What was it about the way farmers...

Question

What was it about the way farmers were tilling the soil that contributed to the formation of the Dust Bowl in the 1930s?

Answer

The area considered the heart of the Dust Bowl — the Great Plains of Colorado, Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico — had been used mostly for grazing cattle until World War I. At that time, farmers began using these grasslands to grow wheat. They overcultivated and mismanaged the soil throughout the 1920s. When a severe drought began in the early 1930s, the land soon lost its protective topsoil to heavy winds. Restoration efforts, including the creation of windbreaks, helped the area recover by the early 1940s.