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The dirty '30s

Broadcast Date: Sept. 10, 1958

"Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan, there's no place like Saskatchewan; we sit and gaze across the plain and wonder why it never rains…"

These words from the song Saskatchewan were written during the 1930s, when Westerners suffered from severe drought conditions for almost a decade. In this 1958 radio clip from Assignment, the hosts look back at the difficulties of the Depression-era drought before playing this memorable ballad.

The dirty '30s

• The song Saskatchewan — inspired by the Depression-era drought — was composed by William W. Smith, a businessman from Swift Current, Sask., during the 1930s. According to the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada, Smith patterned the song on the popular gospel hymn Beulah Land.

• Palliser's triangle, described in this clip, is the Canadian Prairie area where drought most frequently occurs. The triangle is located north of the American border bounded by Cartwright, Man., Lloydminster, Sask., and Calgary and Cardston, Alta.

• It's called Palliser's triangle because Britain's Royal Geographical society sent Captain John Palliser to the Canadian plains in the late 1850s to determine their agricultural potential. He concluded that the area was ill-suited for settlement because of desert-like conditions. But subsequent explorers had a different opinion, declaring the area was lush and fertile. The Canadian government, eager for expansion possibilities, chose to believe those who thought the area would make good farmland.

• According to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, drought is defined as "a prolonged period of abnormally dry weather that depletes water resources."
• During the 1930s, the Prairies received an average of 40 per cent less precipitation than normal.

• The 1930s drought is usually remembered as the worst in Canadian history. This is because of its prolonged nature — it lasted for almost the entire decade — and the fact that it coincided with the Great Depression. Around the world, there were unprecedented levels of poverty and unemployment. So, even if a Canadian farmer was able to sustain some kind of crop yield during the drought, there was a diminished market for their crops.

• Average crop yields showed great decreases in the '30s as a result of the drought. An average Prairie wheat crop in the 1920s produced 17 bushels per seeded acre. But during the five worst Depression years — 1933 to 1937 — the average was 9.5 bushels per seeded acre. The worst year was 1937, which only yielded 2.6 bushels per acre.
• By the end of 1937, it's estimated that two out of every three farmers in the wheat belt of Saskatchewan was destitute.

• A Regina Leader-Post article from 1937 summed up the dire agricultural situation: "Farmers believe that the native pasture is damaged so badly it will be some years before it will be of any use. Grain crops are not growing, having been cut off by the drifting, and (livestock) cannot get anything to eat even in the seeded crops. A severe dust storm swept the area again Friday."

The dirty '30s

Medium: Radio

Program: Assignment

Broadcast Date: Sept. 10, 1958

Host: Maria Barrett, Bill McNeil

Duration: 5:16

Photo: National Archives of Canada

Last updated:
July 30, 2009