The dust bowl was a huge epidemic that happened during the 1930’s. During this period the dust bowl caused severe dust storms that damaged the agriculture and ecology of the United States Great Plains. This was due to the extreme drought only made life more difficult. It affected many ranchers and farmers in the South like Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas. This lead people to either staying with their farm and sticking it out or leaving everything behind to find a new job. In the book, Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930’s, by Donald Worster her discusses the dust bowl and how it affected the farmers and people of the United States. In this book, by Donald Worster, he primarily focuses on places in Kansas and Oklahoma to draw out how
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For example, like Oklahoma, there were counties in Kansas whose population dropped drastically during the 1930’s. Like the book says, “Haskell [Kansas] lost slightly over 700 people in the thirties, or one-quarter of its 1930 population (Worster 146-147).” This is only one example of how a county in Kansas lost such an enormous amount of people. Just like in Oklahoma people in Kansas were faced with the decision to leave or stick it out. Also like Oklahoma they would sell their cattle or even go as far as sell illegal whiskey. Times were tough and people has to survive one way. For examples the book states, “In majority of cases they responded with a determination to last it out-or, as one man put it, to stay around simply to see what would happen. Some of them chastened and wearied by adversity, wanted nothing more than to hold onto their homes and live modestly (Worster 147).” Furthermore, Kansas also had to deal with the fact that their wheat crops were not producing well along with their other crops. Unlike Oklahoma, Kansas had many counties in which wheat was a huge deal. “The county remained a wheat empire…” However due to the drought and the blowing dust it made it difficult to produce this wheat, due to this the price of wheat skyrocketed “The price of wheat climbed to 71 cents a bushel, but farmers without crop were no better off than when they had to pile a surplus on the ground (Worster 149).” Therefore due to the circumstances this made it difficult for farmers to purchase the seeds needed to grow the crops that would maintain the wheat empire
For example, like Oklahoma, there were counties in Kansas whose population dropped drastically during the 1930’s. Like the book says, “Haskell [Kansas] lost slightly over 700 people in the thirties, or one-quarter of its 1930 population (Worster 146-147).” This is only one example of how a county in Kansas lost such an enormous amount of people. Just like in Oklahoma people in Kansas were faced with the decision to leave or stick it out. Also like Oklahoma they would sell their cattle or even go as far as sell illegal whiskey. Times were tough and people has to survive one way. For examples the book states, “In majority of cases they responded with a determination to last it out-or, as one man put it, to stay around simply to see what would happen. Some of them chastened and wearied by adversity, wanted nothing more than to hold onto their homes and live modestly (Worster 147).” Furthermore, Kansas also had to deal with the fact that their wheat crops were not producing well along with their other crops. Unlike Oklahoma, Kansas had many counties in which wheat was a huge deal. “The county remained a wheat empire…” However due to the drought and the blowing dust it made it difficult to produce this wheat, due to this the price of wheat skyrocketed “The price of wheat climbed to 71 cents a bushel, but farmers without crop were no better off than when they had to pile a surplus on the ground (Worster 149).” Therefore due to the circumstances this made it difficult for farmers to purchase the seeds needed to grow the crops that would maintain the wheat empire