Besides using cars for work and for pleasure, the Shakers embraced the newly invented radio as well.
Farmers, in general, however, benefited from all this new technology at a far slower pace than city folk, who in 1920 for the first time made up more than half the population in the nation. Only one farmhouse out of every ten, for example, had electricity on its premises during the decade. And while many urban dwellers reveled in their relative prosperity, farmers-for the first time a minority in the country-continued to experience hard times even after 1922. The price of hogs, for instance, a commodity that would have affected the farmer Haven Peck in the novel since he also worked as a pig slaughterer-dropped by 50 percent in 1921. As the decade progressed, many farmers, unable to keep up with payments for money owed, lost their land altogether while others just barely managed to scrape by. Haven, who reminds his son in the novel that it won't be long before the family finishes making payments for their farm-appears to belong to this last group. The most profitable farming, on the other hand, was done by those who used costly farm innovations, such as mechanized harvesting devices and newly developed chemical fertilizers that helped earn huge profits.
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