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.
More and Better Markets for Canadian Products
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED | OCTOBER 1935 | THE FARMER

 

HOW BENNETT and STEVENS LOST OUR MARKETS

Ruthless shutting out of foreign goods was the burden of Mr. Bennet’s trade plan of 1930. That part of his promise was actually kept. As Hon. H. H. Stevens, Minister of Trade and Commerce, said when the new 1930 tariff was introduced: “Our idea is that nothing hereafter will be imported except what cannot be

Read more »
REFORESTATION

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

Read more »
MANURE SPREADER

The manure spreader removed the tiring process of spreading manure by hand, making the work of fertilizing the fields much more efficient. The manure spreader would be

Read more »



Tariff Killing Farm Business
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED | APRIL 15, 1922 | THE CANADIAN COUNTRYMAN

Practically ever since the Harding Administration came into power a fight has been going on between the manufacturers and financial interests in the United States and the farmers as represented by the Farm Bloc. In this fight the interests of farmers in this country are identical with those of the Big Interests across the line. Farmers in this country want to be allowed to ship their surplus

Read more »

lives lived

Gretta Anderson

1882 - 1972

Gretta Peltoniemi was born in the region of Oulu Lanni, Finland in 1882 and later immigrated to Copper Cliff, Ontario. She began working in her sister’s boarding house where she met Frank Anderson, another Finnish immigrant who was working in the mines in the area. The two developed a relationship, and in 1901 Frank analyzed all his worldly possessions and came to the conclusion that with a pair of work clothes, a suit for formal occasions, and seven dollars cash he could afford to get married. The couple were 21 and 19 when they wed.

The young couple spent many years

Hanoverhill Starbuck

APRIL 1979 - SEPTEMBER 1998

Farming and agriculture is a large field with many hard-working men and women who dedicate their lives to their work. However, the most important part of many farms, and often the most overlooked aspect of the industry, is the animals who provide for us. One truly incredible animal who provided quite a lot for the agricultural industry and the food industry as a whole was the bull Hanoverhill Starbuck. Born in April of 1979 on Hanover Hill Holstein, Starbuck became an exceptional breeder.

In May of 1979 two sire analysts from Quebec were visiting Ontario looking for new young

View more »