Causes

Encouraging this mass plow up and heightening the progressive spirit of the time was the evolution of the machine and in particular new farm machinery.  The first was the advancement of the tractor.  While the tractor had been around before this period, it was large and heavy, often described as a small train: “As early as 1900 the southern plains witnessed the arrival of the monstrous Reeves Machine – a miniature locomotive weighing several tons, chugging forward under the steam power with a watertank and plow behind, severely compacting the earth but able to rip up more sod than dozens of yoked oxen could” (Dust Bowl 90).  Though this tractor was more effective than a horse and plow it was still cumbersome and not very practical.  However, this changed with the birth of the gasoline powered tractor which was lighter, more efficient and widely received.  It is estimated that by 1917 there was approximately 200 companies making these small tractors; this included brands such International Harvester, Farmall, Case and John Deere.

  In addition to the tractor, the one-way disk plow was also a new innovation during that time.  This disk worked up just the top soil, killed the grass, and increased the amount of water the land took in.  Furthermore, farmers were encourage to plow up the land after every rain to help with the moisture content - an idea that they took into the Dust Bowl where they overworked the land hoping to stir up moisture (Dust Bowl 91).  Lastly, was the invention of the combine.  Before this time, seasonal labors had to be hired to help thrash wheat, meaning that only a limited amount could be planted because it was labor intensive.  However, with the combine one could “cut a 16^th foot swath through the wheat and in two weeks harvest 500 acres” (Dust Bowl 92).  Now with wheat so easy to cut the race was on to plant more and the plow up begun.

Effects

For awhile, people live in a sort of bliss, believing that they had reached their own American Dream.  Even during start of the Great Depression, farms were still thriving because they were self sufficient and people had to eat, there was even a movement back out into rural American.  Then the drought came.  When talking about drought, it is being defined as the rainfall being 15% less than the historical average – this drought has been described by a Weather Bureau scientist as “the worst in the climatological history of the country” (Dust Bowl 12). It began in the 1930s in the Eastern part of the United States - it was estimated the rainfall shortage was 60,000 tons for each 100-acre farm.  Record lows in precipitation were set when only three years early the Mississippi River had flooded and made history itself (Dust Bowl 11).  By 1931, the drought shifted to the Great Plains where states such as Montana were said to be as arid as the Sonoran Desert. 

Along with the drought came the heat and the dust.  Temperatures reached all time highs causing death and water shortages – water actually had to be shipped into the West.   In the year 1934, the cost of the drought reached half the money that the United States put into World War I (Dust Bowl 12).  Accompanying the drought was the wind.  While the Great Plains had always had strong winds, especially in the heart of the Dust Bowl, things were now different.  With the “Great Plow Up” the grasslands holding the earth down were removed and with the drought and heat the crops wilted away.  This left the ground dry and vulnerable to the mercy of the wind. 

The conditions were now perfect for the onset of the dust storms – come they did.  Giant dusters called Black Blizzards plagued the plains rising up like giant walls sometimes 7000 or 8000 feet high (Dust Bowl 14).  Occasionally they were so intense that the dust would travel all the way to the Atlantic Ocean covering every city and town in between. Furthermore, they brought with them dust pneumonia, caused by dirt settled in the lungs, and a measles outbreak.  Both were often deadly, especially for the very young and very old (Dust Bowl 20-21).  The Dust Bowl ironically coordinated with the Great Depression - It lasted about ten years and it was not until 1941 that the rain came back in any abundance (Dust Bowl 12).

   The Dust Bowl - 1930s