The Dust Bowl: Agricultural Problems and Solutions

Report Foreword: The Regional Agricultural Council for the Southern Great Plains reports physical conditions in the Dust Bowl much improved. It reports that the acreage subject to wind erosion in the spring of 1940 was not as large as was feared in the fall of 1939; that dust storms did not occur with anticipated intensity. Last winter many persons predicted trouble in the Dust Bowl because of the widespread drought in 1939 which dried out the soil, caused abandonment of a large acreage of fall-sown wheat, and generally put the land in a condition to blow. Soil blowing this spring was light. This was due in part to heavy winter snow, to relatively light spring winds, and in part to the wider use of methods of soil management that protect against wind erosion. However, much must still be done in the Southern Plains to create a stable, independent, and permanently profitable agriculture. This seems an appropriate time to look at the agricultural problems of the Dust Bowl and to report the progress farmers have made, with the help of Government programs, toward solving these problems.