These changing conditions: A study of the Saskatchewan Royal Commission on Agriculture and Rural Life

In 1952 the Saskatchewan provincial government appointed a Royal Commission to investigate social and economic conditions in rural Saskatchewan. The appointment of the Royal Commission on Agriculture and Rural Life followed two decades of turmoil in Saskatchewan agriculture. The drought and depression of the 1930s had decimated rural Saskatchewan. World War II placed new production demands on Saskatchewan farmers. The post-war years saw an acceleration of mechanization, a trend that had begun in the 1920s. Quarter-section and even half-section farms were no longer economically viable. As farm size increased, rural population decreased. Rural services such as education, roads and local government were unable to adequately serve a declining rural population. For their part, rural residents were askin for modern improvements such as electrification and water and sewage.;The Royal Commission on Agriculture and Rural Life, chaired by W. B. Baker, spent five years investigating all of these factors and their effect on rural life. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...