Dust Bowl - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The Dust Bowl, also known as the Dirty Thirties, was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the US and Canadianprairies during the 1. Aeolian processes) caused the phenomenon. The drought came in three waves, 1. The rapid mechanization of farm equipment, especially small gasoline tractors, and widespread use of the combine harvester contributed to farmers' decisions to convert arid grassland (much of which received no more than 1. These choking billows of dust . On the Plains, they often reduced visibility to 1 metre (3. Associated Press reporter Robert E. Geiger happened to be in Boise City, Oklahoma, to witness the . Many of these families, who were often known as . Elevation ranges from 2,5. Rocky Mountains. The area is semiarid, receiving less than 2. The region is also prone to extended drought, alternating with unusual wetness of equivalent duration. The Fountain of Youth trope as used in popular culture. Some form of Applied Phlebotinum results in one or more main characters regressing to an earlier ageThe region is also subject to high winds. The lack of surface water and timber made the region less attractive than other areas for pioneer settlement and agriculture. The federal government encouraged settlement and development of the Plains for agriculture via the Homestead Act of 1. With the end of the Civil War in 1. First Transcontinental Railroad in 1. Great Plains, and they greatly increased the acreage under cultivation. Grundy, which is located at the tip of Virginia that jabs into Kentucky, is sheltered by the steep, wooded Appalachians and cut through by the mighty Levisa Fork River. Waves of European settlers arrived in the plains at the beginning of the 2. A return of unusually wet weather seemingly confirmed a previously held opinion that the . At the same time, technological improvements such as mechanized plowing and mechanized harvesting made it possible to operate larger properties without high labor costs. The combined effects of the disruption of the Russian Revolution, which decreased the supply of wheat and other commodity crops, and World War I increased agricultural prices; this demand encouraged farmers to dramatically increase cultivation. For example, in the Llano Estacado of eastern New Mexico and northwestern Texas, the area of farmland was doubled between 1. Furthermore, cotton farmers left fields bare during winter months, when winds in the High Plains are highest, and burned the stubble as a means to control weeds prior to planting, thereby depriving the soil of organic nutrients and surface vegetation. Drought and dust storms. After fairly favourable climatic conditions in the 1. The drought dried the topsoil and over time it became friable, reduced to a powdery consistency in some places. Without the indigenous grasses in place, the high winds that occur on the plains picked up the topsoil and created the massive dust storms that marked the Dust Bowl period. The fine soil of the Great Plains was easily eroded and carried east by strong continental winds. On November 1. 1, 1. South Dakota farmlands in just one of a series of severe dust storms that year. Beginning on May 9, 1. Great Plains topsoil in one of the worst such storms of the Dust Bowl. The dust storms caused extensive damage and turned the day to night; witnesses reported that they could not see five feet in front of them at certain points. Denver- based Associated Press reporter Robert E. Geiger happened to be in Boise City, Oklahoma that day. His story about Black Sunday marked the first appearance of the term Dust Bowl; it was coined by Edward Stanley, Kansas City news editor of the Associated Press, while rewriting Geiger's news story. In 1. 94. 1, a Kansas agricultural experiment station released a bulletin that suggested reestablishing native grasses by the . Developed in 1. 93. Specifically, Atlantic Ocean sea surface temperatures appear to have had an indirect effect on the general atmospheric circulation, while Pacific sea surface temperatures seem to have had the most direct influence. More than 5. 00,0. Americans were left homeless. Over 3. 50 houses had to be torn down after one storm alone. Between 1. 93. 0 and 1. Plains states; of those, it is unknown how many moved to California. This number is more than the number of migrants to that area during the 1. Gold Rush. So many families left their farms and were on the move that the proportion between migrants and residents was nearly equal in the Great Plains states. Gregory examined Census Bureau statistics and other records to learn more about the migrants. Based on a 1. 93. Bureau of Agricultural Economics of about 1. California in the 1. Nearly one- third of all migrants were professional or white- collar workers. After the Great Depression ended, some moved back to their original states. Many others remained where they had resettled. About one- eighth of California's population is of Okie heritage. Different groups took many different approaches to responding to the disaster. To identify areas that needed attention, groups such as the Soil Conservation Service generated detailed soil maps and took photos of the land from the sky. To create shelterbelts to reduce soil erosion, groups such as the United States Forestry Service. Finally, groups like the Resettlement Administration, which later became the Farm Security Administration, encouraged small farm owners to resettle on other lands, if they lived in dryer parts of the Plains. Roosevelt's first 1. Interior Secretary Harold L. Ickes established the Soil Erosion Service in August 1. Hugh Hammond Bennett. In 1. 93. 5, it was transferred and reorganized under the Department of Agriculture and renamed the Soil Conservation Service. It is now known as the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). The Act shifted the parity goal from price equality of agricultural commodities and the articles that farmers buy to income equality of farm and non- farm population. It paid to have the meat packed and distributed to the poor and hungry. The Federal Surplus Relief Corporation (FSRC) was established to regulate crop and other surpluses. FDR in an address on the AAA commented,Let me make one other point clear for the benefit of the millions in cities who have to buy meats. Last year the Nation suffered a drought of unparalleled intensity. If there had been no Government program, if the old order had obtained in 1. America and in the corn belt would have resulted in the marketing of thin cattle, immature hogs and the death of these animals on the range and on the farm, and if the old order had been in effect those years, we would have had a vastly greater shortage than we face today. They are still on the range, and other millions of heads are today canned and ready for this country to eat. Apples, beans, canned beef, flour and pork products were distributed through local relief channels. Cotton goods were later included, to clothe the needy. The DRS bought cattle in counties which were designated emergency areas, for $1. Animals determined unfit for human consumption were killed; at the beginning of the program, more than 5. The DRS assigned the remaining cattle to the Federal Surplus Relief Corporation (FSRC) to be used in food distribution to families nationwide. Although it was difficult for farmers to give up their herds, the cattle slaughter program helped many of them avoid bankruptcy. The administration also began to educate farmers on soil conservation and anti- erosion techniques, including crop rotation, strip farming, contour plowing, terracing, and other improved farming practices. The government paid reluctant farmers a dollar an acre to practice the new methods. By 1. 93. 8, the massive conservation effort had reduced the amount of blowing soil by 6. In the fall of 1. The government still encouraged continuing the use of conservation methods to protect the soil and ecology of the Plains. At the end of the drought, the programs which were implemented during these tough times helped to sustain a positive relationship between America's farmers and the federal government. Land degradation varied widely. Aside from the short- term economic consequences caused by erosion, there were severe long- term economic consequences of the Dust Bowl. By 1. 94. 0, counties that had experienced the most significant levels of erosion had a greater decline in agricultural land values. The per- acre value of farmland declined by 2. In highly eroded areas, less than 2. The economy adjusted predominantly through large relative population declines in more- eroded counties, both during the 1. Because the amount of topsoil had been reduced, it would have been more productive to shift from crops and wheat to animals and hay. During the Depression and through at least the 1. Some of the failure to shift to more productive agricultural products may be related to ignorance about the benefits of changing land use. A second explanation is a lack of availability of credit, caused by the high rate of failure of banks in the Plains states. Because banks failed in the Dust Bowl region at a higher rate than elsewhere, farmers could not get the credit they needed to buy capital to shift crop production. According to the farmers he interviewed, technology had provided the perfect answer to old troubles, such of the bad days would not return. In Worster's view, by contrast, the scene demonstrated that America's capitalist high- tech farmers had learned nothing. They were continuing to work in an unsustainable way, devoting far cheaper subsidized energy to growing food than the energy could give back to its ultimate consumers. Mother of Seven Children. For instance, the Farm Security Administration hired numerous photographers to document the crisis. Artists such as Dorothea Lange were aided by having salaried work during the Depression. Among her most well- known photographs is Destitute Pea Pickers in California. Mother of Seven Children. This picture expressed the struggles of people caught by the Dust Bowl and raised awareness in other parts of the country of its reach and human cost. Decades later, Thompson disliked the boundless circulation of the photo and resented the fact she did not receive any money from its broadcast.
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