Withered and died, and the ground lay barren, exposing nutrient-rich topsoil to the elements. But when drought struck the Great Plains in the 1930s, rural areas were the next to suffer.Īcross the Great Plains, people had plowed up the drought-resistant native grasses to grow grain. In the early days of the Great Depression, life in rural areas was not as difficult as in urban areas because rural people could produce their own food. When the stock market crash known as Black Tuesday hit on October 29, 1929, the United States experienced a financial collapse that ushered in the Great Depression. From 1929 to 1932, four million farms were lost to foreclosure. Farmers who had taken out loans faced foreclosure. In 1929 the price of grain dropped abruptly from $3.00 to $0.40 per bushel. Instead of bringing in extra revenue, the added production further depressed the market. To compensate for the price drop, farmers tilled more land and grew more crops. Industries struggled, and the price of crops dropped by as much as 40%. Millions of acres of native grassland, previously used for grazing, were converted into wheat fields to keep up with the rising demand.įollowing WWI, there was a steep decline in demand for goods. Tractors allowed farmers to plant and harvest an acre in three hours rather than the three days it took by hand with manual labor. Agricultural workers on the Great Plains, specifically in the southeastern region, including Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, Kansas, and Oklahoma, began taking out loans to buy more land and the latest farming equipment. The United States replaced Russia as a global agricultural supplier, and the prices for grain rose to an all-time high. Unemployment numbers fell drastically between 19.
World War I required the ramping up of agricultural production and manufacturing, which pumped new life into the American economy. Topsoil: the upper layer of soil that is rich in organic matter and best suited to growing healthy crops Soil Conservation Service (SCS): federal agency now referred to as the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) that provides technical assistance to farmers and other private landowners and managers New Deal: the set of programs and policies designed to promote economic recovery and social reform introduced during the 1930s by President Franklin D. Storms during the time period of the Great Depressionīushel: a unit of measurement used in US agriculture that is equivalent to a volume of 64 pints, but is generally standardized by weight for different products a bushel of wheat weighs 60 lbs, a bushel of corn weighs 56 lbsĬivilian Conservation Corps (CCC): a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men from relief families as part of the New Dealĭrought: a long period of time in which there is very little or no rainĭust Bowl: name given to the Great Plains region that was devastated by drought during the Great Depression during the 1930sĮrosion: the process by which the surface of the earth is worn away by the action of water, glaciers, winds, waves, and other natural forces