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.
A Look At the Next 50 Years
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED | WINTER 1964 | JUNIOR FARMER AND 4-H QUARTERLY

One can hardly mark the fiftieth anniversary of Junior Farmer organization in Ontario, without being tempted to dust off the old crystal ball, to take a peak at what the next fifty years may have in store.

CRYSTAL BALL GAZING

Now, before you become too enthused, let’s remember that our crystal ball may have a few cracks in it, and we can’t guarantee its

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Ada the Ayrshire

This cartoon appeared in the February 1955 edition of Better Farming magazine. It was drawn by the cartoonist Walt Wetterberg who made a career using humour and cartoons

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Cant Hook

This artifact is a cant hook, a traditional logging tool that was used to assist lumbermen in working with logs in sawmills. It consists of a wooden lever and a hinged

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Special report to you and your family on the H-Bomb
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED | MAY 1955 | BETTER FARMING

The hydrogen bomb has moved the dangers of war right out to your farm doorstep. It also has given you - the farmer - a new and grave responsibility in the defense of your nation.

We don’t want to alarm you, but you should understand the sobering facts recently revealed by the Atomic Energy Commission and how they affect you. First, distance from city targets no longer is a

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lives lived

James Mills

1840 - 1924

James Mills was born in 1840 near Bond head in the county of Simcoe to parents of Irish descent. He was the eldest of ten children. Mills was a figure who was committed to the improvement of agricultural education in Ontario, and his name is one that will forever be associated with the Ontario Agricultural College, for which he served as president and instituted a number of important reforms.

Mills contribution to rural Ontario began at a young age. Although he lost his right arm in a farming accident when he was a young adult and was restricted from a further role in farm

Dr. Margaret Strang Savage

1901 - 1970

Born in 1901 in Huron County, Margaret Strang was the third woman to graduate from the University of Western Ontario with a degree in medicine in 1929. She was the only female to graduate from the university that year.

She completed her internship at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario. Upon collecting her degree Dr. Strang moved to Dixonville, Alberta to set up her medical practice. She was the only doctor in the area and in her own words she could travel as far as she liked in any direction and encounter no other doctors to compete with. She traveled an area of

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