By F.H. Jeter,
Extension Editor, N.C. State College, Raleigh, as published in the Wilmington Morning Star and the Charlotte Observer on Aug. 27, 1945
W.O. Davis, farm agent in Halifax County, says the shortage
of pork and lard in his county is having a serious effect on the labor
situation. In the first place, labor is losing too much time from work in going
from store to store and from town to town, trying to find fatback and lard.
Some stores report to Mr. Davis that they have sold out of salad dressing and
salad oil, which is being used as a substitute for lard, and the story goes
that even Vaseline has been used in some instances for making biscuits.
Mr. Davis made a survey of the wholesale and retail stores
to determine the amount of fatback and lard coming into Halifax County this
year as compared with 1944. One wholesale distributor serving that area checked
his records and found that he has received only 635 pounds of fatback so far
this year as compared with 15,169 pounds for the same period last year. The
owner of a retail store said that in July 1944, he had sold an average of 250
pounds of fatback per week. In July 1945, he could get only 30 pounds each two
weeks. This same retail merchant sold 254 pounds of lard per week in July of
1944, and this year he received only one shipment of 30 pounds of lard from May
1 to July 15.
Ordinary farm labor does not understand this and believe
that they are being discriminated against. Consequently, the work on the farms
of Halifax County and other counties in the east suffers.
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