The Weather Picked Hog-Killing Day. Then the Government Counted the Freezers.
The film of this episode premieres March 30, 2027 on YouTube. The documents, the transcript and the sources are below now.
For thirty years the number barely moved. In 1910 American farms killed 14.8 million hogs at home; in 1919, 16.8 million, one hog in four in the country; in 1940, 14.2 million.
Transcript
The day
R001 Hog killing time near Frederick, Maryland
Hog killing time near Frederick, Maryland · Marion Post Wolcott, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Fourteen million hogs a year were killed in farm yards like this one. The government counted them. Then it counted what replaced them.
R017 Hog killing near Luray, Virginia
Hog killing near Luray, Virginia · Marion Post Wolcott, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Here is what the record says happened to hog-killing day. Three farm bulletins, seventy years apart. A ledger that runs from 1910 to 1991.
R018 Hog killing near Luray, Virginia
Hog killing near Luray, Virginia · Marion Post Wolcott, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
And a photograph from North Dakota with one sentence under it.
R002 Hog killing time near Frederick, Maryland
Hog killing time near Frederick, Maryland · Marion Post Wolcott, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Near Frederick, Maryland, February 1940. Marion Post Wolcott's caption is five words. "Hog killing time near Frederick."
R003 Hog killing time near Frederick, Maryland
Hog killing time near Frederick, Maryland · Marion Post Wolcott, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
The photographs are federal, and were made in black and white.
D01 Hog killing time near Frederick, Maryland
Hog killing time near Frederick, Maryland · Marion Post Wolcott, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026 · detail. View the original.
The color was put on by a computer, this year. A good guess, not a record. The documents are as printed.
1903
S01
Farmers' Bulletin 183, Meat on the Farm: Butchering, Curing, and Keeping · USDA, 1903 · title page. View the original.
The first instructions came from Washington in 1903. Farmers' Bulletin 183. Meat on the Farm: Butchering, Curing, and Keeping.
S02
Farmers' Bulletin 183, Meat on the Farm: Butchering, Curing, and Keeping · USDA, 1903 · p. 21. View the original.
Page 21 explains why the day was always a cold one. "While the temperature can not well be controlled on the farm, it is possible to slaughter when the weather is favorable to the proper cooling of the carcass."
S03
Farmers' Bulletin 183, Meat on the Farm: Butchering, Curing, and Keeping · USDA, 1903 · p. 21. View the original.
"If during the winter season, choose a day when there is a prospect for cooling the carcass before the surface freezes."
R004 Hog killing time near Frederick, Maryland
Hog killing time near Frederick, Maryland · Marion Post Wolcott, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
So the weather picked the day. Cold enough to chill the meat. Not cold enough to freeze it. Every farm on the road was watching the same sky.
R006 Hog killing near Frederick, Maryland
Hog killing near Frederick, Maryland · Marion Post Wolcott, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
The scalding and the scraping. Frederick, the same morning.
R008 Farmer's wife going to her home from barn where they were killing hogs. Near Frederick, Maryland
Farmer's wife going to her home from barn where they were killing... · Marion Post Wolcott, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Her caption on this one: "Farmer's wife going to her home from barn where they were killing hogs."
Fourteen million
V01
Agricultural Statistics 1952 · USDA · Table 469, Hogs: Number slaughtered, 1910-51 · p. 413. View the original.
The government kept the count. Agricultural Statistics, the 1952 volume, Table 469. Hogs slaughtered in the United States, 1910 to 1951. Two columns matter. Commercial. And farm.
V02
Agricultural Statistics 1952 · USDA · Table 469, Hogs: Number slaughtered, 1910-51 · p. 413, 1910-1930. View the original.
1910: fourteen million, eight hundred thousand hogs killed on farms. 1919: sixteen million, eight hundred thousand. One hog in four in America that year died at home.
V03
Agricultural Statistics 1952 · USDA · Table 469, Hogs: Number slaughtered, 1910-51 · p. 413, 1931-1951. View the original.
1940: fourteen million, one hundred fifty-five thousand. Thirty years had passed, and the number had barely moved.
R010 Hauling hogs in sled to be butchered. Woodstock, Vermont
Hauling hogs in sled to be butchered. Woodstock, Vermont · Marion Post Wolcott, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Woodstock, Vermont, March 1940. Hogs, hauled by sled to be butchered.
R012 Hog killing on Milton Puryeur place. He is a Negro owner of five acres of land. Rural Route No. 1, Box 59, Dennison, Halifax County, Virginia. This is six miles south (on Highway No. 501) of South Boston. He used to grow tobacco and cotton but now just a subsistence living. These hogs belong to a neighbor landowner. He burns old shoes and pieces of leather near the heads of the slaughtered hogs while they are hanging to keep the flies away
Hog killing on Milton Puryeur place, Halifax County, Virginia · Marion Post Wolcott, 1939 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Halifax County, Virginia, November 1939. The man who owned this place had five acres. He had grown tobacco and cotton, and by 1939, the caption says, it was "just a subsistence living." The hogs belonged to a neighbor.
R013 Hog killing on Milton Puryeur place. He is a Negro owner of five acres of land. Route No. 1, Box 59, Dennison, Halifax County, Virginia. This is six miles south (on Highway No. 501) of South Boston. He used to grow tobacco and cotton but now just a subsistence living. These hogs belong to a neighbor landowner. He burns old shoes and pieces of leather near the heads of the slaughtered hogs while they are hanging, to keep the flies away
Hog killing on Milton Puryeur place, Halifax County, Virginia · Marion Post Wolcott, 1939 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
He burned old shoes and pieces of leather near the heads while they hung, the caption records, "to keep the flies away."
R014 Hog killing on Milton Puryeur place. He is a Negro owner of five acres of land. Rural Route No. 1, Box 59, Dennison, Halifax County, Virginia. This is six miles south (on Highway No. 501) of South Boston. He used to grow tobacco and cotton but now just a subsistence living. These hogs belong to a neighbor landowner. He burns old shoes and pieces of leather near the heads of the slaughtered hogs while they are hanging, to keep the flies away
Hog killing on Milton Puryeur place, Halifax County, Virginia · Marion Post Wolcott, 1939 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
The same yard, wider.
Every farm, 1921
S04
Farmers' Bulletin 1186, Pork on the Farm: Killing, Curing, and Canning · USDA, 1921 · cover. View the original.
In 1921 the Department of Agriculture printed Bulletin 1186, and put its argument on the cover. "Every farm should produce the pork and pork products which are consumed on that farm."
S05
Farmers' Bulletin 1186, Pork on the Farm: Killing, Curing, and Canning · USDA, 1921 · cover. View the original.
And an admission. "Home curing of pork is an old practice. It nearly went out of style."
S06
Farmers' Bulletin 1186, Pork on the Farm: Killing, Curing, and Canning · USDA, 1921 · p. 3. View the original.
Page 3: "the practice of purchasing cured meats has increased among farmers." In 1921 the government was already arguing against the direction things were going.
S07
Farmers' Bulletin 1186, Pork on the Farm: Killing, Curing, and Canning · USDA, 1921 · p. 5, fig. 1. View the original.
Figure 1. Tools for killing and dressing hogs. A meat saw. A steel. A sticking knife. A hog hook. A bell-shaped scraper. A gambrel.
R024 C.D. Grant, homesteader, enlists aid of his neighbor to butcher hogs for the winter. Penderlea Homesteads, North Carolina
C.D. Grant, homesteader, enlists aid of his neighbor to butcher hogs... · Arthur Rothstein, 1936 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Penderlea Homesteads, North Carolina, December 1936. Arthur Rothstein's caption: "C.D. Grant, homesteader, enlists aid of his neighbor to butcher hogs for the winter."
R025 C.D. Grant, homesteader, enlists aid of his neighbor to butcher hogs for the winter. Penderlea Homesteads, North Carolina
C.D. Grant, homesteader, enlists aid of his neighbor to butcher hogs... · Arthur Rothstein, 1936 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
The neighbor was the point. One family could not do this alone, and every family owed a day back.
R028 Mrs. C.D. Grant and neighbor making pork sausage. Penderlea Farms, North Carolina
Mrs. C.D. Grant and neighbor making pork sausage. Penderlea Farms,... · Arthur Rothstein, 1936 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Mrs. Grant, with a neighbor, making pork sausage.
R029 Negro woman making "chitlins" after hog-killing. Near Maxton, North Carolina
Making "chitlins" after hog-killing. Near Maxton, North Carolina · Marion Post Wolcott, 1938 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Near Maxton, North Carolina, December 1938. Making chitlins, after the killing.
R030 Rendering fat after hog-killing. Near Maxton, North Carolina
Rendering fat after hog-killing. Near Maxton, North Carolina · Marion Post Wolcott, 1938 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
"Rendering fat after hog-killing." The kettle, and the lard for the year.
R045 Farmer's wife grinding meat to make sausage, Lakeview Project, Arkansas
Farmer's wife grinding meat to make sausage, Lakeview Project, Arkansas · Russell Lee, 1938 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Lakeview, Arkansas, November 1938. Grinding meat for sausage.
R033 Spanish-American farmers turning over slaughtered hog to scrape hair off other side. Chamisal, New Mexico
Spanish-American farmers turning over slaughtered hog to scrape hair... · Russell Lee, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Taos County, New Mexico, July 1940. Russell Lee. Two farmers turning the hog over to scrape the other side.
R036 Spanish-American farmers breaking backbone of slaughtered hog with axe. Chamisal, New Mexico
Spanish-American farmers breaking backbone of slaughtered hog with... · Russell Lee, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
"Breaking backbone of slaughtered hog with axe."
R038 Spanish-American farmer with fresh pork from hog he has just slaughtered and dressed. Chamisal, New Mexico
Spanish-American farmer with fresh pork from hog he has just... · Russell Lee, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
"Fresh pork from hog he has just slaughtered and dressed."
The smokehouse
S08
Farmers' Bulletin 1186, Pork on the Farm: Killing, Curing, and Canning · USDA, 1921 · p. 16. View the original.
The 1921 bulletin also has a page 16, and it reads like a forecast. Cold-storage and ice plants, it says, have rooms "where farmers may store their meat." And where there were none: "cooperative cold-storage plants conducted by a number of farmers in a community may be found to be a good investment."
R047 Zebulon, North Carolina. Feggen Jones hanging meat in the smokehouse
Zebulon, North Carolina. Feggen Jones hanging meat in the smokehouse · Arthur Rothstein, 1942 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Until then, the smokehouse. Zebulon, North Carolina, March 1942. A farmer hanging meat in his.
R048 Zebulon, North Carolina. Feggen Jones and wife in the smokehouse
Zebulon, North Carolina. Feggen Jones and wife in the smokehouse · Arthur Rothstein, 1942 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
The same man, with his wife, in the smokehouse.
R050 A homesteader's supply of pork, butchered and cured by himself on the Arthurdale project. Reedsville, West Virginia
A homesteader's supply of pork, butchered and cured by himself on the... · Edwin Locke, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Arthurdale, West Virginia, February 1937. "A homesteader's supply of pork, butchered and cured by himself."
R053 Mrs. Brown in her smokehouse with home-canned goods and cured meat. Prairie Farms, Alabama
Mrs. Brown in her smokehouse with home-canned goods and cured meat.... · Marion Post Wolcott, 1939 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Prairie Farms, Alabama, March 1939. Mrs. Brown, with the canned goods and the cured meat.
R052 Lewis Wiggins cutting off a slice of homecured ham in his smokehouse. La Delta Project, Thomastown, Louisiana
Lewis Wiggins cutting off a slice of homecured ham in his smokehouse.... · Marion Post Wolcott, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Thomastown, Louisiana, June 1940. Lewis Wiggins, cutting a slice of home-cured ham.
R055 Smokehouse of cedar at Wilson Cedar Forest project. Near Lebanon, Tennessee
Smokehouse of cedar at Wilson Cedar Forest project. Near Lebanon,... · Carl Mydans, 1935 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Near Lebanon, Tennessee, 1935. A smokehouse built of cedar.
R057 Smokehouse on old plantation. Greene County, Georgia
Smokehouse on old plantation. Greene County, Georgia · Marion Post Wolcott, 1939 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Greene County, Georgia, April 1939. "Smokehouse on old plantation."
The locker
L01
Frozen-Food Locker Plants in the United States · Farm Credit Administration, USDA, Oct. 1940 · title page. View the original.
In October 1940 the Farm Credit Administration published its first survey of something new. Frozen-food locker plants.
L02
Frozen-Food Locker Plants in the United States · Farm Credit Administration, USDA, Oct. 1940 · p. 1, Summary. View the original.
The summary. Lockers were "used first in Nebraska some 25 years ago." They "became generally popular after 1930."
L10
Frozen-Food Locker Plants in the United States · Farm Credit Administration, USDA, Oct. 1940 · p. 1, Summary. View the original.
By January 1, 1940, "an estimated 2,500 frozen-food locker plants, representing an investment of more than twenty-five million dollars, were operating in the United States." Iowa led, with four hundred fifty-three.
R061 Cold storage lockers where farmers store meat and vegetables, eliminating much home canning and preserving of foods. Independence, Oregon
Cold storage lockers where farmers store meat and vegetables,... · Dorothea Lange, 1939 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Independence, Oregon, August 1939. Dorothea Lange. "Cold storage lockers where farmers store meat and vegetables, eliminating much home canning."
R062 Farmers bring their own butchered pigs to cold storage lockers. Next year butchering will be done there. This coop received a forty-five hundred dollar loan from FSA (Farm Security Administration). Casselton, North Dakota
Farmers bring their own butchered pigs to cold storage lockers. Next... · John Vachon, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Casselton, North Dakota, October 1940. John Vachon. This is the photograph with the sentence under it. "Farmers bring their own butchered pigs to cold storage lockers. Next year butchering will be done there."
R063 Meats are hung in chilling room when first brought in, then cut into roasts, etc., and frozen. Cold storage lockers, Casselton, North Dakota
Meats are hung in chilling room when first brought in, then cut into... · John Vachon, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
"Meats are hung in chilling room when first brought in, then cut into roasts, and frozen."
R066 After meat is chilled, cuts and roasts are cut off and wrapped, stamped, and put in freezing room. Cold storage lockers. Casselton, North Dakota
After meat is chilled, cuts and roasts are cut off and wrapped,... · John Vachon, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Wrapped, stamped, and put in the freezing room.
R067 Farmer getting berries out of cold storage locker. Hillsboro, North Dakota
Farmer getting berries out of cold storage locker. Hillsboro, North Dakota · John Vachon, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Hillsboro, North Dakota. The doors, each one with a lock. A farmer getting berries out of his.
R069 Farmer with arms full of food from cold storage locker. Hillsboro, North Dakota
Farmer with arms full of food from cold storage locker. Hillsboro,... · John Vachon, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Hillsboro, North Dakota. "Farmer with arms full of food from cold storage locker."
Freezing pork, 1945
S09
Farmers' Bulletin 1186, Pork on the Farm · USDA, rev. 1945 · cover. View the original.
The 1945 revision of Bulletin 1186.
S10
Farmers' Bulletin 1186, Pork on the Farm · USDA, rev. 1945 · p. 19. View the original.
It has a section the 1921 edition did not. Freezing Pork. "The widespread distribution of electric power and the development of so-called freezer-locker units have made subfreezing temperatures increasingly available."
S11
Farmers' Bulletin 1186, Pork on the Farm · USDA, rev. 1945 · p. 21. View the original.
And the day itself was already coming apart. "Farm families who use a freezer locker try to dress hogs periodically," it says.
S16
Farmers' Bulletin 1186, Pork on the Farm · USDA, rev. 1945 · p. 21. View the original.
"So that they can consume these limited quantities of frozen pork before it has been in storage more than 3 or 4 months." Not one cold morning. Several.
L09
Processing Pork Products in REA Refrigeration Locker Plants · Rural Electrification Administration, 1945 · p. 1. View the original.
The Rural Electrification Administration printed its own instructions the same year. Processing pork products in REA refrigeration locker plants.
The count
L03
Frozen Food Locker Plants: Location, Capacity, Rates, and Use, Jan. 1, 1950 · Farm Credit Administration, USDA, 1951 · Foreword. View the original.
By January 1950 the Farm Credit Administration counted eleven thousand six hundred locker plants, "largely located in towns of 5,000 people or less." Five point seven million lockers.
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Frozen Food Locker Plants: Location, Capacity, Rates, and Use, Jan. 1, 1950 · Farm Credit Administration, USDA, 1951 · Foreword. View the original.
One and a third billion pounds of food a year, "for some 16 million people, or more than 10 percent of our population."
L07
Frozen Food Locker Plants in the United States, 22nd Annual Count · Farmer Cooperative Service, USDA, Sept. 1959 · p. 2, Table 2. View the original.
Table 2 of the 1959 count. Twelve hundred sixty-nine plants in 1938. Two thousand eight hundred seventy in 1940. Six thousand four hundred eighty-four in 1945. Eleven thousand six hundred eight in 1951. That was the peak.
L04
Frozen Food Locker Plants: Location, Capacity, Rates, and Use, Jan. 1, 1950 · Farm Credit Administration, USDA, 1951 · p. 2, Summary. View the original.
The reason was in the 1950 report already. "The increased use of home units is an important change." In 1945, an estimated one hundred sixty-five thousand home freezer cabinets. On January 1, 1950, two million. Another eight hundred thousand sold that year.
L06
Frozen Food Locker Plants in the United States, 22nd Annual Count · Farmer Cooperative Service, USDA, Sept. 1959 · p. 1. View the original.
January 1959: nine thousand two hundred seventy-one plants, "a decline of 340 plants from last year."
The freezer
L08
Frozen Food Locker Plants in the United States, 22nd Annual Count · Farmer Cooperative Service, USDA, Sept. 1959 · p. 1. View the original.
The industry, the report said, was "changing the nature and scope of its activities from custom processing and locker rental services to commercial processing and merchandising to home freezer users."
S12
Farmers' Bulletin 2138, Slaughtering, Cutting, and Processing Pork on the Farm · USDA, 1959 · cover. View the original.
That year the Department retired Pork on the Farm and issued Bulletin 2138. The word killing is gone from the title. It is now Slaughtering, Cutting, and Processing.
S13
Farmers' Bulletin 2138, Slaughtering, Cutting, and Processing Pork on the Farm · USDA, 1959 · p. 16. View the original.
Page 16: "bring the warm, dressed sides of pork immediately to the cold storage plant. After chilling the carcass for 24 to 48 hours, cut your pork and prepare it for the freezer or curing bins."
S14
Farmers' Bulletin 2138, Slaughtering, Cutting, and Processing Pork on the Farm · USDA, 1959 · p. 17. View the original.
The weather, which had chosen the day since 1903, is now a contingency. "If the weather becomes warm and no cold storage is available."
R071 The hog cut: hogs come chilled and split, and go through the crew of butchers on a moving belt. Packing plant. Austin, Minnesota
The hog cut: hogs come chilled and split, and go through the crew of... · John Vachon, 1941 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Austin, Minnesota, August 1941. "The hog cut: hogs come chilled and split, and go through the crew of butchers on a moving belt." This is where the other seventy million went.
The ledger
V04
Agricultural Statistics 1972 · USDA · Table 476, Hogs: Number slaughtered, 1945-71 · p. 381. View the original.
The ledger. Agricultural Statistics 1972, Table 476. Farm slaughter. 1945: thirteen million, six hundred thousand. 1950: nine million, seven hundred thousand. 1955: six million, eight hundred thousand.
V10
Agricultural Statistics 1972 · USDA · Table 476, Hogs: Number slaughtered, 1945-71 · p. 381, 1959-1971. View the original.
1960: five million, one hundred sixty thousand. 1965: two million, six hundred thousand.
V05
Agricultural Statistics 1972 · USDA · Table 476, Hogs: Number slaughtered, 1945-71 · p. 381, note 3. View the original.
Then a footnote, at 1966. "Custom slaughter in plants for farmers is included in commercial slaughter and excluded from farm slaughter." The hog killed at the locker plant was no longer a farm hog. The column fell to one million, three hundred thousand.
V06
Agricultural Statistics 1984 · USDA · Table 413, Hogs: Number slaughtered, 1969-83 · p. 281. View the original.
1983: five hundred thousand.
V07
Agricultural Statistics 1992 · USDA · Table 405, Hogs: Number slaughtered, 1977-91 · p. 262. View the original.
1991: two hundred seventy-six thousand. From sixteen million, eight hundred thousand in 1919. Ninety-eight percent of it, gone.
Kentucky
V08
Agricultural Statistics 1952 · USDA · Table 466, Hogs: Production and disposition by States, 1950 · p. 410, South Central. View the original.
Kentucky, 1950. Farmers sold one million, four hundred fifty-two thousand hogs, and killed four hundred fifty thousand at home. Nearly one in four. Tennessee killed five hundred fifteen thousand at home.
V09
Agricultural Statistics 1984 · USDA · Table 412, Hogs: Production and disposition by States, 1983 · p. 280. View the original.
Kentucky, 1983: twenty thousand. Tennessee: fifty-five thousand.
R058 Prosperous farmer's porch of his home with plants in painted lard buckets near Morehead, Kentucky
Prosperous farmer's porch of his home with plants in painted lard... · Marion Post Wolcott, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Near Morehead, Kentucky, September 1940. Her caption: a prosperous farmer's porch, "with plants in painted lard buckets."
R073 Child of white tenant farmer in kitchen of his home. McIntosh County, Oklahoma. Notice the pail of lard
Child of white tenant farmer in kitchen of his home. McIntosh County,... · Russell Lee, 1939 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
McIntosh County, Oklahoma, June 1939. Russell Lee's caption ends: "Notice the pail of lard."
R072 "All I got is one milk goat and one hog and it's too pore to kill." Negro tenant farmer, Creek County, Oklahoma
"All I got is one milk goat and one hog and it's too pore to kill." Tenant farmer, Creek County, Oklahoma · Russell Lee, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Creek County, Oklahoma, February 1940. A tenant farmer, quoted as Lee wrote it down: "All I got is one milk goat and one hog and it's too pore to kill."
What still stands
S15
Farmers' Bulletin 2138, Slaughtering, Cutting and Processing Pork on the Farm · USDA, rev. 1973 · cover. View the original.
The bulletin was revised again in 1973, and the Department kept it in print. The instructions outlived the practice.
R056 Well and old plantation smokehouse. Chesnee, South Carolina
Well and old plantation smokehouse. Chesnee, South Carolina · Dorothea Lange, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
What is left is the building. Chesnee, South Carolina, July 1937. Dorothea Lange: "Well and old plantation smokehouse."
R059 Project farmer in front of smokehouse. Roanoke Farms, North Carolina
Project farmer in front of smokehouse. Roanoke Farms, North Carolina · John Vachon, 1938 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Roanoke Farms, North Carolina, April 1938. A farmer in front of his.
R009 Hog killing time near Frederick, Maryland
Hog killing time near Frederick, Maryland · Marion Post Wolcott, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
And the morning itself, which the weather no longer chooses. Frederick, Maryland, February 1940.
R049 Zebulon, North Carolina. Feggen Jones hanging meat in the smokehouse
Zebulon, North Carolina. Feggen Jones hanging meat in the smokehouse · Arthur Rothstein, 1942 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Sources
- Farmers' Bulletin 183, *Meat on the Farm: Butchering, Curing, and Keeping*, by Andrew Boss, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1903 — https://archive.org/details/CAT87202084 - p. 21, "Cooling the carcass": "While the temperature can not well be controlled on the farm, it is possible to slaughter when the weather is favorable to the proper cooling of the carcass. If during the winter season, choose a day when there is a prospect for cooling the carcass before the surface freezes."
- Farmers' Bulletin 1186, *Pork on the Farm: Killing, Curing, and Canning*, USDA, February 1921 (rev. May 1921) — https://archive.org/details/farmbul1186rev1921 - Cover: "Every farm should produce the pork and pork products which are consumed on that farm." "Home curing of pork is an old practice. It nearly went out of style, but the style is rapidly becoming popular again." - p. 3: "In spite of these facts, however, the practice of purchasing cured meats has increased among farmers." - p. 5, Fig. 1, tools for killing and dressing hogs. p. 16: cold-storage rooms "where farmers may store their meat"; "cooperative cold-storage plants conducted by a number of farmers in a community may be found to be a good investment."
- Farmers' Bulletin 1186, *Pork on the Farm*, revised 1945 — https://archive.org/details/CAT87206669 - pp. 19–21, "Freezing Pork": "The widespread distribution of electric power and the development of so-called freezer-locker units ... have made subfreezing temperatures increasingly available"; "farm families who use a freezer locker try to dress hogs periodically so that they can consume these limited quantities of frozen pork before it has been in storage more than 3 or 4 months."
- Farmers' Bulletin 2138, *Slaughtering, Cutting, and Processing Pork on the Farm*, USDA, 1959 — https://archive.org/details/CAT10306300 - pp. 16–17: "bring the warm, dressed sides of pork immediately to the cold storage plant. After chilling the carcass for 24 to 48 hours, cut your pork and prepare it for the freezer or curing bins"; "If the weather becomes warm and no cold storage is available..."
- Farmers' Bulletin 2138, revised 1973 — https://archive.org/details/CAT87205934
- *Frozen-Food Locker Plants in the United States*, S. T. Warrington, Farm Credit Administration, USDA, Misc. Report 24, October 1940 — https://archive.org/details/CAT31314925 - Summary, p. 1: lockers "used first in Nebraska some 25 years ago"; "became generally popular after 1930"; "By January 1, 1940, an estimated 2,500 frozen-food locker plants, representing an investment of more than $25,000,000, were operating in the United States. Leading States in number of plants were Iowa, 453; Washington, 313; Minnesota, 263; and Wisconsin, 217."
- *Frozen Food Locker Plants: Location, Capacity, Rates, and Use, January 1, 1950*, L. B. Mann and Paul C. Wilkins, Farm Credit Administration, USDA, Misc. Report 146, March 1951 — https://archive.org/details/CAT31316298 - Foreword: "The 11,600 locker plants, operating in mid-1950 ... are largely located in towns of 5,000 people or less"; "Space is provided for approximately 5.7 million lockers. During 1949, the industry processed about 1-1/3 billion pounds of perishable food for some 16 million people, or more than 10 percent of our population." - Summary, p. 2: "The increased use of home units is an important change which is affecting locker plant operation. On January 1, 1950, trade sources estimated 2 million in use, and an estimated additional 800,000 were sold during 1950. In 1945, an estimated 165,000 home cabinets were in use."
- *Frozen Food Locker Plants in the United States: Twenty-second Annual Count, January 1959*, L. B. Mann, Farmer Cooperative Service, USDA, General Report 68, September 1959 — https://archive.org/details/frozenfoodlocker68mann - p. 1: "totaled 9,271. This is a decline of 340 plants from last year"; the industry "is changing the nature and scope of its activities from custom processing and locker rental services to commercial processing and merchandising to home freezer users." p. 2, Table 2, number of plants 1938–1959: 1,269 (1938), 2,870 (1940), 6,484 (1945), 11,608 (1951, the peak), 9,271 (1959).
- *Processing Pork Products in REA Refrigeration Locker Plants*, Rural Electrification Administration, 1945 — https://archive.org/details/CAT31020174
- *Agricultural Statistics 1952*, USDA, Table 469, "Hogs: Number slaughtered, United States, 1910–51" (farm slaughter, thousands: 14,800 in 1910; 16,804 in 1919; 14,155 in 1940; 9,720 in 1950) and Table 466, by States, 1950 (Kentucky: marketings 1,452,000, farm slaughter 450,000; Tennessee farm slaughter 515,000) — https://archive.org/details/sim_agricultural-statistics_1952
- *Agricultural Statistics 1972*, USDA, Table 476, "Hogs: Number slaughtered, United States, 1945–71" (farm slaughter: 13,631 in 1945; 9,720 in 1950; 6,835 in 1955; 5,160 in 1960; 2,610 in 1965; 1,314 in 1966; 1,112 in 1971) and note 3: "Beginning 1966, custom slaughter in plants for farmers is included in commercial slaughter and excluded from farm slaughter" — https://archive.org/details/sim_agricultural-statistics_1972
- *Agricultural Statistics 1984*, USDA, Table 413 (farm slaughter 500,000 in 1983) and Table 412, by States, 1983 (Kentucky 20,000; Tennessee 55,000) — https://archive.org/details/sim_agricultural-statistics_1984
- *Agricultural Statistics 1992*, USDA, Table 405, "Hogs: Number slaughtered, United States, 1977–91" (farm slaughter 276,000 in 1991) — https://archive.org/details/sim_agricultural-statistics_1992
- Photographs: FSA/OWI negatives, Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division, 1935–1942 (Marion Post Wolcott, Arthur Rothstein, Russell Lee, John Vachon, Dorothea Lange, John Collier, Edwin Locke, Carl Mydans). Each on-screen credit carries the photographer's caption and the LOC digital id. The negatives are black and white; the color was applied by computer in 2026 (DDColor, with a gray-patch audit and spot repair on every frame used) — a good guess, not a record.
- Every figure and quotation above was read off the page image, not the OCR text layer. The 1940 locker report's summary reads "after 1930" on the page where the text layer gives "193^". The 1983 farm-slaughter figure is 500,000 in the 1984 volume and revised to 517,000 in the 1992 volume; the narration uses the figure as first printed. The Halifax County, Virginia caption carries a 1939 rural-route address; the credit line omits it.