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Dust Bowl

Dust Bowl. 1930’s. The Promise Land. When pioneers migrated west in the middle of the 19 th century they found promising land in the Midwest They found a land covered in prairie grasses that reached 6 feet tall!

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Dust Bowl

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  1. Dust Bowl 1930’s

  2. The Promise Land • When pioneers migrated west in the middle of the 19th century they found promising land in the Midwest • They found a land covered in prairie grasses that reached 6 feet tall! • Homesteaders flocked to the grasslands, certain that they had found the richest soil in the world and the ideal place to settle down

  3. Oops… • Settlers began to clear the land • They used the trees to build homes, barns, and outbuildings • The endless prairie was used to grow wheat • What was unknown to these early pioneers was that the grass and trees of the plains essentially nourished and held the soil in place with their tough roots • The natural grasses that normally kept the soil in place and trapped moisture even during periods of drought and high windswere all killed

  4. Rain, Rain Go Away… • Unfortunately, a drought started in the early 1930s and persisted for several years • The farmers kept plowing and planting with increasingly dismal results-the crops just wouldn’t grow without water

  5. Effects… • The water level of lakes dropped by five feet or more. • The wind picked up the dry soil that had turned to dust without rain and it had nothing to hold it down, so… • Great black clouds of dust began to blot out the sun. In some places, the dust drifted like snow, darkening the sky for days, covering even well-sealed homes with a thick layer of dust on everything • Dust storms engulfed entire towns

  6. Daily Life • Children word dust masks to and from school • Women hung wet sheets over windows in a futile attempt to stop the dirt from coming in • Farmers watched helplessly as their crops blew away • Letter from a survivor: http://www.npenn.org/55777011985858/lib/55777011985858/ch%2014/sec%202%20PS%20Dust%20Bowl%20Survivors.pdf

  7. The Government’s Response • Under Franklin Roosevelt’s administration, the Resettlement Administration (RA), which eventually became the Farm Security Administration (FSA), stressed "rural rehabilitation" efforts to improve the lifestyle of sharecroppers, tenants, and very poor landowning farmers, and a program to purchase submarginal land owned by poor farmers and resettle them in group farms on land more suitable for efficient farming

  8. The Government’s Response • The Soil Conservation Service (SCS) encouraged cultivation techniques which would prevent further soil erosion. Finally, the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) restricted production by paying farmers to reduce crop area • The farmers were paid subsidies by the federal government for leaving some of their fields unused

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