A living example of our problem in soil conservation
Creator: Works Progress Administration Indian Program
Date: 1935
This image, part of the New Deal Indian Program scrapbook compiled by the Works Progress Administration, depicts a gully created by severe erosion. Erosion such as this depleted the soil of its nutrients and decreased fertility, and blowing soil contributed to the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.

Approaching dust storm
Date: Around 1935
This undated photograph captures a large dust storm about to hit this family's homestead. These storms were frequent occurrences in western Kansas during the 1930s Dust Bowl.

Black Friday meets its master
Creator: Garden City Daily Telegram
Date: April 10, 1935
Several articles about life in the Dust Bowl can be found on the front page of this newspaper from Garden City. Articles of particular interest include two articles on "raging dusters," one on the winter wheat crop, and a brief article discussing the postponement of community meetings to distribute aid under the soil erosion program. The newspaper also includes articles about other newsworthy events occurring in Garden City and around the state of Kansas.

Chapter IV: Destructive effects of undesirable tendencies, in The future of the Great Plains: Report of the Great Plains Committee
Creator: Great Plains Committee
Date: December, 1936
This report was created by the Great Plains Committee, which had been called by President Roosevelt to investigate the effects of drought and wind erosion in the southwestern United States. Chapter IV of the report, titled "Destructive Effects of Undesirable Tendencies," outlines some of the major problems in this region, composed of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. These problems included the decreasing amount of range land, soil erosion, and the depletion of ground water. A large part of the chapter deals with relief efforts and homestead rehabilitation. It also contains illustrations and tables that provide comparative data on the situation in each of these states.

Chapter V: Attitudes of mind, in The future of the Great Plains: Report of the Great Plains Committee
Creator: Great Plains Committee
Date: December 1936
This report was created by the Great Plains Committee, which had been called by the President to investigate the effects of drought and wind erosion in the southwestern United States. For the purposes of the committee, the Great Plains region was composed of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. In Chapter V, the committee argues that farmers' lack of understanding about effective agricultural techniques, combined with severe drought, had created the critical situation that existed during the Dust Bowl. Certain "attitudes of mind," such as the idea that natural resources are inexhaustible, were the root cause of farmers' problems. The chapter outlines some of these attitudes and assumptions that had proved to be unreliable.

Checks on erosion and floods
Date: Between 1930 and 1937
This unidentified newspaper clipping illustrates and explains four useful techniques for combating drought and soil erosion: planting vegetation on steep slopes, strip cropping, contour plowing, and check dams.

Curbing the wind
Creator: Aicher, L. C.
Date: 1935
The twenty-ninth biennial report of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture includes this short article by L. C. Aicher, superintendent of the Fort Hays Experiment Station in Hays, Kansas. In the article ("Curbing the Wind" in Twenty-Ninth Biennial Report of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture for the Years 1933 to 1934"), Aicher describes the most effective techniques for preventing wind erosion, stating that "the secret in preventing soil from blowing is to keep the surface in a roughened condition." He also gives directions about the best methods for listing land and caring for fallow fields.

Day by day Kansas is rapidly washing away
Creator: Topeka Capital
Date: December 4, 1932
This brief article discusses the importance of decreasing water erosion, which has washed away approximately ninety percent of the productive soil in eastern Kansas. Two remedies which are suggested are terracing and the planting of blue grass sod (which will bind the soil together). Scientists at Kansas State Agricultural College (now Kansas State University) were experimenting with these two techniques.

Drifts of dust
Creator: Stovall Studio
Date: 1935
This image illustrates drifts of dust in Ford County deposited during the raging storms that swept the area during the Dust Bowl. The drifts have grown large enough to smother the farm machinery, which has fallen into disuse since the drought. The photograph was taken by Stovall Studio, dodge City, Kansas, and is labeled #10.

Dust Bowl farmers reseeding sod land
Creator: Topeka Capital
Date: February 27, 1944
This brief article discusses how farmers in southwestern Kansas were reseeding sod on land that had formerly been planted with wheat. This reseeding effort, which aimed to stabilize soil, was directed by the Soil Conservation Service.

Dust Bowl soil is now same as Chinese desert
Creator: Hubbard, J. R.
Date: August 9, 1936
This article in the Topeka Capital discusses some of the causes of soil erosion and diminished soil moisture, as well as ways to counteract these forces. Both WPA engineers and scientists at the Hays Engineering Station have been measuring soil moisture and developing techniques to counteract the negative effects of the farming trends in use since World War I.

Farmer shoveling heavy dust
Date: Between 1934 and 1936
This photograph shows a farmer shoveling dust from implements and uncovering food for livestock. The dust began to blow in 1933 and for four years western Kansas was part of the "Dust Bowl".

Field crop statistics, 1933-1934
Creator: Kansas State Board of Agriculture
Date: 1935
This printed report (""Field Crop Statistics" in Twenty-Ninth Biennial Report of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture, to the Legislature of the State for the Years 1933 and 1934") includes a summary of the total acreage of field crops and their production value for each county in Kansas during the years 1934 and 1935.

Field crop statistics, 1935-1936
Creator: Kansas State Board of Agriculture
Date: 1937
This published report (""Field Crop Statistics" in Thirtieth Biennial Report of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture, to the Legislature of the State for the Years 1935 and 1936") contains general crop statistics for each county in Kansas for the years 1835 and 1836, including acreage under cultivation and crop value.

Ghost cornfield
Date: 1934
This photograph, taken in Barber County at the height of the Dust Bowl, demonstrates the effects of severe drought. Cornfields such as these also contributed to blowing dust because the root systems of corn plants were too shallow to hold loose dirt in place.

H.A. Kinney to Governor Walter Huxman
Creator: Emergency Dust Bowl Committee
Date: April 23, 1937
Secretary of the Emergency Dust Bowl Committee H. A. Kinney of Liberal (Seward County) sends Governor Walter Huxman of Topeka (Shawnee County) a copy of a telegram the committee sent President Franklin Roosevelt. The telegram appeals to the federal government for assistance in stopping the removal of top soil in the drought stricken areas of Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas. The telegram advises that the present program of management by individual farmers is inadequate. H. A. Kinney was also Secretary of the Liberal Chamber of Commerce.

Harry Umberger to Governor Alf Landon
Creator: Umberger, Harry
Date: July 18, 1934
This letter from Harry Umberger, the Director of Extension at Kansas State Agricultural College (now Kansas State University), accompanied a map designating the drought relief counties as of July 1934. The map indicates the primary and secondary drought relief counties suffering the most through the Great Depression and Dust Bowl of the 1930s. The map includes a key to explain the highlighted portions.

Harry Umberger to Willard Mayberry
Creator: Umberger, Harry
Date: December 23, 1933
This letter from Harry Umberger, the Director of Extension at Kansas State College (now Kansas State University), was addressed to Willard Mayberry, secretary to Gov. Alf Landon. The letter discusses the reduction of railroad transportation rates for livestock feed, because the depression, combined with the droughts of the 1930s, had made it difficult for farmers to feed their livestock. Umberger recommended that the rates be reduced for at least thirty days (preferably sixty days) in order to keep stock alive during the winter. The letter is accompanied by a state map labeling the counties who needed these rates, with the red shaded section indicating which counties were in the greatest need.

Howard Bucknell to Governor Alfred Landon
Creator: Bucknell, Howard
Date: June 2, 1934
In this letter Howard Bucknell, president of the Jewell County Farm Bureau, updates Governor Landon on the drought situation in his county. There was an acute water shortage, forcing Jewell county farmers to request aid from the relief funds being distributed by the state.

Kansas Agricultural Summary, 1937-1938
Creator: Kansas State Board of Agriculture
Date: 1939
This published report contains information about field crop statistics, precipitation totals, yields from wheat, corn, oats, hay, alfalfa, and sorghum crops, and information about livestock. These statistics range from 1866 until 1938. The report is included in the Thirty-First Biennial Report of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture (1937-1938).

Lister cultivator at work
Date: Between 1910 and 1929
A photograph showing a farmer engaged in preparing his fields with a horse-drawn lister to help conserve water in the furrows and to prevent the topsoil from blowing away. Although this photograph is undated, such listing practices were used during the 1940s and 1950s to prevent a recurrence of the Dust Bowl.

Sheet erosion in Ford County, Kansas
Creator: McLean, B. C.
Date: 1940
This photograph, taken for the Soil Conservation Service, depicts sheet erosion on the farm of Robert Jones near Ford, Kansas. This type of erosion is caused by cultivating up and down a slope from left to right. According to an annotation on the back of the photograph, this damage occurred after a heavy rainstorm. Note that the right portion of the field had been contour plowed and consequently remained undamaged.

Shelterbelt project in Reno County
Creator: Stoeckeler, Joseph
Date: 1944
This photograph, taken by Joseph Stoeckeler in 1944, is of a shelterbelt in northwest Reno County, Kansas, constructed in 1937. Shelterbelts, planted in the late 1930s, consisted of various heights of trees and shrubs that served as windbreaks to protect newly-planted crops (such as wheat) by helping to prevent the soil in which they were planted from blowing away in the wind.

Shelterbelt, Reno County, Kansas
Date: 1939
A view of two men standing by a shelterbelt near the town of Sylvia in Reno County, Kansas. Shelterbelts, which consist of various heights of trees and shrubs, were planted in the late 1930s to prevent blowing soil caused by severe drought and soil erosion.

Southwest is not lost
Creator: Kansas City Times
Date: February 25, 1937
In this brief article, Harry Umberger, chairman of the Kansas wind erosion committee, contradicts reports circulating in New York City that the Southwest will never be able to produce wheat again. He goes on to describe the reasons for blowing soil and the steps that must be taken to make farming the Dust Bowl a profitable -- yet environmentally stable -- enterprise.