Dust Bowl Essay

The Dust Bowl

The Dust Bowl is one of, if not the most disastrous incidents that have occurred over the past century. It took place during the 1930s, in the Great Plains states like Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. The Dust Bowl has affected so many people and land, and will be remembered in history. The Dust Bowl began in 1930. One of the main conditions that caused this catastrophic event was the weather. “Dust Storms swept across the land during the 1930s (Douglas-Hurt).” This is when the horrific storms began. As each storm went on, it would lift all the fresh soil, which would take thousands of years to replace. Without this precious soil, it wasn’t very easy for farmers to plant different crops like wheat, and grow it for

Farmers were unaware of their practices, and never used crop rotation. Crop rotation is a method of planting where you give the soil a break, and use different land. “Such farmers were practicing dry farming, in which crops are grown in arid or semiarid conditions with little irrigation” (Delher). At times, this was very hard for farmers because they did not have the amount of money or land to ever give their soil a break. “The plains were productive when there was plenty of rainfall. But they were also subject to serious drought and bitter winters” (Douglas-Hurt). There, also, was very little rainfall, and farmers had a hard time growing and selling their crops. Farmers, at the time, did not know how to grow their crops without rain, and their crops would die because of the lack of

There was never a time that people could get a break. Dust was in the food that they ate, on their clothes, and even on their furniture. Families tried to use different forms of clothes to cover crevices and windows, but dust always found a way to get in and accumulate. “Residents sealed windows with tape or putty and hung wet sheets in front of windows to filter the air. Others spread sheets over their furniture, wedged rags under doors, and covered keyholes to keep the dirt out of their homes. Electric lights dimmed to a faint glow along streets during the day” (Douglas-Hurt). People weren’t also just affected by this event mentally, but also physically. There was a disease that they came up with called dust pneumonia. This occurs when an individual breathes in too much dust, inflaming the alveoli. “...It was impossible to avoid breathing in the dust, and the worst cases led to debilitating respiratory ailments”