Editing Homestead Acts (section)

=== Enlarged Homestead Act of 1909 ===
Because by the early 1900s much of the prime low-lying [[Alluvial plain|alluvial land]] along rivers had been homesteaded, the ''Enlarged Homestead Act'' was passed in 1909. To enable [[dryland farming]], it increased the number of acres for a homestead to {{convert|320|acre|ha}} given to farmers who accepted more [[marginal lands]] (especially in the [[Great Plains]]), which could not be easily irrigated.<ref name="blm06">[http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/wo/Minerals Realty and Resource Protection /bmps.Par.41235.File.dat/Split%20Estate%20Presentation%202006.pdf Split EstatePrivate Surface / Public Minerals: What Does it Mean to You?]{{dead link|date=November 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, a 2006 [[Bureau of Land Management]] presentation</ref>

A massive influx of these new farmers, combined with inappropriate cultivation techniques and misunderstanding of the ecology, led to immense land erosion and eventually the [[Dust Bowl]] of the 1930s.<ref>{{cite SSRN | last1=Libecap |first1=Gary D. |last2=Hansen |first2=Zeynep K. |title=U.S. Land Policy, Property Rights, and the Dust Bowl of the 1930s |language=en |date=September 1, 2001|ssrn=286699 }}</ref><ref name="dustbowl">{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/dustbowl-drought/ |title=The American Experience: Drought |publisher=pbs.org |access-date=February 3, 2016}}</ref>