In 1933 the government enacted the corn-hog program in an attempt to limit the number of hogs going to market and the grain being sold. One year later, Daviess County farmers received a total of $450,000 for participating in the program and they would receive another $175,000 at a later date.

Some of the program’s features were:

      1. The participant must participate in both contracts.
      2. The corn producer who had less than four litters of hogs could sign a corn contract.
      3. If the farmer was a large hog producer and raised less than 10 acres of corn, he could enter the hog contract and agree not to increase his corn acreage.
      4. The participant could not increase the number of any kind of livestock, except the designated hogs.
      5. The farmer could not increase his wheat acreage over 1932 and 1933 and participate in the program. The only way a person could get into the program if the wheat had been increased, was to plow up the wheat.
      6. The purpose of the corn allotment was to get 20% of the land out of production. The producer would get 30 cents a bushel on the average that the land rented to the government produced. He would receive 15 cents a bushel when the contract was accepted and 15 cents a bushel in November, 1934.
      7. The rented land could not be used to raise crops or livestock.
      8. If a farmer entered the corn-hog program, he was eligible for a government corn loan of 45 cents a bushel. In the fall, the corn was to be shelled and delivered to the nearest shipping point.

11/12/35 “Payment on corn 35 cents a bushel in 1936”
— researched and presented by Wilbur Bush, Gallatin, MO

Meat butchering was commonly done on farms throughout rural America. These hogs are cooling on an unidentified farm in Daviess County, MO. (date unknown; courtesy Jack Tingler)