The Dynamics of Soil Erosion in the United States

It is difficult to forget the dust-darkened skies at Ames, Iowa, during the 1930s. The skies of eastern cities were also darkened by these storms, which the urban press and Washington officials blamed on farmers and their plows. In 1946, James C. Malin of the University of Kansas published a historical account of dust storms, placing in doubt the then official and popular view of their causes.¹ He pointed out that the eastern United States had experienced dark days on 21 October 1716, 19 October 1762, 19 May 1780, 16 October 1785, and 3 July 1814. There were clouds of