It’s raining today. So my mind is on April showers. The old children’s riddle comes to mind: “April showers bring May flowers, but what do May flowers bring?”

I started reading the 1929/1930 Iowa farm wife’s diary I have. You won’t believe what those showers brought to the farm…

• 18 Apr 1929: The Josie cow had a little calf today.
• 19 Apr 1929: The brown cow had a little calf today and we also got nine little pigs.
• 20 Apr 1929: We had nine more little pigs tonite.
• 22 Apr 1929: We had seventeen more little pigs today (two mothers).
• 23 Apr 1929: The Herbie cow had a little calf today.
• 24 Apr 1929: Had eight more little pigs tonite.
• 26 Apr 1929: We had six more little pigs today but the old mother lied [sic] on one. Three others are dead so that leaves us forty-five.
• 27 Apr 1929: Had five more little pigs today.
• 30 Apr 1929: We had one more little pig today but [husband] killed it and put some of the other pigs with that mother.
• 01 May 1929: We had eleven more little pigs today.
• 03 May 1929: The Minda cow had a little calf this AM.

diary of Lottie Price

Were you counting? Fourteen days. Four calves. Sixty-one piglets.

Sixty-one piglets!

With hog prices of the times going for anywhere between $8 and $9.50 a pig, April brought the Price family the potential for more than $500. Just from the piglets. Plus milk from the cows… and butter… if the income needed supplementing. Not to mention what the calves might have brought

For Depression-era farmers, April showers brought income after a long winter.

Not to mention the work all those babies must require.

Now, I need to find out just what breeds Josie, Herbie, and Minda are. I’ve not run across those names before…