November 6, 1941 (Thursday)

HENRY GOES TO GRAND RAPIDS TO SEE THE HOGS GET WEIGHED

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A nasty rainy day

much colder to-night

turning to snow.

Orlo + Hank storing the

tools the A.M.

Sold six hogs to

Harold Yoder at 9.90 per

cwt. brought $1.20 [?]

Henry went to G.R. to

see them weighed.

Putting up some new

curtains in dining

room. Had to shorten them.

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I sometimes have difficulty deciphering things that Edna writes. With a little squinting, a call to my dad, or a Google search, I can generally figure it out. I struggled to figure out two things Edna wrote in this particular journal entry.

At first, not being experienced in livestock, I thought Harold Yoder paid $9.90 per "cut." That didn't make a lot of sense to me so I started to search the internet for livestock sales terminology. Thank you, Google. I think Edna wrote $9.90 per "cwt."

According to the internet "the abbreviation "CWT" refers to centum or cental weight, meaning hundredweight. This was set in law in 1835 when the Weights and Measures Act established one hundredweight as 112 pounds, In the U.S. and Canada, one hundredweight, then and now, is 100 pounds."

The USDA reports that the average cwt for hogs in 1941 was $9.50. It seems that Harold Yoder paid Henry and Edna a good price for the six hogs he purchased.

Something I was not able to determine was what Edna meant after noting that Harold paid $9.90 per cwt.

Bought or brought? I am not certain.

$1.20 seems clear. But what comes next?

Ignore the bottom half of the P from the line above. Is that "ov" or "or" or "ou" or something else written above the pencil line? Is she referring to what they originally paid?

I am sure those of you in the know about farming and livestock can clear this confusion up for me rather quickly.