The Dust Bowl
Published on Dec 01, 2015
No Description
MORE DECKS TO EXPLORE
PRESENTATION OUTLINE
What is the Dust Bowl?
Definition: (noun) an area of land where vegetation has been lost and soil reduced to dust and eroded, especially as a consequence of drought or unsuitable farming practice.
Photo by waterarchives
How did it happen?
There are two major reasons that caused the Dust Bowl
Photo by Euclid vanderKroew
1. Farmers were using a method in which they literally turned the soil upside down. This made the topsoil become dry and turn into dust . Also, the farmers had uprooted all the native prairie grass that held the soil in place. Without this, the soil would blow away
Photo by Claudio.Ar
2. Drought had occurred in the Plains area. The crops the farmers had planted weren't used to the occasional droughts and ended up dying. The native grass, however, was used to the occasional droughts, but there was none of the grass left.
Photo by brtsergio
THE DUST BOWL AREA:
BY 1932, THE PLAINS WERE NOTHING BUT DUST
With their land literally blowing away, farmers began to move. A mass exodus of about 2.5 million people left the Dust Bowl States for California
Dust Bowl Refugees had many hardships in California. It was hard to find jobs when there were so many other people looking too. The refugees were dubbed 'Okies' and faced many prejudices there.
Back in the West thousands upon thousands of jackrabbits had suddenly decended from the mountains looking for food. The Dust Bowl residents began to have rabbit drives in which they would kill as many jackrabbits as they could
Then, a new kind of horror emerged. A numerous amount of small children and the elderly were exposed to dust. This ended up clogging their lungs and prevented their breathing. Soon, many people were getting sick and ended up dying because of this new disease called "Dust Pneumonia"
Hugh Hammond Bennett (known as the "Father of Soil Conservation") decided to step up to the task of returning the Plains to their former glory
A newly elected Franklin Delano Roosevelt decided to help the Dust Bowl refugees. He introduced several work plans to help those in California, and sought out ways to help the crops grow again in the West.
Several conservation scientists introduced a new method of plowing called contour plowing. A method of plowing furrows that follow the curves of the land rather than straight up and down slopes. This reduced the amount of soil blowing by 60%
This reduced the amount of dust blowing away by about 60%
Bennett and FDR had managed to stop the land blowing away, but the Plains still wouldn't produce any crops. Luckily, Mother Nature took care of that problem for them. In 1939, the rains had returned to the parched land.
Photo by ecstaticist
