On That Date, No. 14

Public domain

NOTE: This ran on Wednesday, Sept. 11 at the old website; didn't get "published" here during the transition from old site to new. 

“Cincinnati is the greatest place for hogs in the world; and they have the greatest method of raising them here of any other place which we know of. A man will turn out a bevy of young pigs . . . in December say . . . and they will run at large in the streets until the next November --- when he goes out to look up his pork.

Hogs look much alike, and [he] selects twelve of the finest looking . . . and drives them home, astonished at the increase. And thus, raising hogs, which is expensive elsewhere, is carried on without trouble or cost --- as they are fattened by the public at large, for the benefit of their owners.”

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“Swine,” Cincinnati Mirror 5, no. 8 (March 19, 1836): 63.

On That Date, No. 11

“The first and most important step toward bringing agriculture into line with industry is to factory-ize the farm. This means great efficiency of production and distribution plus the control of output.

This is not to say that the American farmer is not efficient. In terms of horse-power, he has increased his efficiency from four to five times in fifty years. . . . At that, he is only half as efficient as industry, measured by the same yardstick. From this, it would seem that the American farmer must work twice as long as the American factory in order to produce the same results, and that is about what he does. . . .

Mass production . . . has wrought wonders [and] . . . it requires no stretch of the imagination to realize that as these [same] policies of factory management are invoked, the shorter day on the farm will follow.

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Sam R. McKelvie, “Can the Farm Be Factory-ized?” Nation’s Business 15, no. 4 (April 1927): 106, ff.

On That Date, No. 10

“Milwaukee will soon be as famous for the quality of her dry bologna, or “cervelat wurst,” as she is for the excellence of her beer. Tons of this sausage are annually shipped for Western, Southern and Eastern points.

“The meat is cut by steam cutters of improved construction, and every possible facility employed in drying and getting them ready for market. This article is pronounced to be in every way equal to foreign make and is warranted to keep for two years.”

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Milwaukee Sentinel, July 18, 1870, p. 1.