Poetry · Chapter
When to Sell Grain and Farm Produce explained
This chapter offers practical advice on the timely sale of grain and farm produce, warning against holding grain until spring due to shrinkage, mold, and rat damage, and recommending immediate sale for investment.
What happens
This chapter offers practical advice on the timely sale of grain and farm produce, warning against holding grain until spring due to shrinkage, mold, and rat damage, and recommending immediate sale for investment. It extends similar counsel to cheese and livestock, emphasizing the benefits of quick turnover for business improvement and community relief.
Themes in this chapter
Agriculture and Rural Economy
The chapter provides direct economic guidance on selling grain, cheese, and livestock, emphasizing market timing and financial prudence.
Moral Lessons and Domestic Virtue
The advice is framed as a moral imperative to avoid waste and to bless mankind by alleviating distress through efficient commerce.
Key passages
“Grain it should be sold in the fall Even if the price it should be small, For if you keep it till the spring Sometimes a less price it doth bring.”
Sell grain in autumn even at a low price, because holding it until spring often results in an even lower price.
Advises against speculative storage of grain.
“If you sell wheat you can get gold, Retain it, damp may make it mould.”
Selling wheat yields immediate cash, whereas keeping it risks mold from dampness.
Highlights the risk of spoilage as a reason to sell promptly.
“The same remarks apply to cheese, It shrinks and frosts make it to freeze, Then careful man you have to hire At great expense to keep up fire.”
Cheese also loses value through shrinkage and freezing, requiring costly labor and heating to preserve it.
Extends the advice to dairy products, emphasizing additional costs of storage.
“And it pays best to sell each pig, Plump and young, not old, fat and big, Young and tender now’s the vogue Either in cattle or in hog.”
It is most profitable to sell pigs when they are young and plump rather than old and fat, as young and tender meat is currently in fashion for both cattle and hogs.
Advises on optimal timing and condition for selling livestock.