The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1942-04-02
Just StrolIing
Round the own
By THE OBSERVER
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A Filler IN PORK

| overheard number of Libby
ladies complaining about the high
price Of pork this week. One of
them had small package of the
luxury and remarked. Why. it is
getting SO that common, ordinary
neople cannot afford to eat pork F"
That little incident set memories to
Going in what | call my mind and
these memories carried me back to
the time when for the one and
only time-engaged in the live
stock business, the raising of a pig.
And | couldn't help but contrast
the price the butcher has to paw
today for prime pork and what |
received in my first business VEN
ture. Today. according to Tues
DAYS market quotation. a 200 pound
prime porker would have brought
the grower approximately S28 and
that was what the butcher would
have had TO pay for the hog .on
the hoof at the Spokane market.
In contrast. my flier III the pork
market brought me ABBOTT eight dol
lars and fifty cents for prime fat
hog
Started on a Sunday Morning
It was back in the good old
state of Iowa the land Of tall corn
and fat hogs. | had reached the
manly age of about years. And
il all began on a bright Sunday
morning A number of neighbor
kids, my small brother and myself
were loafing around during the
week END escape from school, as all
kids will do When suddenly des-
tiny appeared walking on four short
legs. 1t was little Jersey red"
shoat, loose and wandering around
our neighborhood. After it we took,
we jubilant and carefree youngsters,
and soon had chased it many blocks
away. Wandering back home, we
heard the insistent voice of mother
calling us into the house There
my brother and were secured
and scrubbed, thoroughly washed
on neck and behind ears by d dot
ing mother and a careful aunt Ct
have since insisted that they used
sandpaper on us in those days but
, they always denied it, After that
ordeal we were decked out in our
kbest and sent off to Sunday school,
Finally Sunday school was oyer
and the same gang of kids again as
sembled at our home, when what
was our surprise to find that same
little shoat wandering around our
VICINITY. With shout we kids
again took after it and with much
putting and blowing we finally cor
nered it in a patch Of high weeds,
fell on it and had it captured.
And right then and there started
my one and only experience in the
livestock industry We happened
to have pigpen that. was empty
at that time on our place in the
edge Of that Iowa village. Hitler
the excited bunch Of kids logged the
squealing. kicking shoat. and into
the pen it was dropped and loose
boards were soon securely nailed
A Budding Capitalist
Dad tried for some time to locate
the owner but without success,
| probably because a small shoat
! wasn't worth TIE expenditure of
much trouble by the owner in those
days. So | decided to embark in
business, | was budding capitalist
"a bud that never blossomed- and
had saved up some Is on 80 cents,
earned in many ways and over a
considerable period of time (Boys
would run errands all over town in
those carefree days for nickle and
be glad of the opportunity So
drawing on my stored up capital.
/ paid each Of the boys who had
helped catch the pig 5 cents fer his
share in the venture, cents
which each was more than pleased
to get And | took up the Job of
fattening that pig for market.
To make long story short. that
little shoat, caught on bright
Sunday morning, was finally sold
to the butcher when it had grown
big and fat at weight of about 200
pounds and at price Of S4.25 per
hundred, If my memory does not
| fail me. In other words, my first
business venture brought me 4
gross return of $3.50. Contrast that
with the price of pork today. Today
that fat hog would bring a return
Of S13.85 per ewt to the grover.