Before the Storms
In the 1920s, times were good for farmers in America. Known as the “Roaring Twenties,” America was prospering. Crops brought high prices and there was free land for the taking. Many farmers placed second mortgages on their homesteads to buy up additional land. When the Great Depression struck, farmers increased the ground they were cultivating in order to compensate for decreased prices. Unfortunately their farming methods, seemingly harmless at the time, were a recipe for disaster.
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The "Big Plow Out"
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The removal of native trees and grasses combined with European farming techniques destroyed the quality and composition of the soil. Deep plowing and tillage, lack of fallow periods, the removal of all crop residue and other methods decimated the land. The only thing holding the soil together was water - but a drought was coming.