Abstract

In 1929, things began definitely to go amiss with the American farmer. Since the World War, 1914-18, agriculture has been existing in a state of fluctuating prosperity, trying to keep pace with the crazy finance of the industrial world in America, The policy of high tariffs, high prices, and heavy over-production, combined with a shrinking overseas market, brought the economic depression in its train, and the first man to feel the effects was the farmer. The first re- netion was to put into practice the idea that the way to pay bills was to produce more-producing more meant flogging the land or using more machinery for Iarge scale cheaper production. To pay for machinery, constant cropping was necessary, and that meant more goods to sell on an overfull market at low prices. When prices are low the grow more-sell more principle merely puts the farmer more hopelessly into debt. In addition the fertility of the soil decreased and erosion played havoc with the land It was brought out in 1932 that a farmer's income was only half that of 1914. This was due to the fact that while the farmer paid 9 per cent. more for the same goods, he sold his own produce for 43 per cent. less than in 1914. Continuance of this state was impossible, and before remedial measures were instituted there had been a serious decline in the prosperity of the farmer, often to subsistence levels, accompanied by a no less serious degeneration of the soil.

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