This was devastating to the prairie farmers of Canada as their own miscalculation led them to stockpile grain, which they eventually were unable to sell. Although farming was the major investment among the Canadian prairies it was not the only industry to suffer at the hands of the market crash. Other important industries such as lumber, newsprint and fish also began to feel the demise of sales. Canada as a whole was slowly spiraling downwards: "As the west and wheat went, so did the rest of Canada. Farmers stopped buying. Eastern factories closed, or laid off hundreds. Construction virtually stopped. Banks no longer lent money more and more factories were shut down and the rolls of the poor grew longer and longer and the gloom and despair deepened". Everyone was affected in one way or another by the depression period. Farmers in particular took the brunt of the misfortune as they had more than a market crash to contend with.
The start of the 1930's in Canada was a time of utter disappointment. Markets were bottoming out sales were almost obsolete and Mother Nature was not about to adhere to her unconditional love. Saskatchewan in particular felt the pangs of drought and unlike the other provinces relied solely on their grain production. So when the rains failed to fall and drought claimed the land the provincial economy descended as well. The drought was as some called it a year round blizzard, consisting of snow and dust. The dust storms themselves began in 1931. It was during this period that the suspicion of misfortune began to settle in: " the summer of 1934 was even worse. Soil began to blow in mid-June, to destroy gardens and crops, to drift across windows and door sills, and by mid-summer, for the first time in living memory, to cause the cancellation of many fairs in villages across the southern plains- The intimidating factor was the drought was continuous and year after year the dry winds picked at the prairie soil.
