Dust Bowl Dbq Essay

Timothy Egan called the Dust Bowl "the worst hard times As the nation was hit with its worst economic disaster, the country was hit with its worst ecological disaster as well. Over 300 dust storms or dusters hit the Southern Great Plains during the 1930s. The hardest hit areas were theOklahoma and Texas panhandles.The land became almost uninhabitable, and over two million people left their homes throughout the course of the dust bowl in search of a new life elsewhere. Many ended up nearly starved to death and homeless. Some of the states severely affected were Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado.Cattle became blinded during dust storms and ran around in circles, inhaling dust, until they fell and died, their lungs caked with dust and mud. Newborn calves suffocated.Three reasons for the Dust Bowl: Loss Of shortgrass prairie, mechanization of farming and lack of rainfall.

The Dust Bowl was caused by the loss of short prairie grass. Some supporting evidence is found in document B like,"Grass is what holds the earth together." (Doc B). *Grass was needed to hold soil in place. The Enlarged Homestead Act brought more farmers to grow wheat. *When more farmers came in and plowed the grass under, the dirt was no longer protected from the winds and erosion. Without deep-rooted prairie grasses to hold the soil in place, it began to

Some supporting evidence is found in document C&D for example, *Tractors, plows and combines could do the work of ten horses (Doc C).Between 1899 and 1929 the number of acres harvested in the plains doubled (Doc D).The farm of Fed Folkers is a good example (Doc D).This new machinery caused the shortgrass prairie to be plowed up even faster.Modern machinery had made wheat farming more efficient and profitable. The result was more land speculation, more acreage turned over to wheat farming, and a blind faith that the good times wouldn't end. But warning signs were