Dust Bowl Compare and Contrast Term Paper

Although the 1930s as a whole for all farmers were marked by dramatic periods of "boom and bust," for the residents of the Triangle, the periods of "boom" were far shorter and crueler (McNeill 40). Indeed, when "Captain John Palliser first reached the prairies he was said he thought he had "discovered Hell" because the region was so arid and desert-like. Still, Palliser noted "a fertile belt surrounding the region" (Bonikowsky 2007). Like the Great Plains, Indians and buffalo were the main residents (McNeill 41). The British government ignored Palliser's dim prognosis about developing the area and encouraged settlement.

Farmers in the Triangle repeatedly watched entire seasons of crops blow away in the dust, despite their efforts to engage in vigorous, proactive farming techniques like "fallowing (plowing but not sowing a field)," crop rotation (which was not practiced in the American West) and "shallow cultivation to preserve soil moisture, unfortunately leaving the soil vulnerable to wind erosion" (Bonikowsky 2007).

The response of the Canadian government was different as well. Rather than farm subsidies, its Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration of 1935 provided technical support by teaching farmers how to use "on-farm dugouts for watering livestock, strip farming to prevent soil drifting, seeding abandoned land for community pastures and tree-planting to protect the soil from wind erosion" (Bonikowsky 2007).Thus, although it could be argued that both Dust Bowls were due to humans venturing into territories unsuitable for farming and making demands above and beyond what it could provide, natural conditions rather than ignorance, greed, or changed market conditions were more of a factor in the Canadian example.

Works Cited

Bonikowsky, Laura Neilson. "Drought in Palliser's Triangle. The Canadian

Encyclopedia. 2007. 8 Nov 2007. http://thecanadianencyclopedia.com/PrinterFriendly.cfm?Params=A1ARTFET_E20

Causes." The Dust Bowl Outline. 2003. 8 Nov 2007. http://snr.unl.edu/metr351-03/jnothwehr/causes.html

McNeill, J.R. Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth

Century. W.W. Norton & Co.2001.

Worster, Donald. The Dust Bowl. Oxford University Press, 1982......