What caused the Dust Bowl?
Imagine a world where all you can breathe is dust, the air that gave you life is
now out to kill you. The dust bowl was one unimaginable and tragic event bringing with
it disastrous effects and force. The people of Stratford, Texas thought of it as any other
dust storm but poor people, they wish they had known it was as deadly as to causing
them to leave their homes. Many causes were known of the Dust Bowl but what was
known to be the greatest cause was humans.
All humans were not necessarily the cause of the Dust Bowl though. The Dust
Bowl of 1935 was actually caused by farmers, those that we looked on to for food were
becoming the reason for our deaths. Farmers did not have an intention to hurt anyone
however, they were forced to do what they did, after all, at the end of the day they had
families, just like you and me. They were forced by the Great Depression to commit
such a crime.
Wheat was a rich crop for farmers back then and it was very affordable for the
poor which led farmers to have a productive business. All this success turned dark after
the Stock Market Crash of 1929 which led to the Great Depression. The Great
Depression as heartbreaking as it sounds was a long and severe economic downturn
period in our history. Due to the economic loss, farmers were not getting paid enough of
their profit that they would need to survive. One way to make a bigger profit was to
lower the prices which would help to get more customers. So the farmers decreased
their prices but in order to make a good profit, farmers needed to grow a lot more wheat.
New inventions such as the tractor, a combine, and plow were made, making it easier to
get the wheat to the rest of the world, is what Fred Folkers told us in the New York
article. (Doc C)
The Southern Plains of Texas were covered by shortgrass prairie for thousands
of years, the plains were known to be good for growing wheat. Farmers who could not
afford to get the new inventions then planted wheat on the plains after plowing, and sold
them in markets once again to mak...
