Even as the stock market surged in the 1920s, with stock prices more than quadrupling in value, an economic depression was beginning to take hold on American farms, affecting more than thirty per cent of the US population.

The robust prosperity of American farms during the 1910s had been capped off by a surging demand for their products in war-torn Europe.

To meet this demand, farmers had borrowed money for new equipment and additional farm land, boosting production.

But when Europe recovered from the war, the export demand fell.

Surpluses drove prices for farm products down and the value of farmland declined.

Farm foreclosures, once rare, became commonplace.

Once proud landowners became tenant farmers or hired hands on a wealthy neighbor’s farm.

Then, in 1930, things got much worse.

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