Final answer:
The post-World War I period saw the United States' agricultural economy shift from wartime prosperity to peacetime overproduction and falling prices, leading to farm foreclosures and contributing to economic distress that set the stage for the Great Depression.
Step-by-step explanation:
The end of World War I had marked influences on the US agricultural economy in the 1920s. Despite the prosperity associated with the decade, the agricultural sector did not fare well post-war. During the war, demand for American crops soared, and this led to overproduction when Europe resumed its agricultural production post-war, causing a glut in the market. Prices plummeted from 70 cents per bushel to a mere 10 cents by the end of the '20s. Farmers who had borrowed heavily to expand production during the war found themselves unable to pay back their loans, leading to widespread foreclosures of over 2400 farms by 1924. The ensuing financial strain contributed to the migration from rural areas to urban centers in search of employment. Furthermore, agricultural distress foreshadowed broader economic troubles that would culminate in the Great Depression.
Complicating matters, President Coolidge vetoed federal price support legislation that could have bolstered struggling farmers. The agricultural sector's plunge was intensified by an unfortunate cycle of expanding crop production to compensate for falling prices, which only further depressed the market. Events such as the drought in the Great Plains during the early 1930s exacerbated the already dire situation, all contributing to the sector's hardship.
Despite a booming urban economy, symbolized by the rise of Wall Street, the agricultural economy faced severe difficulties transitioning from a wartime boom to a post-war depression. The contradiction between agriculture and business became starkly evident as the decade progressed. The hopes of farmers to maintain the level of wealth from wartime conditions were quickly dashed as the global economy stabilized, and Europe's need for American produce diminished.