The dust bowl started because the soil started to be dry and loose.  Also, farmers took over the grassland and covered it with wheat.  If that wasn’t enough, there was no rain at all!  All of the problems started in the early 1930’s.  When all this started, people had hard time getting money.  Some way’s people could get money were picking crops for farmers, moving to California, and being a farmer.

    In the dust bowl, things changed.  Children had to start hearing their parents worry about money and food.  Children would play with anything they could find.  Little kids had to do a lot of work if they lived on a farm, like feeding the animals, and milking the cows.  Big kids had to help their parents with the chores like mowing the grass, making clothes, and anything else they could do.
 
    In the dust bowl, people had hard times getting food.  Sometimes people with no homes went to public parks and ate there.  Some parks had cooking areas where people could build fires.  People would share with others and some would bring a kettle for water, and some people brought food to boil.  People would eat a potato, hotdog, or meat stew.  When they would start eating they had to put a plate over their drink so no dust would get in it.

    Farm life started getting very hard!  With crops dying and bad soil, farmers could not produce enough food to live on, much less sell.  Farmers were unable to pay their share to the landowners.  Farmers were forced to leave the land with huge debts they could not pay.  The government started to help; they gave seeds, money, and equipment.
 
    If the dust bowl wasn’t enough, Black Sunday hit on April14, 1935.  What was Black Sunday?  It was a day during the time of the dust bowl.  People saw sun and went outside to do chores and go to church.  In the midafternoon, a black cloud came quickly.  The cloud was full of dust.   It was the last major dust storm of the year.  It was like any other storm, except harder.  It destroyed 5 million acres of wheat.  Families on the road tried seek shelter and were in the dark for hours.

    People were getting so tired of seeing dust that they decided to take action!  Starting in the 1935, efforts were made by the state government to develop programs for soil conservation in the dust bowl.    Farmers started planting trees to break the force of wind.
 
    After all of the work they did, farmers started planting their fields in ways that would keep rain water in the soil, and so it would not blow away. The government started to help; they gave seeds, and money.  Farmers learned new methods and techniques. The most valuable lesson was take care of the land.  Even though they worked to make the land better, there were dry spells in the 1950, 60’s, and late 70’s.  You never know what will happen when it turns dry.