RICHTER SCALE TIMELINE

FARMERS

TIMELINE

1

917- Conscription crisis

1

918- Soldiers of the Soil

1

919- Farmers as Returning Veterans

1

929- Great Stock Market Crash

1

930s- Drought

CONSCRIPTION CRISIS

Ethan Willert

CONSCRIPTION CRISIS

-

Canada was in desperate needs after The Battle of Somme. (few volunteers)

-

Recruiting in Quebec failed

-

Conscription was made across the country because Prime Minister found it necessary.

-

Conscription was made to force citizens into war if desperately needed.

-

Farmers opposed this measure.

-

“Farmers sought agricultural exemptions from compulsory service until the end of the war.”

-

Sales went down

-

Issued exemption certificates

-

6.7 percent of eligible Saskatchewan conscripts defaulted.

-9.3 percent in Ontario.

-

40.8 percent in Quebec.

-and 19.4 percent in Canada as a whole

PRIMARY SOURCE

Here we see a Canadian

farmer signing an

exemption certificate.

Primary source:

http://wdm.ca/skteacherguid

e/WDMResearch/ImpactofW

WI.pdf

RANKING

T

he ranking I give this is -2. Some farmers sought

attention when staying in Canada when the war took

place. Also, Canadian farmers lost sales when almost

all soldiers went to Europe for WWI.

SOURCES

SOLDIERS OF THE SOIL

Eric Davison

SOLDIERS OF THE SOIL

H

eavy establishment in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces during

World War One, there was a shortage of labours for farm work,

so the Soldiers of the Soil or S.O.S. were founded on October

14th 1918. The program actively sought out volunteer male

youth work on Canadian farms to assist farmers in achieving

greater wartime production of foodstuffs. These boys were paid

from $15.00 to $40.00 per month depending on the work that

was performed.

PRIMARY SORCES

T

his is a photo of one if the boys

working on the farms as a child

h

ttp://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/

mb_history/17/soldierofthesoil.shtml

RANKING

+

4 because no one was forced into doing the work.

I

t was positive because it was helping with farming

food for the country and sending food to the soldiers

over seas

SOURCES

h

ttp://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/mb_history/17/

soldierofthesoil.shtml

h

ttp://www.agcanada.com/manitobacooperator/

2012/11/15/soldiers-of-the-soil-%E2%80%A8helped-

feed-the-front/

RETURNING VETERANS

Merry Ly

RETURNING VETERANSW

ho: Soldiers who returned from the war who were farmers. The farmers were returning veterans. They left World War One when finished and came back to their homes and farms. When farmers were at the war the wife most likely had do the farming for them. A lot of people thought it was a burden during and after the war. What: They came back to their families, home, farm, and their farming job after World War One was over. They felt like they needed to take a huge break when the war was over but couldn’t because of their job position of being a farmer. A lot of the returning veterans that were farmers found it hard to return to normal life as the war was scaring. A lot suffered from shell shock. A lot of people had great fear and some troubles after the war.

When: It was in year 1919 when the war was finally over and the soldiers that were farmers got to go back to their homes.

RETURNING VETERANS 2

Where: The soldiers who were farmers returned to their homes and farms after World War One. Once they have came home from World War One the soldiers who were farmers had to immediately proceed to work on their farms as farmers to make money and to have a sustainable life. Why: The main idea for the farmers who were returning veterans was that they should return to their civilian responsibilities which was to return life as farmers farming. How: Once returned from World War One the farmers who were returning veterans needed to push themselves to become farmers farming again and made sure their steady with their well being. In year 1919 returned World War One veterans who wished to farm with loans to purchase land, stock and equipment was provided a

Soldiers Settlement Act. All though a lot of people had to close up their farms due to heavy debts and or poor farming conditions.

PRIMARY SOURCE

"Terrible restlessness which possess us like an evil spirit; the indefinite

expression of a vague discontent the restlessness of dying men, little

children and old soldiers.”

M

arch 1919, veteran George Pearson wrote this quote for Maclean's Magazine of

what returning soldiers experienced.

T

his quote is important to farmers that were returning veterans because they had

troubles during and after World War One and had so many distraught feelings

and they had lived in poor conditions from World War One.

RANKING

They need sufficiency in Canada after World War One.

I rank this a 4 because all Canadians wanted Canada to be a good country even after coming back from the war even though they were living in though conditions and it was attempted to be fixed.

They needed to find good ways to cope with their lives after World War One and Canada wasn’t in good shape. (Wasn’t in good shape of economy or lives.)

I rank this a 5 because Canada was trying to battle the hardships after World War One was over. The hardships of the returning soldiers who were farmers had a rough time with their health and or well being so it affected Canada by not having much food as farmers were hurt.

They had to plan what to do the rest of their lives after World War One which was to return as farmers.

I rank this a 3 because some of the returning farmers already have a farm and could just go right back to business on the farm as their jobs but they are still attempting to defeat emotional, and health conditions, heavy debts, poor farming conditions, and even closed farms that might be interfering with farming for Canada. This issue interrupted farmers farming in Canada and this made Canada have less food.

SOURCES

C

olyer, Jill et al. Creating Canada: A History 1914-

Present. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 2010. Print.

W

right, Glenn T. “Veterans Land Act“. The Canadian

Encyclopedia. Web. 23 April 2013.

THE STOCK MARKET CRASH OF 1929

Erin Hamilton

DESCRIPTIONO

ctober 4 1929, both Bay and Wall Street were hit with a wave of selling, the Toronto stock exchange

recorded approximately $200 million in loses for the day. By the 23rd, the tension in the markets was

reaching a breaking point, and many investors were confused and anxious about the future of the

market. On October 24 1929, the day that came to be known as “Black Thursday”, the brokers

panicked and began to dump sell orders into the market in order to protect themselves. The market

slide began to accelerate. Soon stock prices began to collapse completely. At about 11:00 am the

selling reached a peak for about 6 min and the market broke down entirely. Crowds gathered

outside the stock exchanges in Toronto, New York, Chicago, Winnipeg, and Montreal. All order

broke down, police were called in and the markets kept falling. Ticker Tapes fell far behind and

exchanges lost touch with each other due to the shear volume of activity. The bankers, brokers, and

politicians claimed that it was a glitch and the economy was still sound, the Dow was down 11 at ℅the end of the day. On Monday October 28 1929, Black Monday, more investors left the market and

the slide continued, leaving the Dow with a 13 loss in value at the end of the day. The disaster of ℅the stock market crash continued on to Tuesday October 29 1929, Black Tuesday, where the Dow

lost an additional 12 of its value. The volume of the stocks traded on this day set a record that ℅was not broken for nearly 40 years. The market had lost over $30 billion in two days, with $14

billion lost on Black Tuesday alone.

PRIMARY SOURCET

his shows how big the impact of

the stock market crash was and

how many people were affected,

the effects of the crash were felt

world wide and sent both the

Canadian and American

economies into downward

spirals essentially triggering the

Great Depression.

h

ttp://

business.financialpost.com/

2011/10/24/the-great-crash-of-

1929-some-key-dates/

RANKING

T

he ranking the I give this event is a -4. The stock market crash meant that

people lost their jobs and had little to no money, wheat prices were down

and combined with the drought the farmers would be barely able to

support themselves and their families. Many of them would have lost

money from making investments that were worthless, and the banks

seized many homes, farms, and other properties. There were work camps

set up by the government which they might have travelled to, sending

money back to their family, but it would not have been enough. Many

probably relied on government relief which was rather scant, being just

enough for a family to scrape by.

SOURCES

C

olyer, Cecillon et al. Creating Canada–A History 1914 to the

Present. McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 2010. Print.

M

cleod, Susanna. “Black Tuesday, Collapse of Canada’s Stock

Market." Suite 101. N.p. n.d.Web. Thursday April 25 2013.

H

illmer, Norman. “The Great Crash.” The Canadian Encyclopedia.

N.p. n.d. Web. Thursday April 25 2013.

1930S DROUGHT

Maggie Huang

DESCRIPTIONT

he previous stock market crash had sent the prairies into poverty and unemployment, the rate

was constantly under 10% and then the drought of the 1930s came. Wheat sold for less than the

seeds and the drought with its dust lasted over 10 years killing the rich prairie soil. Men were

forced to move to cities and search for new jobs because they did not have the income to afford

the equipment and land. Dust storms came during spring and summer, when farmers were

planting crops. The dust storms would take out the seeds the farmers planted and render the

days work useless. The farmers also had an infestation of grasshoppers and weeds. Chickens and

turkeys ate the grasshoppers giving the meat and eggs a foul taste and it was impossible to

control the infestation. The livestock starved because there was nothing to feed them, and the

prices went up from 3.5 cents to 4 cents per animal. Farm incomes dropped 363 million in 1928

to minus 10.7 million in 1931 and agricultural exports fell from 783 million in 1928 to 253 million

in 1932. Farmers had to improvise with many new methods like planting new crops like oats, rye,

flax, peas and alfalfa that adapted to dry weather

PRIMARY SOURCET

his primary source is from July 25, 1931, 2 years after the drought started.

It was taken along a fence between Cadillac and Kincaid. The soil condition

has worsened since the drought started. This source is from the Library

and Archives Canada.

T

his is a picture from the 1930s drought. It shows the damaged soil that is a

result from the drought. It is an example of the drought many Canadian

farmers living in the prairies experienced during that decade.

T

his shows a change that made life for Canadian prairie farmers a lot

harder. These conditions made it hard for them to grow wheat and killed

the previously rich prairie soil. Future crops would also be affected by this

drought. The farmers planted different crops that were more accustomed

to dry land.

T

his picture shows the hardships that the 1930s drought brought just two

years in. Already soil is eroding away and during July, there are no crops in

the fields. Some farmers even moved away due to these conditions.

http://www.grainscanada.gc.ca/cgc-ccg/history-histoire/timeline-historique/1931-1940-eng.htm

RANKING-

3

I

’d rank this event a -3.5. It affected prairie farmers negatively during that time, and afterwards. The

drought affected ¼ of Canada’s farmable land. The land eroded and farming became hard due to erosion.

Many farms were abandoned or the farmers moved elsewhere. Due to this drought, we could be having

shortages of large supplies of surface water and groundwater in future years, and in 10-30 years from now,

we will have stress on surface water resources. However, the drought wasn’t 100% negative, due to the

drought, PFRA (Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration) was created to help prairie farmers deal with

drought, provide financial support to them and technical assistance in building water storage. Infertile land

was also bought off by PRFA; PFRA also provided trees to farmers with no charge. Due to this drought,

Irrigation projects also started up. So even though the drought was bad for land and farmers, the farmers

did get a small benefit in the end and widened the variety of stuff they planted. PRFA Also started.

SOURCES

“

1930s Drought.” CBC News. N.p. August 6, 2004. Web. April 25,

2013.

“Drought.” The Canadian Encyclopedia. N.p. 2010. Web. April 25,

2013.

“1931-1940.” Canadian Grain Commission. N.p. 2012. Web. April

25, 2013