Agricultural Practices in Kansas

1. Agricultural Practices in Kansas Comparing Agricultural Practices before and after the dust storms of the 1930’s

2. Dust Storms

3. Causes • Tractor replacing the plow • Poor farming practices – over-plowing • Over-grazing by farm animals • Bare land exposed to the wind • Severe drought

4. Solution • Soil conservation practices • STUBBLE MULCHING is a soil covering composed of unused stalks of crops/plants. It can prevent erosion from wind or water and conserve soil moisture

5. Terracing • Contour farming • Shelter belts • Crop rotation • Irrigation

6. Terracingand contour farming • Terracing = creating ditches or even ridges that go with the shape of the land • Contour farming= plowing and planting crops around hills or the natural shape of the field.

7. Contour farming

8. Terracing

9. Crop rotation • Crop Rotation:  Changing the crops grown in a field, usually in a planned sequence.

10. Shelterbeltsor windbreaks • Trees planted in rows to help break the wind and reduce blowing

11. Soil Conservation

12. The Dust Bowl resulted from • years of drought and over plowing and over grazing • The damage done by damming up Kansas Rivers • Too much wheat grown • Too many years as a consumer economy

13. A

14. During the Dust Bowl the government encouraged farmers to • join forces in a political movement • Sell their land to developers • Use terracing, contour farming and stubble mulching • Move to California where the weather was better.

15. C

16. Planting trees in a row to help protect crops is called: • Stubble mulching • Reforestation • Shelterbelts • Terracing

17. C

18. An agricultural practice that means plowing and planting crops around hills is known as: • Contour farming • Crop rotation • Conservation plowing • Irrigation

19. A

20. 14. The flow chart below shows changes in farm practices in Kansas. Which best completes the chart? A) sodbusting B) single-crop planting C) stubble mulching D) slashing and burning

21. C