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["Lynda" <lurine AT com-pair.net>]

The prices listed were for dressed.  Those prices were to individuals, the 
logging bosses, etc.  The "wholesale" prices were on the hoof which is a 
whole other journal.

Here's how it went.  On the first Monday of the month, he'd determine how 
much beef the family would use for the month.  He and the older boys would 
kill and dress a steer.  Then the sign would up out on the end of the 
driveway and the timber bosses, etc. would come by to buy what they wanted. 
There was a train that ran through the one edge of the property.  It ran 
from the timber to the town.  Everyone knew when slaughter day was.  By the 
end of the day the beef was gone.  Saturdays were chicken slaughter day. 
The family ate chicken on Sundays.

Regardless of the value then, as now, a homesteader who uses what the 
homestead produces to support the homestead and the homesteader, isn't using 
the agri-model.  They are used a tried and true traditional model.  They are 
homesteading.  It is only when you step out of the tried and true model and 
use all the contrivances of the modern world that you cross the line, that 
is and when you are only looking to produce a cash reward.

Not what the original poster was talking about.

Lynda
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Clansgian AT wmconnect.com>
> Lynda, execllent example for the discussion!
>
> The items in the sold list, would you think that's "wholesale" as it were,
> what he'd get selling it to a store or to individuals.  Let me assume
> individuals as it puts my point at a disadvantage.
>
> In 1870 a day's wage for a trained AB man was $1.  That's equivalent to 
> about
> $20/hr today or about $160.  You can't compare it to minimum wage because 
> it
> was the wage that loggers, miners, teamsters, and such received which then 
> and
> now is far above the minimum (customary minimum then and enforced minimum
> now).
>
> So from the list a pair of overalls cost a day's wages.  Today a pair of
> Carharts or Poiters cost about $160, also a day's wages.  (Pointer 
> overalls are
> made right here in Bristol, TN so they are a good comparison).  Calico at 
> 12.5
> cents would be like $20 a yard, and it would be that today if it were not 
> made
> overseas.  A pocket knife at a quarter would be $40.  That's what I paid 
> for a
> decent pocket knife at Christmas and they had some that sold for as much 
> as
> $300 which matches the 1870 high end.  So some rough comparisons can be 
> made
> between then and now as to what things cost in terms of a full day's 
> wages.
>
> But look at food:  Even if your family was getting retail, they were 
> getting
> the equivalent of $12 a pound!  That means raising one good steer to 
> slaughter
> would bring in the equivalent of $7000.  I might ask Lynn how fast she 
> could
> pay off her mortgage if she got $7000 out of every steer she raised and 
> had no
> cash expenses in doing so.
>
> Eggs fetched the equivalent of $40.  Apples $1.60 a pound.  A basket of
> vegetables for $40.  We just bought 200 lbs of wheat (flour cost the same 
> from
> Wheat Montana) for about $100.  But the 1870 equivalent price is $1200. 
> Even if
> you referenced the cost to the 2009 minimum wage (which would not be a 
> fair
> comparision), the wheat would still cost almost $500.
>
> Or forget modern equivalents.  A pair of overalls for a dozen eggs, or two
> yards of cloth for a basket of vegetables.  One and a half sacks of 
> cornmeal for
> a pair of shoes.
>
> If we compare apples to apples, that is for example, modern domestically 
> hand
> made boots and shoes to 1870 domestically hand made boots and shoes, your
> family journal demonstrates my main point about supporting the cash needs 
> of a
> modern homestead from farm produce.  Farm produce was sharply more 
> valuable,
> relatively more valuable, then than it is now.
>
> When I can get 1/4 day's wages for a doxen eggs or a basket of vegetables, 
> or
> I can get the price of a good used tractor and all equipment for the price 
> of
> one beef, I'm going to get into that game too, and no mistake!
>
>
> James
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