The Conditions of Rural Life

The great drought and, to a lesser extent, acreage adjustment measures, reduced the production of principal farm crops in terms of per-capita figures for the total population of the United States to the lowest level on record (1866-1934). Nevertheless, the Agricultural Adjustment Administration's program, in combination with other factors, brought about a substantial increase in farm income and some improvement in the purchasing power of that part of the 1934 farm income available for family living. The improvement, however, was by no means uniform throughout the country. Farm families increased their purchases of consumption goods to some extent, but many families were so seriously involved in debts that they continued to use as much of the available cash as possible to reduce these pressing obligations. Rural social institutions apparently did not show as much improvement in 1934, because of the usual failure of their incomes to increase as promptly as and proportion to gains in farm incomes, and because of the necessity of meeting debt payments that had prior claim over current expenditures

Agricultural economics · Agriculture · Business · Cash · Consumption (sociology) · Debt · Economics · Geography · Payment · Per capita · Per capita income · Population · Production (economics) · Purchasing power · Agricultural Economics and Policy · Economics of Agriculture and Food Markets · Finance