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How Did Farmers Grow During The Great Depression

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“The Great War proved how confused the world is. Depression is proving it again” stated Anne Sullivan, an inspirational teacher of the early twentieth century. World War One, was the first major war that America engaged in. During the war, farmers produced an abundance of food for the war, which economically helped the farmers. However, crops and livestock prices declined after the war was over, and they plummeted when the stock market crashed in 1929. Economic problems were not the only problems farmers faced. They entered a decade of drought, never before experienced in America. What they did not lose in the economic collapse, they lost because of the drought and an environmental disaster, the Dust Bowl, a severe dust storm that damaged farmers’ land and property. Fortunately, when Roosevelt became president, he quickly implemented legislations …show more content…

Instead of having a positive effect, this practice damaged the land by leaving the dry, unfruitful soil at the surface. Although it had been happening for a while, harmful farming techniques began having a larger effect when done in such a large scale. “Dust Bowl During the Great Depression” tells about the harmful farming techniques that caused the Dust Bowl. The farmers were removing grass that benefited crops that could endure harsh weather and keep crops fixed in the ground. This method revealed the topsoil, leaving it vulnerable to violent winds. In addition to this, farmers were moving their grazing animals to smaller areas to prepare more room for crops. This caused grazing animals to over-graze the land which additionally damaged it. The farmers also began to stop tilling the land, which was another method that left the fields vulnerable to wind. When farmers left the soil dry, this was called dry farming, which led to strong winds that created dust storms from

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Evidence from Doc D, shows that over 100 million acres were harvested crops. How this was possible was advances in machinery. The tractor at the time was a new type of technology used to help farmers plant soil for crops. Since the soil was not watered because of the drought in the previous paragraph, this caused the soil to turn into dust.

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During this Boom period as known, most farmers wanted to produce more to satisfy the consumer needs. One major problem which these farmers did not put into consideration was good farming practice. Most farmers were practicing monoculture and over cultivating in one specific place. Most farmers also cut down all trees in order to get a larger portion of lands to cultivate their crops. These practices lead to Dust bowl.

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As long as they can earn money, the farmers will continue in these practices. Worster spends several chapters focusing on the different solutions to the Dust Bowl and how those solutions were utilized only when the farmers were being paid through President Roosevelt’s New Deal. However, once the quality of the land started to improve or it rained the farmers abandoned the practices in favor of more profit. He focuses on the solutions proposed by the conservationists, ecologists, and agronomists.

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The Dust Bowl Have a minute, great. Because this may be the only chance for you to hear about this great disaster the dust bowl or known as the dirty thirties. In the 1930’s there was an horrible disaster called the dust bowl. The people who lived through the dust bowl, lived through a nightmare, that nightmare didn’t end till ten years later. Ten years, of drought wind dirt that’s a long time for a storm (Campbell __).

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During the Dust Bowl some people made the decision to stay at their farms. Huge drifts of dirt piled up on homesteaders’ doors, came in the cracks of windows and came down from the ceilings. Barnyards and pastures were buried in dirt. After about 850 million tons of topsoil was blown away in 1935 alone. The government responded to this by saying “Unless something is done, the western plains will be as arid as the Arabian desert.”

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382 Words | 2 Pages

The Great Depression and the Dust Bowl were devistating time for American citizens followed by another terrible time called the dust bowl. Both were devastating times for america. The great depression caused the dust bowl because farmers lost their money and property which cause many to move to urban america in search of work. The great depression had a huge impact on american citizens from 1929-1939.

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111 Words | 1 Pages

The livestock was another group that was affected in the dust bowl. When the AAA demanded the farmers to plow over there land they killed 6 million young pigs were slaughtered. Many of those pigs just starved because the farmers were no longer working so they could not feed them. When the dust bowl came money farmers and ranchers livestock were killed and when they cut them open there was only dust in there lungs and guts. The cattle grazing was reduced and millions of more acres were plowed and planted.

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Luckily Franklin D. Roosevelt attempted to shine some light with a new deal. The Dust Bowl was what they called the Great Depression in the drought stricken areas. The condition of the areas around Oklahoma and Texas made living dangerous and futile. “When drought struck

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Throughout history, the responsibilities of men have changed. Agriculture, for the most part, is and has been a male dominated profession. However, advances in technology have completely changed many of the tasks and responsibilities farming. The 1930’s was a difficult time for all people in the, but it was a devastating time for farmers.

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President during the Great Depression, Roosevelt was famous for his “New Deal,” successful programs that helped strengthen the American economy. In the poem “Debts” by Karen Hesse, the first stanza talks about what President Roosevelt was doing to help farmers. Roosevelt loaned out money to farmers so that they could buy the proper equipment and get their farms started. These farmers were given the time to grow their crops and harvest and sell them before they ever had to pay the government back. This was a great relief to many farmers because growing crops during this time frame was incredibly difficult.

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Within a decade, the farmer have been through the hopeful moments of prosperity and the hopeless times of hunger. Other migrating families kept traveling to find jobs. The leading historian of the Dust Bowl, Donald Worster, described it in the following way: “In no other instance was there greater or more sustained damage to the American land, and there have been few times when so much tragedy was visited on its inhabitants. Not even the Depression was more devastating, economically” [2].

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Except there were still new innovations and ideas that were coming about in an attempt to survive the dust storms. Not every farmer, but a good amount of them who still had faith in their land, were ready to stick around and fight through the storms. Previous survival techniques were brought to the table and put into practice to try and make do. A majority of farmers increased they milk cow herds and the cream from the

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The Dust Bowls were dust storms that created dry weather and caused crops to fail, and destroyed the fields. In the movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” when Everett and the boys head over to Pete’s estrange cousin’s farm to regroup, but when they arrive there is nothing left and they are not producing anything, this is an example of how most farms ended up during the Great Depression. Due to the lack of income, many families were not able to maintain the lifestyle they had, they lost their cars, homes and other luxurious goods that they use to posses. People who lost their jobs often lost their homes and moved to hoovervilles, shanty towns built by the homeless and they are named after Herbert Hoover the president during that time.

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The 1920s was a time of wealth and hope for the majority of people across America. Farmers in America, however, were starting to experience the effects of the Great Depression, beginning at the end of World War l in 1918. The Great Depression was the longest and most widespread depression in American history, lasting from 1929 to 1939. Farmers had been at an all-time high in production levels during World War l by selling their products to European markets. When the war ended European markets were closed off by tariff restrictions.

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Livestock could not breath or find food sources. Thousands of people lost their homes due to the storm. Changes in farming and agriculture in the early 1900s altered the landscape and soil creating the perfect environment for the Dust Bowl and impacted living conditions and economic policy. First, changes in farming and agriculture over the years led to the conditions that caused the Dust Bowl and impacted the Great Plains. “Wind and drought alone did not create the Dust Bowl.

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