Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2021/Fall/Section018/Pearl Arnold

Overview

Pear Arnold was a farmer and poultry raiser who was interviewed by James S. Beaman on December 15th, 1938 about her stories and experiences of farms in North Carolina. Arnold had two children and she loved both of them. She loved being a farmer and loved her farm—the land she had been living for over thirty years. A quote from Arnold, “I love this old place; it's not mine, but I love it. My man and my mother died here, and I love every piece and foot of it”.

Biography

Early Life

Pear Arnold was a farmer and poultry raiser in New Brun, North Carolina. Pear Arnold was born near Benter, and her maiden name was Sarah Canopy. All the men in her family were farmers, as far as she knows, landowning farmers. Arnold had an older brother who farmed and was county sheriff at the same time. Arnold’s husband and his husband’s brother used to run a big dairy on the edge of the town. Arnold had lots of cows, Jersey cows and Guernsey cows. Some of the best blood in North Carolina are from Arnold’s herd. Arnold loved this farm, she loved this place even though this place does not belong to her, this is the place where her husband and mother died. During Arnold’s childhood, she went to a private school because there was no public school like nowadays. Arnold studied nursing at an insane asylum, she was not scared of the patient, and that’s how she met Mr. Bud. He always was sorter on the soft-minded order, childish-like and straightforward. During Arnold’s second year of training, she met Mr. Ken, her husband, and he came up from Carton to buy a team for his pa’s farm near Bear Creek.

Adult Life

When Arnold was married, she was going on nineteen, and Mr. Ken was twenty-two. They both moved to Mr. Ken’s Pa’s farm, a pretty old place with magnolia trees in the yard. Arnold had her first child Nellie, and they named her after Mr. Ken’s youngest sister. They stayed on the farm for two years farmed with Mr. Ken’s father and brothers. Then Mr. Ken had a chance to go to Carton to work for a rich man. Mr. Ken did not want much to go, but Arnold it is a good opportunity for her husband to earn and save money for the family while thinking about having another baby. Arnold and her husband moved to Carton to a one-story green house on Brady Street had a second baby and lived there for fourteen years with his life as a farmer and poultry raiser. Pear Arnold and her husband were both struggling with their farm due to depression. Arnold used to be a land-owning farmer, and then she became a small renter on the edge of the town. However, she still had a happy, fulfilled life with two children, according to Arnold.

Social Context

Livestock farms during the depression

During the depression of the 1930s, and most families raised a few sorts of animals. Horses and mules pulled ranch hardware in the fields. Different creatures were a source of cash and food. Cows gave milk and meat. Chickens gave eggs and meat. Ranchers raised swine and cows to sell for money and butchered a couple of animals to take care of their families. Numerous little families were nearly self-sufficient until the dry season made it hard to raise crops and feed and water farm animals. Pear Arnold was growing serval animals on the farm, including turkeys and cows, maintaining the expanse by the family while saving some money for her children. During the depression, Arnold’s farm was much smaller than her father's farm, and there were many competitors in her town. Almost every farm had chickens and milk cows, so the produces from the farm was never in scarcity.

Recovery from the Great Depression

From March to July 1933, and US industrial production rose 57%. We show that a significant wellspring of recovery was the impact of dollar cheapening on ranch costs, wages, and utilization. Depreciation quickly raised exchanged yield costs, and car deals filled all the more quickly in states and areas generally presented to these cost increments. The reaction was enhanced in provinces with more serious ranch obligation troubles. For conceivable suppositions about ranchers’ relative MPC, the occurrence of higher homestead costs, and the total multiplier, this rearrangement to ranchers represented a significant piece of spring 1933 development. Hence, this ranch channel gives an illustration of how the distributional outcomes of macroeconomic approaches can have enormous total impacts. That recovery in 1933 profited from reallocation to ranchers proposes a significant restriction to the utilization of 1933 as a manual for the effects of economic shifts in power different conditions. “Together with evidence that farmers were among the most indebted agents in the economy, this suggests that higher crop prices could have been expansionary for the US economy as a whole by redistributing income to indebted, high-MPC farmers” (Hausman, Joshua K., Paul W. Rhode, and Johannes F. Wieland. 2019 ,468). Pear Arnold and her husband were both struggling with their farm due to depression. In the end, they decided to sell their farm and go to work for a rich man with his farm instead. Arnold used to be a land-owning farmer, and then she became a small renter on the edge of the town.

The Right Alternative Poultry Production System

The small scale of pastured poultry, along with its quick turnaround and minimal equipment needs. The requirements of the family assumed a significant part too. All around, oversaw-pastured runs are, for the most part, safe enough to illness and contaminations that numerous makers forego the utilization of antibiotics or medical feed. Pastured poultry makers frequently utilize this detail as a promoting apparatus. “The small scale of pastured poultry, along with its quick turn-around and minimal equipment needs, attracted the fischbachs to raising poultry on pasture. The needs of the family played a big role as well. ‘As fairly new farmers with little kids, we felt that the chickens were much safer with the kids around, compared to cattle or sheep’” (SARE 2012, 1). Pear Arnold was very good at raising turkeys and cows. Arnold was very talented at maximizing her profit by expanding some other external products on the farm.

References

• “Determining The Right Alternative Poultry Production System – SARE”. SARE, 2012. https://www.sare.org/publications/profitable-poultry/alternative-poultry-production-systems/.
• Hausman, Joshua K., Paul W. Rhode, and Johannes F. Wieland. "Recovery from the Great Depression: The Farm Channel in Spring 1933." The American Economic Review 109, no. 2 (02, 2019): 427-472. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1257/aer.20170237. http://libproxy.lib.unc.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/recovery-great-depression-farm-channel-spring/docview/2172118147/se-2.
• “Livestock On America’s Farms During The 1930S Depression”. Livinghistoryfarm.Org, 2021. https://livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/crops_13.html.
• Rothrock, Michael J., Kristen E. Gibson, Andrew C. Micciche, and Steven C. Ricke. “Pastured Poultry Production in the United States: Strategies to Balance System Sustainability and Environmental Impact.” Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 3, (2019).