The Rural Voice, 2005-02, Page 28THE EGG MONEY
In the days of diversified farming the egg money was the wife's spending money
By Barbara Weiler
Since pioneer times farm wives have been in charge of raising chickens and selling the eggs.
Our little grandson received a
farm for Christmas. It has all
the traditional animals — a
horse, cow, sheep, pig and a hen
followed by a brood of chicks. In
other words, a mixed farm.
z- The old adage "Don't put a1> your
eggs in one basket" used to be the
motto for mixed farming typical in
24 THE RURAL VOICE
Ontario up to the middle of the last
century. Our farm of the 1940s had
cattle, horses, pigs and chickens. We
separated the milk from the cream,
sent the cream to the local creamery
and fed the skim milk to the pigs.
This had the advantage that along
with the vegetables and fruit from
the garden, we produced most of our
own food. The downside was that
the income from such a farm was
somewhat erratic.
Currently farmers often specialize
in one aspect of animal husbandry, be
it dairy, beef, pigs, sheep, chickens,
turkeys, or even llamas or ostrich.
In other words, diversification is not
the norm anymore, and farmers are