Life in a Time of Depression

The Dirty Thirties &The Drought and the DustbowlLife in a Time of DepressionKey vocabularyRecession: A period when a country isnt making enough money to keep their lifestyle goingNo Exports = no money for country = poverty (poor)

What happens in a Recessions?Companies close down (out of business)Then, NO JOBSFamilies are poor, no money, no food

Recessions are part of what is known as the business cycle.Recessions are caused by many factors. If the business cycle continues to fall, the economy enters a depression.A depression is a longer period of economic hardship (money difficulties)

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Life on FarmsCanada focused on Farming for feeding people and exportCanadians were desperate in the 1930s, from both those who lived in urban (city) and rural (country) areas.Farmers made money selling their crops, if no one bought they sufferedRemember! Since the early 1930s, many European countries (Italy, France, Germany) put tariffs (or taxes) on exports; value of Canadian crops went downCanada held back hoping that prices would improve. They DID NOT Life in Towns and CitiesPeople left their farms and thought life would be better in the cities---- it was NOT!Urban areas conducted business mainly based on a cash economy. This meant that business transactions were completed using cashIn the rural areas, people use to trade products rather than use cash!E.g. 2 sheep = 1 cowPeople needed jobs to get cash, no jobs could be found People now had to wait in bread lines for food, had little to no income, were chasing fewer jobs, and had to make do with what they had to live a city life.

Apply your knowledge!Think about the following question, then discuss it with partner sitting next to you. Next, share your answer with theclass.

If you were alive in the 1930s in Canada, would you prefer to live on a farm or in the city? The Drought and the DustbowlIn 1928, there was a record harvest: this meant that crops/supplies on the farm were plentiful (a lot) Wheat was 60% of the prairie crop, and of that 60%, 70% was exported.World economic conditions starting improving in 1933, so Canada hired more workers, however the world supply of grain was much higher than the demand. Wheat prices remained low.

Wheat prices remained low due to a huge surpluses (extra) being created in South America (Argentina in particular), and Australia.Extra wheat means Canada isnt needed as much as before.

Workers in the prairies had no jobs, so many farmers abandoned their land:Weather in the prairies was BAD

Farmers before the Depression were expanding their farms- buying machines, buying more land. They couldnt keep all this up when the Depression hit.Drought and Searing WindsDrought returned in 1933 with hard winds (searing winds)Drought caused temperatures to rise over 35 degrees Celsius most days. The year 1936 saw the hottest summer ever.The drought made the soil used for growing crops, dry and turn to dust.The topsoil, which is on the lands surface, contains the most nutrients a plant needs to develop.Subsoil, which is found underneath the topsoil, contains no real nutrients for plants to grow.

The 1930s drought caused topsoil in the prairies to dry up and turn to dust.The topsoil blew away.Millions of acres just blew away.The farmers once fertile farms had now turned into rocks and clay.Canadian wheat production decreased dramatically (from 440 million bushels in 1927 to a low of 219 million in 1936)Lakes went dry and farmers cut Canada thistle for their starving animals. Swarms of locusts ate shrubs, the handles off a rake and the clothing on the line, even the shirt off your back. Gophers population increased and some families survived by eating them.

Thistle

Locust

Gopher

The bad times had taken their toll and 250,000 people left the prairies between 1931 and 1941. In 1936 alone, 14,000 farms were abandoned. 1937 was the worst ever in the prairie economy. Many ended up on relief and to farmers raised on the virtues of hard work and independence, relief was a humiliation.

Finally in the fall of 1938 the rains came. And finally so did governmental (federal) helpLets take a look at a short video cliphttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gplaqa2yRgg