The most important thing I've learned about this year so far is the 1930's Dust Bowl. Before we learned about it this year I had heard of it but I had no idea how much devastation it had caused. The Dust Bowl caused 500,000 Americans to become homeless. Many people also had died of malnutrition and dust pneumonia.
Before the Dust Bowl hit, many people were moving to the Great Plains because of the prosperity in farming. Most of the reason behind the Dust Bowl was simply due to drought, however some of it came from poor farming techniques that were being used. These techniques led to erosion on the land. when a dust storm would blow throught the Great Plains it covered over 100,000,000 acres.
Conditions became so bad that the government had to set up many relief activities and agricultural plans to save the land. With new farming plans implimented, the blowing soil had been reduced by 65% by 1938. This drought finally ended in 1939 when regular rainfall returned. This was the most interesting and important thing I have learned so far this year.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
