The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1955-04-22
A NEGRO HELPS
NEIGHBORS GROW
IMPROVED HAMS
In Johnston County. Event Has
Grown Until 300 Farm Folk
Participate; Program
Five Years Old

following the tempting aroma of
country ham into a tobacco ware
house near the juction of U. S.
Highways 70 and 30r.
Stop over on the afternoon of
April Is and you will see North
Carolina country ham, decked
with purple ribbon and proudly
displayed beside a tall trophy, auc.
toned off for as much as $25
pound, or more.
The ham will be the grand
prize winner at the 9Th annual
Johnston County Ham and Egg
Show and Sale which opens April
13. Spectators are warmly well
coined.
Begun in 1948 to improve meat
production on the Negro farms of
Johnston County, the Ham and
Egg Show and Sale has grown
to be a major annual event which
not only dramatizes long range
farm betterment program but
puts the spotlight on famous
North Carolina delicacy.
L. R. Johnson, Negro county
agent, says that approximately
800 farm men and women will
participate in this years event,
exhibiting about $50 dozen eggs
and $50 hams. Since 1862 the
Show and Sale has been sponsored
by the Smithfield Chamber of
Commerce with the support of the
Agricultural Extension Service of
North Carolina and local markets
and packers.
1t was Johnson who originated
the idea of ham show as "a way
of going in through the back
door" to get the Negro farmers
of his county interested in raising
and curing better meat. When he
became Negro county agent in
1914, he found that 1887 local
farm families were losing about
two-thirds of their home pork
supply because they didn't under
stand proper curing methods.
What meat didn't spoil was often
more like salt pork than country
ham.
The Negro agent, farm-reared
graduate of A & T College,
Greensboro, who taught school be-
fore taking over his present post
in Johnston County, decided a
Ham Show might help interest
farmers in remedying this state of
affairs. But neither Johnson nor
the 70 farmers who took part in
the first ham show dreamed that
the day would come-in April,
1953-when a. prize-winning ham
would sell for $55 pound and be
taken to the White House as gift
to the President.
johnson didn't combine sale
with the first two shows, he says,
because he didn't want people
SELLING their hams in the spring
and buying fatback in August.
The picture has changed since
then, and the people have both
hams to sell and hams to eat at
home. They alse send better hogs
{ to the big markets in Smithfield.
That first ham show attracted
127 entries, and was sponsored by
a local packing company. 1t fol-
lowed a program to better the
corn crops and the hogs grown
on Johnston County farms. Even
SO, the quality of hams was far
below that of the years since.
johnson redoubled. his efforts to
improve the quality of crops and
hogs and the methods of curing
meat, added an egg division to
the show, and the quality of hams
was SO much improved by the 1949
show date that local merchants
asked permission to buy the prize
winning hams and eggs. In 1850,
when the event became Show
and Sale, the champion ham
brought $3.50 a pound and the
average price of the 80 hams auc-
toned off after the judging was
$1.01. per pound. The eggs divi-
sion enjoyed a similar success
with Mrs. Lucy O'Toole, Negro
home agent, as chairman.
Smithfield citizens of both races
lent their full support to the Show
and Sale; visitors from other
counties and states began drop
ping in to bid on the prize-win-
ming entries and admire the
mountaineering displays of hams
and eggs. A banquet for exhibitors
and special guests became pre-
gram feature, with country ham
featured on the menu.
In 1862, the national record for
the price paid per pound for hams
was topped in Johnston County
when the grand champion ham
brought $40 per pound at the
Show and Sale in Smithfield. A
dozen eggs went for $500.
In 1854, record-breaking total
of POI hams and lot dozen eggs
was accepted for competition in the