Compare and contrast the struggles of farmers in those two states with that of farmers in Texas. How did they survive the Dustbowl? What was its impact on their communities?

1. Dust
Bowl of
1930
Comparison/Contrast on the struggles of farmers in three different
states

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Name
Professor
Course
Date
Dust Bowl of 1930
Between the years 1930-40, in the United States of America, specifically in the southwestern
Great Plains region befell the malady known to historians a Dust Bowl, which in laymen’s
terms is a name given to what was a severe drought. In order to understand the consequences of
the Dust Bowl, we must first understand what caused it to begin with.
The Role Settler-Farmers Played
What once used to be a semi-arid grassland, became a home to many settlers when the
Congress passed what is a Homestead Act. This gave way to many of the previously homeless
farmers to farm the lands that they had settled on or to graze cattle upon it. As the farmers
grazed and plowed, the grass that kept the ground together started to become dry as crops of
wheat were planted. This practice gradually increased so much so that in only a matter of time
millions of more acres were devoted to the same cause, farming.

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It was the dry land farming upon the southwestern Great Plains of the United States of America
that led to the destruction of a very vast land that was held together with grass. It was only a
matter of time before the damage to the land started having a significant environmental impact.
Out of the many consequences of this situation, the strongest one of them all that caused the
most destruction were the undying winds.
States Covered in Dust
As the Great Plains suffered severe drought, wind erosion and dark skies due to the dust storms,
it rolled towards the east making sure that the skies all the way up to the Atlantic Coasts and
Gulf were covered in dark gloomy skies. The states that were the most shaken up over this
ordeal were Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado. This ecological disaster
ruined the lives of several farmers in all of these states. If we were to compare and contrast
their circumstances, the answer would be more or less the same, things were a mess.
In accordance with the Federal Soil Conservation Service, the Dust Bowl of 1930 affected
nearly a 100 million acres of land by the time it ended in 1935. When it came to the year 1940,
the number had increased to about twenty two million acres. Once can only imagine the pain
people whose lives depended on earning bread through farming were like. The numbers only
kept rising. The drought had long lasting effects on the land. With high temperatures and

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unbearably strong winds, the land became a virtual desert that was useless in terms of farming.
In most seasons the ground in these areas would be dry up to as deep as three feet, sometimes
even more. During this tragedy, the lack of rain only made the states drier for farming.
Farmers in Oklahoma
Settlers had been moving towards the west in big numbers since early 1900s. But it wasn’t until
1930 that California came to widely be known for the people living within Oklahoma. As the
Dust Bowl gave way to the Great Depression, the farmers in Oklahoma suffered a lot of loss in
terms of migration. Since the land was no longer ripe for farming due to the Dust Bowl, many
farmers in Oklahoma decided to move to different states in the country seeing as how farming
was the only profession they could win daily bread for their families from. The farmers that
chose to move to Arizona and California came to be known as “Okie” which is a term that is
used for poverty stricken migrants from states like Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas
that were severely affected by the Dust Bowl. While California received a lot of migrants from
different states at this time in the US history, it was the farmers that came from Oklahoma that
were the most impoverished ones.
Farmers in Texas

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The impact of the Dust Bowl was so severe on Texas that President Roosevelt ended up
ordering that the Civilian Conservation Corps plant more than 200 million trees all the way
from Canada to Texas in order to break the pressure of the wind. It was expected that this
would help hold the water into the soil and get the soil erosion problem under control over the
over grazed lands. As an immediate effect of the Dust Bowl, the administration saw it fit to
start to educate all the farmers regarding soil conservation and anti-erosion techniques that
would include crop rotation, strip farming, terracing, contour plowing as well as several other
farming techniques that would help the farmers farm more productively without putting the
environment at risk.
In the year 1937, 7 years after the Dust Bowl had hit several states of America, the government
decided to launch a very aggressive campaign in order to encourage the people that suffered
from the Dust Bowl to learn new farming techniques so that they could farm more efficiently.
The government understood that for some people farming was the only way to earn money for
their families and that is why it couldn’t put a permanent stop to it. What it could do however
was find better ways to farm that were environmental-friendly, and so it did.
Farmers in Kansas

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Like most states in America, Kansas suffered through a lot during the Dust Bowl in terms of
both the crops as well as reduced prices. The overall production levels of crop in Kansas
reduced by a shocking 37%. But compared to the other states, farmers in Kansas had a fairly
better deal to get them by. Though the economy did suffer a great deal, it was nothing
compared to what Texas and Oklahoma suffered.
Contrast between The Three States
As it can be seen with the help of the contrast between three major states of the United States of
America, that each suffered a significant loss as a result of the Dust Bowl and Great Depression
in an era that can only be referred to as the Dirty Thirties. But if we take a closer look we can
see that although Texas and Kansas suffered quite a lot, it was Oklahoma that was affected the
worst by the catastrophes.
Human Factors That Contributed to The Dust Bowl
Let’s discuss what the actual reasons behind these circumstances were. Granted, environmental
factors played a big role in bringing this situation upon the Great Plain states of America but the
human factors also played a significant role in the story. Before 1930, most men were
enthusiastic to become farmers and to grow food and vegetables in order to reap the profits. In
order to create a reality they so badly wanted, these men destroyed a lot of the land that was held

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together with the help of the grass that was covering it up. The grasslands were responsible for a
lot, and while the farmers overgrazed it with farming and their cattle, everything came to fall
about. This is what made the ground lose its ability to survive harsh weather conditions such as a
drought. While half the settlers wanted to farm and the other half wanted to make the land a row-
crop agricultural base, both played a significant role in making sure the ground could no longer
survive what was to come.
Conclusion
The Dust Bowl played a major role in the history of the United States of America as it was what
contributed to the near-simultaneous collapse of the country’s economy. This made many people
understand that anything could be done under the guise of entrepreneurialism. It showed
everyone that a little motivation to reach the heights of success can make people go a long way,
even if I hurts the environment in the process. Short term success is not worth risking long term
environmental damage for as can be seen in the history of states Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas.
There has been much work done since in order to prevent something like the Dust Bowl from
happening again. There are people that hold differing opinions when it comes to the likelihood of
something like this happening again. Some believe that the land has adapted to the harsh weather

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conditions and will survive harsh conditions while there are others that point towards the storms
of 50s and 70s claiming that it isn’t far off to anticipate another one of the Dust Bowl instances.
Work Cited
Handbook of Texas Online, Donald Worster, "Dust Bowl," accessed May 06, 2017, http://
www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ydd01.
Paul Bonnifield, The Dust Bowl: Men, Dirt, and Depression (Albuquerque: University of New
Mexico Press, 1979). R. Douglas Hurt, The Dust Bowl: An Agricultural and Social
History (Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1981). Donald Worster, Dust Bowl (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1979).
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http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=OK008
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=4344
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1583.html