CHAPTER NINE 



Where Pigs Is Profits 



NO one who contemplates life on the land can 

 ignore the pig: he is one of the easiest and cheap- 

 est animals to raise, and he produces a wide vari- 

 ety of products, many of which lend themselves to 

 storing. My notes of the fall of 1933 and winter of 

 1934 reveal the following prices for pork products, 

 taken from contemporary chain-store advertising 

 just when we were "working up" our first two 

 pigs: 



fresh loin. . . .14 cents a pound (olaf hasholeml) 



lard 08 " 



ham 10 " 



bacon 20 " 



sausage 25 



shoulder ... .09 " 



scrapple ... .08 " 



Food costs were all probably at bottom for my 

 generation. Farm prices were correspondingly low: 

 for a pig that would dress two hundred pounds 

 the farmer would be lucky to get three dollars on 

 the hoof. This would not pay the then low cost of 



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