Soil Conditions and Farming in the Early 1900s

BRING YOUR TEXTBOOK

FRIDAY

The Great Plains

The Great Plains

• Droughts in the 1890s (populists)• Quickly forgotten during periods of rain

The Great Plains

• 1900 Bureau of Soils announcement:“The soil is the one indestructible, immutable asset that the nation possesses. It is the one resource that cannot be exhausted; that cannot be used up.”

During WWI

• Needed to feed our country• Needed to provide food for our allies• Once we entered the war, needed to feed our

military

During WWI

• Wheat production from Russia gone• We turned to the middle of the country to

produce food

“Hooverizing”

• Herbert Hoover - United States Food Administrator

• “Meatless Mondays” “Wheatless Wednesdays,”

• Voluntary • “Food Will Win the War”• Reduced domestic food consumption by 15%

Hoover’s Going to Get You!

The “great old Hoover Pledge” hascome to our house to stay;To frown on breakfast bacon down,and take our steak away;It cans our morning waffles, and oursausage, too, it seems,And dilates on the succulence of corn,and spuds and beans,So skimp the sugar in your cakeand leave the butter out!Or Hoover’s goin’ to get you if youDon’t Watch Out!

Hoover’s Going to Get You!

O, gone now are the good old days ofhot cakes, thickly spread;And meatless, wheatless, sweetlessdays are reigning in their stead;And gone the days of fat rib roasts,and two-inch T-bone steaks,And doughnuts plump and goldenbrown, the kind that mother makesAnd when it comes to pies and cake,just learn to cut it out.Or Hoover’s goin’ to get you if youDon’t Watch Out!

Hoover’s Going to Get You!

So spread your buckwheats sparingly,and peel your taters thin;And tighten up your belt a notch, anddon’t forget to grin.And, if, sometimes, your whole soulyearns for shortcake high and wide,And biscuits drenched with honey, andchicken, butter fried,Remember then that Kaiser Bill isshort on sauerkraut.And Hoover’s goin’ to get him if we’llAll Help Out!

1919

• 1914: Bushel of wheat: 98 cents• 1919: Bushel of wheat: $2.16

1920s

• Canadian imports drop the price• Bushel of wheat prices around $1.30• Stays high with government subsidies• Good crops• 1929 – Great crop year• The Great Depression was a city thing

1920s

• But government subsidies kept the prices artificially high

• The wheat crop was also a bubble ready to burst, further contributing to the Crash

1930

• Depression reaches rural America• Wheat: $1.00 to 70 cents/bushel• Solution –

1930

• Depression reaches rural America• Wheat: $1.00 to 70 cents/bushel• Solution – harvest more!• That winter: Rain and snow

1931

• One of the best wheat crops ever• BUT

1931

• One of the best wheat crops ever• BUT – there’s no one to buy it• Wheat stacks up• 25 cents/bushel

1932

1932

The DUST BOWL begins

Imagine that Walnut Creek (or wherever you live) becomes the center of the 2015 Dust Bowl. How would your home be affected?

In Dust Bowl 2015, what dangers would there be in leaving your home?

How long do you and your family stay in this area before you leave the Dust Bowl? How long would you have stayed in No Man’s Land in the 1930s? Where would you have gone? Why might people have stayed?

1. Why are these people going to California? What do they hope to find there? How does it compare to immigrants coming to America in the 1880s & 90s?

2. Why do you think most Californians felt the people who migrated to escape the problems of the Depression and the Dust Bowl were all the same?

Imagine you are an Okie arriving in California. Or you lose all of your money in the Crash of 1929. Or you lose your job because your boss loses all of her money in the Crash of 1929. In any case, there are limited jobs available. What are you willing to do? What are you unwilling to do?