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10 Facts About the Dust Bowl

Larrylambert
3 min readNov 13, 2024

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No, it’s not another college football bowl game.

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I’ve mentioned that I’ve moved back to Oklahoma. One thing people are more aware in Oklahoma than in most states is the Dust Bowl. Once again the Dust Bowl isn’t a lower tier college bowl game. It’s more a confluence of bad things coming together to create a terrible result. And Okies were caught in middle of it. So, here are some things you probably didn’t know about the Dust Bowl.

1: Excessive wheat farming contributed to the disaster.

Wheat was a huge cash crop at the time but continually farming wheat loosened the topsoil. Farmers could be heard chanting, “Plant Baby Plant.” Wait, being told that’s not true, but you get the point.

2: An epic amount of rabbits contributed to a horrible situation.

What little bit of crops survived were often eaten by a horde of rabbits. These rabbits seemingly appeared out of nowhere. The only one happy about the situation was Elmer Fudd.

3: And then there were the grasshoppers.

If any crops survived the drought and the rabbits, the grasshoppers would swoop in and finish them off. The affected fields had to be burnt. So there was. “Plant Baby Plant” and…

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Larrylambert
Larrylambert

Written by Larrylambert

You probably don't know my name, but have likely seen my work. I've written for numerous syndicated cartoon strips and my gags have appeared in national pubs.

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