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The economic pressures on agriculture increased following the stock-market crash of 1929. Struggling banks began foreclosing on farms, and farmers attempted to meet their bills in the only way they knew how: by increasing acreage and yields, further driving down prices. By 1932 farm prices were only 40 percent of their already low 1929 levels. Wheat earned only 25 cents a bushel (down from $2.94 in 1920); oats brought 10 cents a bushel; sugar got 3 cents per pound; and cotton and wool garnered 5 cents a pound (down from 37 cents in 1920). By 1933 prices had sunk to 63 percent of their 1929 level. Fundamentally it became impossible for indebted farmers to earn enough to keep their farms. Farmers had to grow nine bushels of wheat to pay for a pair of shoes; in 1909, two bushels would have sufficed. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff of 1930 was supposed to offer farmers some protection, but agricultural surpluses were so huge that its...
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This section contains 329 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) |
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