News from our rich agriculture history

The Farms.com farm and rural history website is dedicated to celebrating and digitizing the last 150 years of success in the Canadian agriculture and food industry. The agriculture and food industries in Canada have a rich heritage of innovation, and have laid a foundation of excellence upon which we continue to grow. We celebrate Canada’s food and agriculture innovations on these pages.

Farmers as Legislators

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED | JUNE 10, 1920 | THE FARMER'S ADVOCATE AND HOME MAGAZINE

The first Legislature in Canada to be guided through the political labyrinth of a session by a purely farmer and labour group has recently been prorogued, and the people of this and other provinces can now look back and form their own conclusions as to the results. Nothing sensational transpired during the session, but a fair amount of legislation was enacted. The outstanding feature of the

This cartoon first appeared in the January 1945 edition of Canadian Countryman. It depicts Old Man Ontario, the traditional representation of the province, weathering the

This is an example of a riding cultivator from circa 1929, of a model produced between 1919 and 1945. Early draft-drawn riding cultivators, like their modern

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MY DOG

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED | OCTOBER 9, 1919 | THE FARMER'S ADVOCATE

My dog is a mongrel. He is partly Scotch collie and the rest cur. He is worth his keep many times. He catches gophers; he drivers [sic] the horses and cattle; he will hold a pig if I tell him to do so; he will chase a coyote; he will only bark at visitors in daytime, but will not admit strangers at night; he will guard a blanket or coat left by me until he starves; he will go with the kiddies

James ‘Jim’ Magee

NOVEMBER 2, 1942 – JUNE 24, 2017

Farmer; conservationist; agricultural advocate. Born Nov. 2, 1942; died June 24, 2017 in Woodstock, age 74.

Jim Magee was “a binder. He could bring people together to do things,” says Mike Cooper, a friend who served with Magee on the Ontario Farm Animal Council (OFAC).

Magee “did a lot of good for the industry. He could say, ‘Here’s what the problem is. Let’s solve it, then, let’s go onto the next one and get it done.’”

It was this attitude that

John Smith Bessey

DECEMBER 9, 1832 - MAY 25, 1921

John Smith Bessey was born on December 9, 1832 in Esquesing township, Halton County, Upper Canada. The Bessey’s were originally from the Thirteen Colonies, and John’s grandfather fought for the British during the American Revolutionary War. The family were thus forced to flee the newly-established United States and came to British North America. Like many other United Empire Loyalists, the Besseys were granted land in the developing province of Upper Canada and took up farming. Also like many other Loyalists, John’s father was a staunch Tory, and strongly opposed to any

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News from our rich agriculture history

Farmers as Legislators

OLD MAN WINTER

Riding Cultivator

MY DOG

lives lived

James ‘Jim’ Magee

John Smith Bessey