Despite antigovernment feelings, criminals, and confusion, slow changes for the better took place in the dust bowl as 1940 approached. Some changes were due to rain. Some were due to government aid. Some were due to farmers putting into practice techniques that saved water and kept the soil in place. J.R. Davison remembered, "During those Dirty Thirties they came out with a lot of these different methods—contour farming, you know, different things, summer puddling.... You pulled a little apparatus behind your plow that just dug holes and that'd catch that water. You know, you could have a two- or three-inch rain and it wouldn't run off."

Adapting to New Ideas

Most of the new farming practices introduced in the 1930s were based on practicality. For instance, plowing using a lister heaped dirt on both sides of the furrow to trap more drifting...