CB4+The+Dust+Bowl 

__The Dust Bowl__ DBCB4LINKS

The dust bowl was a period of time in the 1930’s when parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas were in the middle of a drought. Living during the Dust Bowl was harsh. People suffered not only from the Great Depression, and also lived with tons of dirt, covering everyone. Almost everyone covered the bottoms of their windows and doors with cloths to keep out dirt, but dust still flew in. It was a very horrible life for those who lived. When drought struck from 1934 to 1937, the soil lacked the stronger root system of grass as an anchor, so the winds easily picked up the loose topsoil and swirled it into dense dust clouds, called “black blizzards.”In response, the federal government mobilized several New Deal agencies, principally the Soil Conservation Service formed in 1935, to promote farm rehabilitation. Working on the local level, the government instructed farmers to plant trees and grass to anchor the soil lie untouched each year so the soil could regenerate. The government also purchased 11.3 million acres of sub marginal land to keep it out of production. The Dust Bowl had a profound affect on the people living in the area at the time. The thousands of farmers who made their living working on millions of acres of land were suddenly useless. Many were forced to give up their farms completely and were left homeless and penniless because they could not work the land that they had been living on for years. Many of these former farming families traveled west where they ended up in California and the neighboring states. By 1941 much of the land was rehabilitated. The Dust Bowl didn't just affect a family's finances. It affected their health as well. Many farmers died from diseases like dust pneumonia or died from malnutrition because they could not feed themselves. By the end of the Dust Bowl (1940), 2.5 million Americans had left the Plains states for other states, the largest migration in American history. Many didn't return to their farms after the economy and lands recovered, staying on in their new states, working better paying jobs. By Group. media type="custom" key="25762472"