On That Date, No. 17

State Library & Archives of Florida/Flickr Commons

“Will hog farmers someday be just hired men who furnish the buildings and feed the pigs while feed dealers furnish everything else --- pigs, feed and most of the decisions on running the business?

“It’s being tried, largely in the South. . . . It’s all part of a trend in agriculture which relieves farmers of part of the investment, part of the risk and part of the control of their business. . . . 

“[T]ake a look at what’s happening in the South where at least 2,000 farmers, any who never had a pig on the place, are suddenly cranking out pork by the carload. . . .

“[Many of those farmers are building pig] ‘parlors’ . . . a low-cost, pole-type shelter built over a concrete slab. . . .  In the Corn Belt, there’s a wholesale conversion of horse barns, sheds, even garages. In most cases it consists mainly of pouring a concrete floor, puting in waterers and self feeders.

“It’s too soon yet to tell what effect this confinement-unit system will have on the hog business. No question but that the idea’s booming.”

_________

“Is the Hog Business Headed for a Shake-Up?” Farm Journal 81 (April 1957): 30-31, 186, 190