In the 1930’s, many dust storms formed in the Great Plains. These storms traveled all across america, destroying lives by way of dust pneumonia, destruction of homes, and death in the process. Because of these very poor living conditions, one third of the affected population was forced to leave. The ones crazy enough to stay, we’re forced to endure through many days of suffering. But what is responsible for the terrible events of the 1930? Over farming, lack of grass, and drought are the main causes of the dreadful period of american history called the Dust Bowl.
The early 20th century was a time of innovation, the vast majority of those innovations were awesome for America, but a select few were not. One of them was the tractor. In the book, “The Worst Hard Time,” Timothy Egan wrote, “A tractor did the work of ten horses.” The appeal was huge,
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John Wesley Powell, the great Western explorer determined that “20 inches of rain annually was the minimum for a successful farming on the plains.” A graph from Baylor University, shows that nine out of ten of the years from 1931-1940 were below the required minimum And the one year that met the bar, got 20.09 inches of rain, so it was barely there. This lack of rain greatly added to the perfect conditions for dust storms that we saw in the 1930’s.
To sum it all up, the 30’s were a perfect time for dust storms to grow and plague America. The invention of the tractor appealed to farmers all over the United States, and they plowed through way more than a healthy amount of grass. The drought of the 1930’s cut off lots of potential grass growth. And the lack of grass let dirt into the air. The Dust Bowl was a terrible time that affected all of America, and it could have been stopped if we hadn’t been so careless. We can’t change the past, but let's try and learn from our mistakes to make a better