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Article: 'Baked out and broke'.(migrant farmers in the Great Depression)
- Article from:
- Cobblestone
- Article date:
- March 1, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 Carus Publishing Co. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
While the nation was just trying to get by during the Great Depression, nature dealt a second devastating blow. Years of land misuse on the Great Plains--cattle grazing and row planting--had created the potential for an ecological disaster. Then a series of severe droughts plagued the Plains in the 1930s. Overgrazed and dry, the topsoil began to blow away, leaving land that was unsuitable for farming. At times, the dry soil was blown into dunes high enough to cover a house or barn. Fifty million acres in the Midwest were so devastated by drought that the land became known as the "Dust Bowl."
Farmers could not raise the crops they ...