Throughout U.S. history farming has been an important way of life for American families and essential for the nation's economic health. During the first two decades of the twentieth century farmers experienced economic growth and prosperity. The period of 1909 through 1914 is often referred to as the golden age of agriculture. By then, the agricultural character of the various regions of the United States had become well established: Dairy and poultry farms dominated in the Northeast, tobacco and cotton farms in the South, corn and hog production in the Midwest, wheat farms in the Great Plains, open-range livestock grazing in the western states, and vegetables, cotton, and orchards in California.

When World War I (1914–18) disrupted food production in Europe, U.S. farmers supplied Europeans with food. However, at the conclusion of World War I, the resumption of European food production brought a rapid decline in demand...