Despite antigovernment feelings, criminals, and confusion, slow changes for the better took place in the dust bowl as 1940 approached. Some changes were due to rain. Some were due to government aid. Some were due to farmers putting into practice techniques that saved water and kept the soil in place. J.R. Davison remembered, "During those Dirty Thirties they came out with a lot of these different methods—contour farming, you know, different things, summer puddling.... You pulled a little apparatus behind your plow that just dug holes and that'd catch that water. You know, you could have a two- or three-inch rain and it wouldn't run off."
Most of the new farming practices introduced in the 1930s were based on practicality. For instance, plowing using a lister heaped dirt on both sides of the furrow to trap more drifting soil; it also buried fine soil particles and.....
This is a free excerpt of 150 words. This section contains 3,782 words. This
article contains 31,315 words (approx. 104 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Article with our Dust Bowl Access Pass.
