USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -With heavy debts to pay and improved farming practices and equipment making it easier to work more land, farmers found it hard to reduce production. The resulting large surpluses caused farm prices to plummet. From 1919 to 1920, corn tumbled from $1.30 per bushel to forty-seven cents, a drop of more than 63 percent.

Detailed explanation-2: -Meanwhile, the agricultural sector suffered throughout the 1920s, and farm prices kept dropping for two reasons. First, American farms had expanded enormously during World War I to provide food for all those soldiers, and second, the expansion led many farmers to mechanize their operations.

Detailed explanation-3: -Although the 1920s were prosperous, speculation in the stock market, risky lending policies, overproduction, and uneven income distribution eventually undermined the economy and led to the Great Depression.

Detailed explanation-4: -Old industries were in decline. Farm income fell from $22 billion in 1919 to $13 billion in 1929. Farmers’ debts increased to $2 billion. Sharecroppers were often destitute when cotton crops failed or prices fell.