Rural life in the 1930s

For the nearly 50 percent of Americans who lived on farms, the Great Depression began at the end of the Great War, later to be known as World War I. Farmers had increased production to meet the demand for farm products brought on by the war. When the war ended, demand dropped sharply; prices followed.

Thus the "roar" of the twenties did not reach rural America. The lives of American farm families during the first four decades of the twentieth century more nearly resembled lives of the nineteenth. Even by the mid 1930s, only one in five farms had electricity. Their work was unrelieved by the various new electrical appliances that were making their way into urban homes. Only one-tenth of farm homes had indoor bathrooms. If they owned a radio, it was battery powered. Both radios and batteries were relatively expensive, so they were still uncommon in poorer homes. Some farm families owned a car, but they lived on dirt roads. Farm work was still done by hand or with implements drawn by horses or mules. Cream was separated from milk by a separator that had to be cranked by hand. Since there was no refrigeration, the cream needed to be transported to town if it could not be regularly picked up by the dairy. An ice box was not of much use, since it required a trip to the nearest town to get the ice, which was only done on special occasions. A few items could be kept cool by placing them in a can and lowering the can into a well near the house.

When the Great Depression hit the cities, unemployment soared. Demand for farm products and prices dropped to even lower levels. Life on the farm became even more precarious. Only 16 percent of farm households earned incomes above the national median of $1,500 per year. Sharecroppers and tenant farm families in the South had annual incomes of $350 or less. In 1934 the average per capita farm income was $167....