The Plight of the Prairie Farmer
By “Awake!” correspondent in Canada
SMILING land! Yes, that is what the early pioneers discovered when they penetrated the Canadian prairies. It was truly a land of plenty. The lush summer vegetation fed buffalo, deer, elk and other wild creatures by the millions. Lakes and broad rivers were plentifully stocked with fish. Game birds and songbirds abounded. Vast belts of forest land interspersed by clearings and endless reaches of level land broken here and there by stands of trees, particularly along the riverbanks, gave promise of successful farming.
Each homesteader was granted 160 acres of free land, with the option of buying more. There seemed to be no question about what to do with all this land. The world needed wheat, and here was land peculiarly suited to produce it. So, they turned the sod and planted wheat until the rolling prairies became famous as the Golden West. Can you picture in your mind’s eye the ripe golden grain billowing in the wind as far as the horizon?
Then rail lines began reaching out farther and farther, and long, long trains laden with grain rumbled to the coast to transfer their precious cargo to waiting ships. Meantime, still more immigrants arrived. Energetic farmers continued to break the virgin soil with yokes of oxen or teams of horses. Temporary homes, some built of sod, would do. Everyone looked forward confidently to an era of prosperity.
With the close of World War I a period of modernization set in. Horse teams and cumbersome steam-driven threshing machines began to fade out. The versatile gasoline engine took over. This, in turn, was superseded by the diesel. Giant self-propelled combines next made their appearance. It was surely astonishing to see how they mowed down and gobbled up, as it were, vast swaths of growing grain in a matter of minutes. But with all this progress came also rising costs and maintenance charges.
A little foresight should have persuaded those prairie farmers that mechanization and improved agricultural methods would soon get to the underdeveloped nations, and they, too, would be in the market with their billions of tons of wheat. But few gave serious thought to such a possibility. Farmers bought more land to raise more wheat to pay for more machinery, and then bought more land to raise more wheat to pay for more machinery. It was a merry-go-round that was to prove to be not so merry after all.
As It Was in the Beginning
Few farmers in those earlier days specialized in wheat. They also owned horses, cattle, pigs, chickens, ducks and turkeys. They did not ‘put all their eggs in one basket.’ They soon found that bumper crops do not succeed one another endlessly. There are lean years too. So they had to grow feed for the livestock, and usually good-sized garden stocked with every kind of vegetable. Vegetables, fruits and meats were all suitably stored away for winter use.
The exchange of butter and eggs and the sale of fresh cream or the odd carcass of beef or pork always seemed to be ample to offset the grocery bill. Nobody went hungry. The children grew up as healthy as the prairie gophers that scampered all around them. Families worked together and stayed together. They made a success of farming as a unit, each member, young and old, sharing in the work.
No, it was not a case of all work and no play. Every summer brought the greatly anticipated picnics and rodeos. There were baseball and other games, and then dances in the evening. In winter there were skating, skiing and organized literary debating teams. There were frequent “bees” also, for, if a newcomer arrived or someone’s barn burned down, the neighbors gathered and built a house or raised a new barn in a hurry. People were friendly.
The Turning Point
Then suddenly, in 1929, the situation changed drastically. The Great Depression had set in. World stock markets collapsed. Well-to-do people were beggared almost overnight. The “hungry thirties” had arrived. Many a disillusioned investor committed suicide rather than face the bleakness of poverty. Farmers were hit hard, too, and many gave up the fight, allowing the mortgage companies to take over.
Others stuck to their farms. They worked from sunup till sundown and, when night fell, there were still chores to be done. There were cows to milk, cream to separate, pigs to feed, gates to mend, fences to fix, stray stock to be rounded up. Frequently, the farmer’s wife was the heroine on the home front, for many of the vital tasks fell upon her strong shoulders.
Unfortunately for the farmers, the impatient younger ones could not or would not persevere. They rebelled at being nursemaids to cattle, for, no matter how hard they worked, the family never seemed to get out from under the load of debt. They wanted better education and emancipation from farm chores. They began drifting to the city, where people had to work only eight hours a day and got pay for it. Eventually the exodus from the farms reached astounding proportions.
For those who remained it was a time of consolidation. Some, hoping for prosperity, bought up the little fellows, and huge landholdings resulted. The smaller farmer, forced to sell at a loss, drifted to industrial centers and often went on relief. Then farm labor became the big headache. It seemed in some areas there was no one left to hire. The entire farm program had to be reorganized. Everything was mechanized so that one man might handle all the work. Excess livestock was disposed of and the mixed farmer gave way to the grain farmer.
War-Induced Prosperity
World War II then boosted the economy with a cash infusion. Prices rose; farm produce of every kind was in demand. Many farmers participated in the war, but those who remained behind reaped a rich harvest. Again the farm scene changed. Now it was not only the young folks who went to the city. The older folks themselves moved to the conveniences of town life, or spent winters in California, Florida or Mexico. Livestock and gardens were no longer needed. They would buy their needs at the supermarket.
Thus the “successful farmer” became a man of leisure. He commuted to and from the farm in an expensive automobile and worked his land with tractors. In the fall the farm was shut down, and the owner was free to do as he liked during the long winter. It looked as if these farmers were about to attain to independence and a fairly easy life.
But wait! Things were happening in other countries also. Yes, even underdeveloped countries were being swiftly transformed. New methods of farming, ingenious machines, commercial fertilizers, better seed stock and fresh varieties boosted crop production. More countries managed to grow sufficient grain for their own consumption and then some.
Thus it came about that in the 50’s and 60’s Canadians found themselves in a real spot. The world’s grain market was glutted. Millions of tons of wheat were still in demand, but now Argentina, Australia and the United States of America had entered into a stiff competition. It was not long before the Golden West had massive elevators filled with surplus wheat, while the farmers, with two years of crops still in their farm storage bins, and another harvest coming on in the field, wondered how much of their acreage they should allow the flowering weeds to take over.
It is estimated that Canada now has as much as one and one-half thousand million bushels of wheat on its hands, with few takers. And it is seldom now a question of a cash transaction Canada must often determine how much of its customers’ exports it is willing to import in exchange for wheat. It is a buyers’ market. At the same time the hungry nations simply cannot pay the price. So, exporters are faced with the question: Will they or will they not sell for less? Drastic undercutting of the world price could precipitate an all-out price war that no one can afford.
Meanwhile, cattle-fattening feedlots have sprung up—feedlots where no barn is needed, no farm residence, but simply elevators for feed storage, outdoor cattle stalls and machines that distribute the feed to such stalls. And grain has become the “wampum” or medium of exchange. By it machinery, furniture, groceries, and so forth, have changed hands.
Writes Philip Mathias in the Financial Post: “The prairie farm economy is starting to revert to the barter system. Reason: Huge surpluses of grain that cannot be sold. Farmers with bulging granaries are bartering grain for machinery, cattle, furniture, education for their sons and perhaps a trip to the dentist.” This may relieve local pressure, but affords no real easing of the nation’s economy.
Of all segments of society the farmer appears to have been the most docile. Grievances of industrial workers find vent in strikes and walkouts, but the farmer just swallowed his feelings and plodded on in the hope that somehow the next season would bring improvements. But finally, the protesters’ disease got him—labor protested, students protested, even the clergy had their protests, so why not the farmer?
Protest meetings were staged throughout the country, and farm organizations sent rousing resolutions to the Government, demanding action. They would not be put off anymore by the platitudes and counsels to patience offered by those in authority. They got tough and moved en masse. When Canada’s Prime Minister, Pierre E. Trudeau, met with them recently in Winnipeg and Regina, thousands of farmers clogged city streets with their tractors and angrily shouted him down.
But what is the answer? To whom would you sell ice in the Arctic? To whom can you really sell wheat in a glutted world market? Other countries, too, are faced with the same problem, and they too are clamoring for outlets. There appears to be no immediate solution. What a paradox this produces! Grain-glutted nations have not enough of certain items because they have too much grain, while the underfed and starving see plenty everywhere except on their own tables. It will take a wiser king than Solomon to come up with the answer.
Whither Now?
Whatever remedy the Government seeks to apply, one thing appears to be certain: Previous concepts of farm-Government relations will have to be overhauled, drastically changed. Farmers will no longer be able to specialize in one type of crop. Diversified farming under totally different conditions may well return. But it will take some sort of international control to put an end to the “feast or famine” situation that now obtains in most lands.
The competitive system, particularly as regards farm production, appears to many persons to have outlived its usefulness. Many claim that an international advisory body is needed—one that is absolutely impartial, honorable and just, and that would carefully regulate who grows what and where, on an earthwide basis. The lamentable truth, however, is that such a body is presently unobtainable among the political and commercial elements of society.
Surely he will be a wise administrator who achieves a breakthrough with respect to this continuing problem! Human efforts hold out no hope of a sudden solution to the plight of the prairie farmer.