Impact of Federal Programs during 1930's
Scope and Content Note: “The 1930's were bad years...if we had had a depression and no drought we'd have been much better off.” In 1934-35 hay yields fell from forty-five loads to four or five. Drought and depression together resulted in fifty percent of area farmers taking part in federal loan and work programs. Edwin Tomter paid off federal feed loan, used to buy hay shipped from Iowa and South Dakota, by earning five dollars a day shoveling and hauling shale for federal road improvement program. More prosperous farmers participated frequently in federal soil conservation programs. Edwin Tomter had soil tested and began liming fields and growing alfalfa.