About The Dust Bowl Essay Research Paper

About The Dust Bowl Essay, Research Paper

The Dust Bowl

of the 1930s lasted about a decade. Its primary area of impact was on the southern Plains.

The northern Plains were not so badly effected, but nonetheless, the drought, windblown

dust and agricultural decline were no strangers to the north. In fact the agricultural

devastation helped to lengthen the Depression whose effects were felt worldwide. The

movement of people on the Plains was also profound.

As John Steinbeck wrote in his 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath: "And then

the dispossessed were drawn west- from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico; from Nevada

and Arkansas, families, tribes, dusted out, tractored out. Car-loads, caravans, homeless

and hungry; twenty thousand and fifty thousand and a hundred thousand and two hundred

thousand. They streamed over the mountains, hungry and restless – restless as ants,

scurrying to find work to do – to lift, to push, to pull, to pick, to cut – anything, any

burden to bear, for food. The kids are hungry. We got no place to live. Like

ants scurrying for work, for food, and most of all for land."

Poor agricultural practices and years of sustained drought caused the Dust Bowl. Plains

grasslands had been deeply plowed and planted to wheat. During the years when there was

adequate rainfall, the land produced bountiful crops. But as the droughts of the early

1930s deepened, the farmers kept plowing and planting and nothing would grow. The ground

cover that held the soil in place was gone. The Plains winds whipped across the fields

raising billowing clouds of dust to the skys. The skys could darken for days, and even the

most well sealed homes could have a thick layer of dust on furniture. In some places the

dust would drift like snow, covering farmsteads.

Timeline of The Dust Bowl

1931

Severe drought hits the midwestern and southern plains. As the crops die,

the ‘black blizzards" begin. Dust from the over-plowed and over-grazed land begins to

blow.

1932

The number of dust storms is increasing. Fourteen are reported this year;

next year there will be 38.

1933

March: When Franklin Roosevelt takes office, the country is in

desperate straits. He took quick steps to declare a four-day bank holiday, during which

time Congress came up with the Emergency Banking Act of 1933, which stabilized the banking

industry and restored people’s faith in the banking system by putting the federal

government behind it.

May: The Emergency Farm Mortgage Act allots $200 million for

refinancing mortgages to help farmers facing foreclosure. The Farm Credit Act of 1933

established a local bank and set up local credit associations.

September: Over 6 million young pigs are slaughtered to

stabilize prices With most of the meat going to waste, public outcry led to the creation,

in October, of the Federal Surplus Relief Corporation. The FSRC diverted agricultural

commodities to relief organizations. Apples, beans, canned beef, flour and pork products

were distributed through local relief channels. Cotton goods were eventually included to

clothe the needy as well.

October: In California’s San Joaquin Valley, where many farmers

fleeing the plains have gone, seeking migrant farm work, the largest agricultural strike

in America’s history begins. More than 18,000 cotton workers with the Cannery and

Agricultural Workers Industrial Union (CAWIU) went on strike for 24 days. During the

strike, two men and one woman were killed and hundreds injured. In the settlement, the

union was recognized by growers, and workers were given a 25 percent raise.

1934

May: Great dust storms spread from the Dust Bowl area. The

drought is the worst ever in U.S. history, covering more than 75 percent of the country

and affecting 27 states severely.

June: The Frazier-Lemke Farm Bankruptcy Act is approved. This

act restricted the ability of banks to dispossess farmers in times of distress. Originally

effective until 1938, the act was renewed four times until 1947, when it expired.

Roosevelt signs the Taylor Grazing Act, which allows him to take up to 140 million acres

of federally-owned land out of the public domain and establish grazing districts that will

be carefully monitored. One of many New Deal efforts to reverse the damage done to the

land by overuse, the program was able to arrest the deterioration, but couldn’t undo the

historical damage.

December: The "Yearbook of Agriculture" for 1934

announces, "Approximately 35 million acres of formerly cultivated land have

essentially been destroyed for crop production. . . . 100 million acres now in crops have

lost all or most of the topsoil; 125 million acres of land now in crops are rapidly losing

topsoil. . . "

1935

January 15: The federal government forms a Drought Relief

Service to c

Внимание, отключите Adblock

Вы посетили наш сайт со включенным блокировщиком рекламы!
Ссылка для скачивания станет доступной сразу после отключения Adblock!

Скачать