A phrase for a poverty-stricken rural community is derived from this title of an Erskine Caldwell novel
There is an old saying to the effect that "rain follers the plow," and this 
is ..... "Lots of these here book farmers, when their clover or alfalfa dies, think it 
was froze ...... or who pours water on a window sill, will be poverty-stricken all her 
life.