The untold stories of the Great American Dust Bowl were uncovered in “The Worst Hard Time” written by Timothy Egan. This book follows those who had to make tough decisions during such a hard time in American history. It shows the tragedies and hardships they faced. While also showing some light on the rare positive side. Many believe the Dust Bowl was a natural occurrence. The weather does play a big part in the Dust Bowl, however, the farmers were indeed partially responsible for creating their own problems, and using some of the unreliable technology.
Farming techniques used by farmers had a huge impact on the problems they faced. “The one way plow would later be cursed as the tool that destroyed the plains because of its efficiency at ripping up grass.” (Egan 47) By ripping up the grass, the fertile topsoil would become less dense and lighter making it easier to blow away. In the case of it not blowing away, the farmers would’ve had some good soil to work with during this drought. Another impact on the problems they faced is their need for money. With the war going on there was inflation on crops, so they had to keep planting and planting. All this planting ate up their soil. Wheat was the one they kept on planting because of Russian blockades. (Egan 42-43)
There were definitely a couple warning signs that the farmers and their families missed. The families were sent brochures of a place with elegantly lined trees, cold water, and everything they could have wanted. “Hope died the first time people laid eyes on Boise City, Oklahoma. It was founded on fraud.” (Egan 33) Eventually the people of the city were caught and the government tried to help reopen the lands. The initial warning sign of the land should’ve been enough for the Lucas family to realize they needed to leave, but they decided to stay and keep making what little money they were. (Egan 33-39)
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The White family needed somewhere to farm and needed land fast. They were going to stay in Dalhart, where “A guy in town had told him about opportunities in the newly plowed fields.”(Egan 31) The town was moving fast in the right direction. This gave them a sense of security, but nothing during the Dust Bowl is safe with the way they farm. Eventually the grass gave out, because it was said that it was never meant to be plowed. The families there bought into the false sense of security of the vision of Dalhart, because the weather had other plans. (Egan 54-56)
The weather of the Great Plains was never perfect, but at least farmers could expect rain to help fuel their crops. The ability to predict the weather was not advanced in the sense of technology. “The basic instruments for measuring air movement, temperature, and all that fell from the sky were little changed over the previous 350 years.” (Egan 137) Their predictions were based on movement and struggle from high to low barometric pressure, an ancient way of predicting. The weather would turn lethal in a second and would kill people, sometimes in large numbers. (Egan 137-38) In the off season of the rain, the “Farmers needed the snow for insulation, the blanket that covered nubs of wheat during their dormancy in the dark months.” (Egan 103)
Due to the drought, there was no precipitation in the air. Meaning no rain or snow or anything. The snow is what helped keep moisture in the soil and also kept the wheat crops from dying. Since there was no snow, the soil dried out and took flight. (Egan 103) Without rain, a profusion of bugs appeared. There was an abundance of insects that came, but the biggest predator for them were the grasshoppers. “Grasshoppers swarmed over wheat fields, chewing down the tender shoots left in the abandoned grounds, and massed over gardens, consuming in a few minutes food that could provide a nester with a winter’s worth of canned goods.” (Egan 115) Other insects caused a nuisance, but grasshoppers were the ones that targeted their food supply. With the already difficult time to grow food, the famers weren’t even able to harvest what did end up growing because of these horrid creatures. Another problem was the rabbits. They would take over the lands and crowd fields. Luckily they were a food source, however, they would also help the grasshoppers diminish all other sources. (Egan 115-16)
Technology both hurt and helped the farmers during the Great Depression Dust Bowl. The advancement of the way farmers harvested their product would be one downfall of technology. They started out with a horse-drawn plow, which barely produced enough to stay afloat. Then came the tractor, which was able to do the work of ten horses. Then combines and finally the one-way plow. The farmers were getting ahead of themselves. They wanted everything to be more efficient than the last. They didn’t know when to stop, but that caused them to create the one-way plow which ended up destroying the plains. (Egan 47)
The reasoning behind getting the most efficient machine was that the wartime demands were driving up prices, which stimulated record production. “The prices could not hold, leaving farmers to plow more ground as the only way to break even.” (Egan 268) One advancement of technology that helped save the land was the Ogallala Aquifer. Because of this place, people were able to get water from wells. So they took the water from the ground and got it running. Once they got the soil to settle after the terrible things it has been through, the people of the Panhandle would be receiving liquid gold. (Egan 291)
In my opinion, farmers have taken all the necessary precautions in case of another Dust Bowl. I believe they are aware of the tragedies and hardships and they wouldn’t want to relive them and/or go through them. Personally, I don’t see any steps needed to help prevent natural disasters, because natural disasters are inevitable. However, if they wanted to further protect themselves, they could start finding ways to preserve the food supply, some money, and come up with some backup plans for the just in case instances. If I was living in the Plains at the time of the Dust Bowl. I think I would’ve gathered enough to last me some time and set off to find better
land. I wouldn’t want to settle down somewhere unless I absolutely knew what was to happen. I know that was hard to know in an uncertain time like this, but I would’ve calculated every potential problem and chose the best one. Honestly I don’t think I am skilled enough for this time. I would’ve been just like all of them, meaning I would not know what the plows were doing to the land until it was too late. Also I don’t think I would be able to help out in any way. I would only be able to use what I knew about farming, which honestly is not a lot.
Overall, the Dust Bowl was indeed inevitable. However, the pain and suffering would have been lessened if the farmers knew what their techniques were doing to the soil. They created their own problems and used unreliable technology at the start. The weather also didn’t help, because it hadn’t rained in years. So their mistakes were ultimately made worse because of that.
