The Dust Bowl period that occurred around the drought years of the 1930s in the Great Plains of the United States was an important period in the agricultural history of the West as it caused a lot of implications especially in the agricultural sector and the ways of farming. Viewed from a climatic perspective, the drought experienced during this period is usually considered to have been the worst in the areas around the Great Plains and had serious economic, social and environmental effects of the agricultural aspect of the affected areas. This drought of 1930s is deemed one of the worst environmental catastrophes that occurred in the Twentieth Century as it had devastating effect on the national population in the United States. Overall, three million people abandoned their farms situated on Great Plains when the drought subsisted while a number equaling about five hundred thousand moved to other states especially those that were located in the western parts of the nation.
It is important to note that most parts of the plains had been under the cropping of wheat which could not withstand the drought when the rainfall and other forms of precipitation failed leading to exposure to dry earth and strong winds. In these areas, the most common and favored method of doing farming left the ground susceptible to erosion under certain environmental conditions that made worse by the land preparation mechanisms employed. In the Great Plains, most farmers prepared the ground for agriculture through deep plowing and other soil preparation modes that did away with the grass that was initially naturally occurring in the new farmlands. The importance of these grasses is that they helped retain moisture in the soil during dry seasons that prevented them from being washed away by wind. Also, those farmers involved in cotton farming left the farms bare during winter when there were strong winds in the plains and the burning of weeds deprived the soil surface of any form of protection.
Exposure to strong winds led to wind erosion and dust storms that happened at the plains had many catastrophic effects including preventing visibility of those that straddled across the plains majorly involved in farming. Though often generally referred to as the Dust Bowl drought of 1930s as if it were one occurrence, it happened over a period of four different episodes of droughts that included 1930-1931, 1934, 1936 and the drought on 1931-1940. The reason as to why it is collectively referred to as the drought of 1930s is the fact that it occurred in quick succession that the affected persons were unable to recover from the effects of one drought before the other commenced.
Though there is no proper documentation on the number of casualties or fatalities due to the dust, it is believed that the clogging of lungs by the dust led to the death of thousands of the residents. The question that therefore needs to be asked is the impact of the dust storms considering its spatial pattern that showed that covered the further north and its effects on the Great Plains. The effects of the drought had massive social and economic implications as it caused the migration of people from the areas experiencing drought who moved elsewhere in search of better land and job opportunities. The effect of this migration in search of jobs is that it caused direct competition with the residents that they found in those areas that led to constant conflicts that was aggravated with the pressure on the often limited social amenities such as healthcare.
Agriculturally, with the loss of plant cover caused by the Dust Bowl, the soil became exposed to the scorching sun while the ground became impermeable to water that increased run off of water on the surface. With the soil bear and composed of loose particles, the wind easily blew it away that led to the burying of most vegetation by the loose soil which led to the loss of crops in the wind storms. The net effect of this is that with the decrease in agricultural productivity in the farmlands that had been eroded, the demand for the farmlands decreased as well as the value. While the quantity of agricultural decreased, there was a market increase in their costs that led to the incurring of massive losses by the farmers in these areas. With increased erosion of the arable land, there was a decline in agricultural land values and even in the long-term it failed to recover whereby areas that were highly eroded recovered less as compared to the losses that they incurred agriculturally and the value of land. The decline in economic effects continued to persist even in the periods after the Dust Bowl due to the failure by the farmers to change into crops that are suited for areas that are highly eroded.
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