What was agriculture like in the 1930s?

What was agriculture like in the 1930s?

In the early 1930s prices dropped so low that many farmers went bankrupt and lost their farms. In some cases, the price of a bushel of corn fell to just eight or ten cents. Some farm families began burning corn rather than coal in their stoves because corn was cheaper.

What were some of the problems with farming during the Depression?

Farmers who had borrowed money to expand during the boom couldn’t pay their debts. As farms became less valuable, land prices fell, too, and farms were often worth less than their owners owed to the bank. Farmers across the country lost their farms as banks foreclosed on mortgages. Farming communities suffered, too.

What did farmers grow in 1930s?

Along with oats, sorghum and alfalfa, corn was used to feed cattle and pigs. Livestock was the main source of cash for farmers. If farmers harvested a big crop, they sold some of the corn and grain to other farmers who needed feed.

What did people grow during the Depression?

Farms in the 1930s were diversified, growing a variety of crops in the fields, vegetables in the garden and fruit in the orchard. Small farms usually raised chickens, eggs, hogs, and cattle, as well as keeping horses and mules for work, and sometimes sheep for wool and meat.

What was life in the 1930s like?

The 1930s saw natural disasters as well as manmade ones: For most of the decade, people in the Plains states suffered through the worst drought in American history, as well as hundreds of severe dust storms, or “black blizzards,” that carried away the soil and made it all but impossible to plant crops.

What was life like in the 1930s during the Great Depression?

More important was the impact that it had on people’s lives: the Depression brought hardship, homelessness, and hunger to millions. THE DEPRESSION IN THE CITIES In cities across the country, people lost their jobs, were evicted from their homes and ended up in the streets.

What was life like in the Dust Bowl?

Life during the Dust Bowl years was a challenge for those who remained on the Plains. They battled constantly to keep the dust out of their homes. Windows were taped and wet sheets hung to catch the dust. At the dinner table, cups, glasses, and plates were kept overturned until the meal was served.

What was food like in the 1930s?

Food “disguises” were popular in the 1930s including pigs in blankets, mushrooms made out of cream cheese and “bunny salad” made from a canned pear half. Chicken divan casserole, cherries jubilee, sweet potato-marshmallow surprises, and black bottom pie were very popular during the 1930s.

What caused dust storms in the 1930s?

Alas, while natural prairie grasses can survive a drought the wheat that was planted could not and, when the precipitation fell, it shriveled and died exposing bare earth to the winds. This was the ultimate cause of the wind erosion and terrible dust storms that hit the Plains in the 1930s.

What were homes like in the 1930s?

The typical house of the 1930s was generally smaller than those before 1914. It had a front room off a hall, a second living room at the rear and a kitchen. Houses were often half timbered with a mix of red brick and some pebbledash. Pebbledash was less common than it had been in the 1920s.

What was life like for a woman in the 1930?

The 1930s caused hard times for all people, especially the women. They needed to find ways to help support their families. Women took on new jobs and responsibilities to provided for themselves and their families. Their previous, ordinary daily lives became a daily struggle to keep their families alive.

What kind of plants were popular in the 1930s?

Many of the garden plants that we think of as “old ladyish”— roses, hollyhocks, foxglove, delphiniums, carnations, and columbines —were hugely popular in the 1930s, showing up everywhere from gardens and bouquets to fashion and wallpaper. 1940s-50s: Birth of the American Backyard

What was life like for farmers in the 1930’s?

‘Hard Times’ ‘The Dirty 30s’ ‘The Great Depression’ These are some of the phrases we use to describe the period from 1930 through 1939. Farming in the 1930s on the Great Plains was perhaps the most difficult occupation in the world.

What did people do for fun in the 1930s?

Install an in-ground pool, which features prominently in 1930s landscape designs of Church as an extension of outdoor living. Although the 1930s was the decade of the Great Depression, it was also a time of opulence and indulgence for the economically privileged.

Why was there a drought in the 1930s?

Farmers not only faced a global economic slow down of historic proportions, but they also faced one of the worst and longest droughts in America’s history. People around the world had no money to buy the crops and animals that farmers produced, and the drought made it almost impossible to plant and harvest the crops in the first place.