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.

THE EIGHT-HOUR DAY

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED | APRIL 1, 1920 | THE FARMER'S ADVOCATE

The fact that the eight-hour day was dragged into the Peace Conference does not dress it up in any more attractive form to present to the Canadian electorate, and it is evident that our parliamentarians and legislators realize how ill-timed any eight-hour day legislation would be at present. In fact, none of them show any desire to risk burning their fingers by enacting an eight-hour day,

This cartoon originally appeared in the March 9, 1940 issue of Canadian Countryman. It is a humorous depiction of the reforestation spirit that was sweeping the nation

This artifact is a chicken egg incubator. Incubators became a key piece of technology for chicken farmers as they could greatly increase an eggs likelihood of hatching by

Submit Article Idea

Our Unpaid Farm Hands

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED | MAY 20, 1920 | THE FARMER'S ADVOCATE

Every farmer has a host of unpaid farm hands to whom he gives never even a thank you.Long before he gets out of bed, unless he gets up with the gray dawn, these hands are “on the job,” and if the farmer could compute the amount in dollars and cents that they save him in a year he would be amazed. The trouble is that he can’t see it with his two eyes, and so it never occurs to

Daniel Massey

FEBRUARY 24, 1798 - NOVEMBER 15, 1856

Daniel Massey was a farmer and farm-implement manufacturer of Upper Canada, notable for being the founder of the Massey farm implement business, the predecessor of the Massey Ferguson company, an enormously successful multinational corporation that is currently one of Canada’s premier farming equipment manufacturers. His company and its legacy would revolutionize farming in southern Ontario.

Massey was born on February 24, 1798 in Windsor, Vermont, the son of American farmers Daniel and Rebecca. When he was only six years old his family emigrated to Upper Canada- to the

William Johnston

JULY 24, 1848 - JANUARY 7, 1885

William Johnston was a hugely significant figure in the history of agricultural education in Canada. He was the unofficial founder and first principal of the Ontario Agricultural College, the predecessor of the University of Guelph.

Johnston was born in Lockerbie, Scotland on July 24, 1848, the son of David Johnston. His family emigrated to Canada when he was but three years old, settling in Cobourg, Canada West. His passion and dedication for teaching began very early in his life and is demonstrated by the fact that he taught school in Northumberland County at only 15 years of

News from our rich agriculture history

THE EIGHT-HOUR DAY

REFORESTATION

What is this advertisement for?

Egg Incubator

Guess what this artifact is?

Our Unpaid Farm Hands

lives lived

Daniel Massey

William Johnston