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The farmers planted too many crops in support of the war effort, and the soil dried up. So when the winds came, all the dry soil flew into the air and everyone who wasn't in a house or somewhere away from the wind, they probably would have gotten smothered.

They used intensive farming practices that removed protective grasses.

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13y ago
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11y ago

The term term bowl refers to conditions on the great plains which occurred most noticeably in 1934 and 1936. The areas hit hardest were in the Texas pan handle, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas and up into Canada. Excessive and improper plowing killed the natural grass, dry weather hit and high winds blew away the top sol, producing massive clouds of dust that blotted out the sun and reached to the each coast. Farmers lost everything, had no food or money. Many left forever to go wherever they could find work.

Many went West to California, Oregon and Washington and lived in labor camps. (See John Steinbeck's classic novel, Grapes of Wrath)

( a first hand impression of what it is was like)

"I can't really tell you about all of the difficulties that farmers and farmers' wives faced trying to keep houses clean. People hung up sheets over their windows to try to keep the dust out. But, of course, houses were not very tight, and stuff sifted in. The road ditches drifted full of dust and dirt and silt, just like snow. And then, of course, it didn't rain and we didn't raise hardly any crops. And then the grasshoppers came in and ate what was there. They were very difficult, difficult years. And it was so hot. The temperatures were up over a hundred degrees for days at a time, also. It was very hot. And of course, we didn't have air conditioning. I remember sleeping outside. We made little tents and slept outside or slept on the porch."

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14y ago

Many farmers were unable to actually farm at all because of the dust bowl, as the dust bowl flooded and damaged crops and there was a major drought that followed the flood, this lasted for many years and was also during the " Great Depression ", thus many farms shut down, and many farmers were forced to move away to work different jobs. The dust bowl started in 1934 and ended in 1937.

- Sources: (http://www.enotes.com/history-fact-finder/natural-man-made-disasters/what-was-dust-bowl-what-effect-did-have, History fact finder)

(http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1583.html, Cause and effect)

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8y ago

Many picked up and moved. They came to the central San Joaquin Valley of California and farmed. Many became the richest men in the area after a few years. Today the families of these men are still farming.

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10y ago

By using intensive farming practices that removed protective grasses-- novanet

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12y ago

they when to california i think

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Q: What did people do to overcome the dust bowl?
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