (Source 4.) With the removal of large portions of grasslands the topsoil was no longer anchored down and was just waiting to be blown away by heavy winds. These issues were magnified by the fact that the Great Plains receive less than twenty inches of precipitation yearly on average which is lower than most other parts of the country. (Source 8) All of these decisions by the farmers were magnified when in 1931 a seven year drought period ensued...

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...ing through the Great Depression. San Diego: Greenhaven, 2004. 130-40. Print.
Gazit, Chana. “Mass Exodus From the Plains.” PBS PBS.org. 15 Nov. 2009. Web 21 Nov. 2013.
Gorman, Carol. "The Farmer: No Stranger to Hard Times." America's Farm Crisis. New York: F. Watts, 1987. 18-26. Print.
Hughes, Patrick. “Dust Bowl Days.” Weatherwise 48.3 (1995): 32. MasterFILE Main Edition, Web. 20 Nov. 2013.
Long, Robert Emmet. The Farm Crisis. New York: H.W. Wilson, 1987 Print.
McHenry, Robert. “Dust Bowl.” Encyclopedia Britannica. 15th ed. 2003 Print.
Nelson, Cary. “The Great Depression: About the Dust Bowl” Modern American Poetry. Dept. 56 English University at Illinois Urbana Champaign. 2008. Web 21 Nov. 2013.
Oswald, Brad. “PBS’s Dust Bowl documentary history lesson, cautionary tale.”
“When Dust Delivered Despair.” Read 59.7 (2009): 4. MasterFILE Main Edition. Web 20 Nov. 2013.

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