Period+4+-+Dust+Bowl

A Large dust storm enveloped over the lands of middle United States. A decade long drought in central america was slowly making the land harder to live in. Many crops were damaged by lack of rainfall, high temperatures, and high winds, as well as insects and dust storms. Tons of topsoil was carried for miles over the southwestern great plains. Millions of people migrated from the drought areas, often heading west, in search of work. **//__Possible Causes__//** When settlers came to the area they built farms and planted crops. Their crops replaced the natural grasses in the area and they had root systems more capable of sustaining life under the difficult conditions. the farmers grazed their animals over large areas and plowed entire fields at the end of each harvest. These factors also hurt the soil and were causes of the Dust Bowl. In 1890 and 1910 major droughts occurred. New and more severe droughts followed in the period 1926-1934. The condition of the area became even more fragile. In 1934 windstorms covered the Great Plains. They easily uplifted the soil blowing massive clouds of dust all over the plains. Thousands of people were forced to leave their homes because of the Dust Bowl. 89 million acres of land were severely damaged or destroyed. The Dust Bowl only served to make the Great Depression even more miserable. Fearing a recurrence of the disaster, or that crop land would be destroyed forever, the United States formed the Soil Conservation Service in 1935. It worked towards improving soil conservation methods throughout the Great Plains area. Despite the quick and strong response, the Dust Bowl created many long-lasting problems and caused great suffering. (information from )--http://library.thinkquest.org/26026/History/the_dust_bowl.html
 * __Dust bowl__** - 1930 -1936

http://www.usd.edu/anth/epa/dust.html  http://drought.unl.edu/whatis/dustbowl.htm http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/div/ocp/drought/images/dustbowlfollett.jpg http://drought.unl.edu/whatis/palmer/pdi3039.gif March 1933

When Franklin Roosevelt takes office, the country is in desperate straits. He took quick steps to declare a four-day bank holiday, during which time Congress came up with the Emergency Banking Act of 1933, which stabilized the banking industry and restored people's faith in the banking system by putting the federal government behind it.

May 1933

The Emergency Farm Mortgage Act allots $200 million for refinancing mortgages to help farmers facing foreclosure. The Farm Credit Act of 1933 established a local bank and set up local credit associations.

June 1934

The Frazier-Lemke Farm Bankruptcy Act is approved. This act restricted the ability of banks to dispossess farmers in times of distress. Originally effective until 1938, the act was renewed four times until 1947, when it expired. Roosevelt signs the Taylor Grazing Act, which allows him to take up to 140 million acres of federally-owned land out of the public domain and establish grazing districts that will be carefully monitored. One of many New Deal efforts to reverse the damage done to the land by overuse, the program was able to arrest the deterioration, but couldn't undo the damage.

April 27, 1935

Congress declares soil erosion "a national menace" in an act establishing the Soil Conservation Service in the Department of Agriculture (formerly the Soil Erosion Service in the U.S. Department of Interior). Under the direction of Hugh H. Bennett, the SCS developed extensive conservation programs that retained topsoil and prevented irreparable damage to the land. Farming techniques such as strip cropping, terracing, crop rotation, contour plowing, and cover crops were advocated. Farmers were paid to practice soil-conserving farming techniques. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dustbowl/timeline/

The content on this page is good, and the pictures work well to enhance the information given, but the organization of the page could use some work; the bibliography should probably be at the bottom to avoid distracting the viewer as they're reading the information.**
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