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Life in a Time of Depression

Life in a Time of Depression. The “Dirty Thirties” & The Drought and the Dustbowl. Key vocabulary. Recession: A period when a country isn’t making enough money to keep their lifestyle going No Exports = no money for country = poverty (poor) What happens in a Recessions?

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Life in a Time of Depression

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  1. Life in a Time of Depression The “Dirty Thirties” &The Drought and the Dustbowl

  2. Key vocabulary • Recession: A period when a country isn’t making enough money to keep their lifestyle going • No Exports = no money for country = poverty (poor) • What happens in a Recessions? • Companies close down (out of business) • Then, NO JOBS • Families are poor, no money, no food

  3. 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)

  4. Life on Farms • Canada focused on Farming for feeding people and export • Canadians 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 suffered • Remember! Since the early 1930s, many European countries (Italy, France, Germany) put tariffs (or taxes) on exports; value of Canadian crops went down • Canada held back hoping that prices would improve. • They DID NOT 

  5. Life in Towns and Cities • People 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 cash • In the rural areas, people use to trade products rather than use cash! • E.g. 2 sheep = 1 cow • People 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.

  6. Apply your knowledge! Think about the following question, then discuss it with partner sitting next to you. Next, share your answer with the class. • If you were alive in the 1930s in Canada, would you prefer to live on a farm or in the city?

  7. The Drought and the Dustbowl • In 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.

  8. Wheat prices remained low due to a huge surpluses (extra) being created in South America (Argentina in particular), and Australia. • Extra wheat means Canada isn’t 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 couldn’t keep all this up when the Depression hit.

  9. Drought and SearingWinds • Drought returned in 1933with 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 land’s 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.

  10. Thistle • 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. Locust Gopher

  11. 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) help

  12. Let’stake a look at a short video clip… • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gplaqa2yRgg

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