Monday, September 19, 2011

The Farmers' Plight: 1930s

The Farmers' Plight: 1930s

Roosevelt moved aggressively to address the crisis facing the nation's farmers. No group was harder hit by the Depression than farmers and farm workers. At the start of the Depression, a fifth of all American families still lived on farms. These families, however, were in deep trouble. Farm income fell by a staggering two-thirds during the Depression's first three years. A bushel of wheat that sold for $2.94 in 1920 dropped to $1 in 1929 and 30 cents in 1932. In one day, a quarter of Mississippi's farm acreage was auctioned off to pay for debts.
Evicted Sharecroppers

The farmers' problem, ironically, was that they grew too much. Worldwide crop production soared--a result of more efficient farm machinery, stronger fertilizers, and improved plant varieties--but demand fell. People ate less bread, Europeans imposed protective tariffs, and consumers replaced cotton with rayon. Too much was being grown, and the glut caused prices to fall. In order to meet farm debts in 1932, farmers needed to grow 2.5 times as much corn as they grew in 1929, 2.7 times as much wheat, and 2.4 times as much cotton.

Tennessee Cotton Pickers

As farm incomes fell, farm tenancy soared; two-fifths of all farmers worked on land that they did not own. The Gudgers, a white southern Alabama sharecropping family of six, illustrated the plight of tenants who were slipping deeper and deeper into debt. Each year, their landlord provided them with 20 acres of land, seed, an unpainted one-room house, a shed, a mule, fertilizer, and $10 a month. In return, they owed him half of their corn and cotton crop and 8 percent interest on their debts. In 1934, they were $80 in debt; by 1935, their debts had risen another $12.
Sharecropper family

Nature itself seemed to have turned against farmers. In the South, the boll weevil devoured the cotton crop; on the Great Plains, the top soil literally blew away, piling up in ditches like "snow drifts in winter." The Dust Bowl produced unparalleled human tragedy, but it had not occurred by accident. The Plains had always been a harsh, arid inhospitable environment. Nevertheless, a covering of tough grass-roots, called sod, permitted the land to retain moisture and support vegetation. During the 1890s, however, overgrazing by cattle severely damaged the sod. Then, during World War I, demand for wheat and the use of gasoline-powered tractors allowed farmers to plow large sections of the prairie for the first time. The fragile skin protecting the prairie was destroyed. When drought struck, beginning in 1930, and temperatures soared (to 108 degrees in Kansas for weeks on end) the wind began to blow the soil away. One Kansas county, which produced 3.4 million bushels of wheat in 1931, harvested just 89,000 bushels in 1933.

South Carolina farm family

Tenant farmers found themselves evicted from their land. By 1939, a million Dust Bowl refugees and other tenant farmers left the Plains to work as itinerant produce pickers in California. As a result, whole counties were depopulated. In one part of Colorado, 2,811 homes were abandoned, while an additional 1,522 people simply disappeared.

13 year old sharecropper.

The New Deal attacked farm problems through a variety of programs. Rural electrification programs meant that for the first time Americans in Appalachia, the Texas Hill Country, and other areas would have the opportunity to share in the benefits of electricity and running water. As late as 1935, more than 6 million of America's 6.8 million farms had no electricity. Unlike their sisters in the city, farm women had no washing machines, refrigerators, or vacuum cleaners. Nor did private utility companies intend to change things. Private companies insisted that it would be cost prohibitive to provide electrical service to rural areas.
Sharecropper and her son

Roosevelt disagreed. Settling on the 40,000 square mile valley of the Tennessee River as his test site, Roosevelt decided to put the government into the electric business. Two months after he took office, Congress passed a bill creating the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The TVA was authorized to build 21 dams to generate electricity for tens of thousands of farm families. In 1935 Roosevelt signed an executive order creating the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) to bring electricity generated by government dams to America's hinterland. Between 1935 and 1942 the lights came on for 35 percent of America's farm families.
Cotton Pickers

Electricity was not the only benefit the New Deal bestowed on farmers. The Soil Conservation Service helped farmers battle erosion; the Farm Credit Administration provided some relief from farm foreclosures; and the Commodity Credit Corporation permitted farmers to use stored products as collateral for loans. Roosevelt's most ambitious farm program, however, was the Agriculture Adjustment Act (AAA).

Evicted sharecropper family

The AAA, led by Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace, sought a partnership between the government and major producers. Together the new allies would raise prices by reducing the supply of farm goods. Under the AAA, the large producers, acting through farm cooperatives, would agree upon a "domestic allotment" plan that would assign acreage quotas to each producer. Participation would be voluntary. Farmers who cut production to comply with the quotas would be paid for land left fallow.

Evicted Arkansas sharecropper family

Unfortunately for its backers, the AAA got off to a horrible start. Because the 1933 crops had already been planted by the time Congress established the AAA, the administration ordered farmers to plow their crops under. The government paid them over $100 million to plow under 10 million acres of cotton. The government also purchased and slaughtered six million pigs, salvaging only one million pounds of meat for the needy. The public neither understood nor forgave the agency for destroying food while jobless people went hungry.

Sharecropper family

Overall, the AAA's record was mixed. It raised farm income, but did little for sharecroppers and tenant farmers--the groups hardest hit by the agricultural crisis. Farm incomes doubled between 1933 and 1936, but large farmers reaped most of the benefits. Many large landowners used government payments to purchase tractors and combines, allowing them to mechanize farm operations, increase crop yields and reduce the need for sharecroppers and tenants. One Mississippi planter bought 22 tractors with his payments and, subsequently, evicted 160 tenant families. The New Deal farm policies unintentionally forced at least 3 million small farmers from the land. For all its inadequacies, however, the AAA established the precedence for a system of farm price supports, subsidies, and surplus purchases that still continues more than half a century later.
Sharecropper Kitchen

(source: Digital History)

24 comments:

  1. I love your website. I was looking for a historical reference for a restoration project and your photo are amazing! How to I become a follower of your work?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Please let me know if you're looking for a article writer for your weblog. You have some really good posts and I believe I would be a good asset. If you ever want to take some of the load off, I'd absolutely love to write some articles for
    your blog in exchange for a link back to mine. Please blast me an
    e-mail if interested. Thanks!

    my web blog ... click here

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hello, this weekend is pleasant designed for me,
    for the reason that this point in time i am reading
    this fantastic educational piece of writing here at my house.


    My site :: http://www.paninicomics.de/forum//index.php/index.php?page=User&userID=14093

    ReplyDelete
  4. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Appreciating the commitment you put into your website and detailed information you
    offer. It's good to come across a blog every once in a while that isn't the same
    unwanted rehashed information. Wonderful read! I've bookmarked your site and I'm including your RSS feeds to my Google account.



    My blog :: http://petitevirgins.net/index.php?own=2509985

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi there, I discovered your website by means of Google even as looking for a similar matter,
    your web site got here up, it appears to be like great. I've bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.
    Hi there, simply turned into aware of your weblog via Google, and located that it's truly informative.
    I am gonna be careful for brussels. I'll be grateful in the event you continue this in future. A lot of folks will likely be benefited from your writing. Cheers!

    My homepage ... visit Website

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hey great blog! Does running a blog like this require a
    massive amount work? I've virtually no expertise in coding however I was hoping to start my own blog soon. Anyways, if you have any ideas or tips for new blog owners please share. I understand this is off topic but I simply had to ask. Cheers!

    Also visit my blog - Click here

    ReplyDelete
  8. Spot on with this write-up, I really think this amazing
    site needs much more attention. I'll probably be returning to read through more, thanks for the advice!

    Feel free to surf to my blog post; click here

    ReplyDelete
  9. Saved as a favorite, I love your site!

    Also visit my homepage; click here

    ReplyDelete
  10. You're so interesting! I don't suppose I've truly read through something like that before. So nice to discover someone with some original thoughts on this issue. Really.. thank you for starting this up. This web site is one thing that is required on the internet, someone with a little originality!

    my site: http://pornharvest.com/index.php?q=nubiles+lexi_bloom&f=a&p=s

    ReplyDelete
  11. We're a group of volunteers and opening a new scheme in our community. Your site offered us with valuable info to work on. You have done a formidable job and our whole community will be grateful to you.

    Here is my web-site Extra resources

    ReplyDelete
  12. I seldom comment, but after browsing through some
    of the remarks here "The Farmers' Plight: 1930s". I actually do have 2 questions for you if it's okay. Is it just me or do a few of the remarks appear like they are left by brain dead folks? :-P And, if you are posting on other online sites, I'd like to keep
    up with you. Could you post a list of every one of all your social
    sites like your linkedin profile, Facebook page or twitter feed?


    Here is my webpage - More Support

    ReplyDelete
  13. An outstanding share! I've just forwarded this onto a co-worker who has been conducting a little homework on this. And he in fact bought me lunch simply because I stumbled upon it for him... lol. So allow me to reword this.... Thank YOU for the meal!! But yeah, thanks for spending time to discuss this issue here on your site.

    Have a look at my web site ... pornharvest.com

    ReplyDelete
  14. I just like the helpful information you supply for your articles.
    I'll bookmark your blog and test once more right here frequently. I'm rather sure I
    will learn many new stuff right right here! Best
    of luck for the following!

    ReplyDelete
  15. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Way cool! Some extremely valid points! I appreciate you penning this article
    plus the rest of the website is very good.

    My webpage airplane simulator

    ReplyDelete
  17. Wonderful blog! I found it while searching on Yahoo News.
    Do you have any suggestions on how to get listed
    in Yahoo News? I've been trying for a while but I never seem to get there! Appreciate it

    my web site I was reading this

    ReplyDelete
  18. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  19. This is really interesting, You are a very skilled blogger.
    I've joined your feed and look forward to seeking more of your great post. Also, I've shared your website in my social networks!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Fantastic blog! Do you have any recommendations for aspiring writers?
    I'm planning to start my own website soon but I'm a little lost on
    everything. Would you recommend starting with a free platform like Wordpress or go
    for a paid option? There are so many options out there that I'm completely confused .. Any recommendations? Kudos!

    My site :: i was reading this

    ReplyDelete
  21. It's actually very complicated in this busy life to listen news on TV, so I just use the web for that purpose, and obtain the latest news.

    My page: Chatclimax.com

    ReplyDelete
  22. I do consider all the ideas you have presented to your post.
    They're very convincing and will definitely work. Still, the posts are too quick for novices. May just you please prolong them a little from next time? Thank you for the post.

    Also visit my blog post :: porn reviews

    ReplyDelete
  23. I rarely drop comments, however I looked through some responses on
    "The Farmers' Plight: 1930s". I do have a couple of questions for you if
    you tend not to mind. Is it simply me or do some of the comments come across
    as if they are coming from brain dead visitors?
    :-P And, if you are posting on additional online sites, I
    would like to follow anything new you have to post. Could
    you make a list of every one of all your
    shared sites like your twitter feed, Facebook page or linkedin profile?


    my web-site :: leggy nubile ebbi pummels her shaved pussy with a dildo

    ReplyDelete
  24. Marvelous, what a webpage it is! This web site provides useful information to us,
    keep it up.

    Also visit my blog post :: http://Pornharvest.com/index.php?q=nubiles+logan_bella&f=a&p=s

    ReplyDelete

HOME

HOME
Click here to return to the US Slave Home Page