Historical Articles Archive

April 9th is an anniversary, the significance of which Canadians do not sufficiently realize, or if they do, they give little heed. Eight years ago to-day Canada’s best blood was poured out like water and a deed accomplished that filled the world with astonishment and returned its fading hopes. Vimy Ridge! How that name will swell the breasts of Canadians yet unborn. What a recollection to those who breasted its shell-torn and debris-littered slopes. Those at home who pored...

I think I was up somewhere about Fort William when I sent ye that last letter tellin’ o’ my hardships an’ givin’ ye my impressions o’ the country I was passin’ through. Well, it gets to be a wee bit mair civilized lookin’ as one gets nearer Winnipeg an’, first thing ye ken ye’ve left the swamps an’ the rocks behind an’ ye’re into the prairies. Man, but it was great to see level country an’ cleared fields once...

Allow me space in your valuable columns to express my views on “Too Much Government.” In the first place, we must be a lot of rough-necks or nonlaw-abiding people or else our Government staff is so unnecessarily large they are stumbling over one another. When we stop to think what our Government finds for all of them to do, when we consider that there is one Government employee to every eighteen or nineteen persons and only nine million of a population, no wonder we have high...

It is a pity we had not more men the stamp of Peter McArthur. Surely the reasonable and honest views which he places before the reader of “The Farmer’s Advocate” should bear fruit. We will admit the weary, down-trodden farmers and labourers have become so used to accepting everything, from the political and money interests bosses that their thinking capacity has nearly become dormant, but thanks to our good friend of clear brain and honest conception, working in the...

I arrived safely in Liverpool. We came through a good deal of fog, and saw a number of icebergs, but our captain was a very cautious man, and we were in no danger. There is so much competition in the Atlantic carrying trade that the steamship companies are vying with each other as to which shall give their passengers the greatest amount of comfort and luxury. The fare in the second cabin is better than that given in the best country hotels in Ontario, and as there were practically no waves...

That the Province of Ontario possesses a plains country essentially similar in some respects to that of the great Prairie West, will come as a surprise to most readers, but a trip north from London on the Huron & Bruce branch of the Grand Trunk, or west from Stratford along the Port Huron line will bring the fact home with depressing clearness. There are many wide, level stretches of country in the Banner Province, but they are in most cases still dotted plentifully with small groves of...

Go into any city or town in Canada to-day, and try to rent a house in which to live, and you will find that houses are as scarce as Hebrews in Aberdeenshire. The people of our towns and cities are huddled together like herrings in a box. They are glad to pay $50 monthly to a landlord for a respectable six-roomed house on a respectable street. Many of them, unable to rent houses, have had to pay exorbitant prices for houses. A respectable house in one of our cities to-day costs at least...

America has long been deeply concerned about the never-ceasing flow of rural population from its country homes to the industrial centres. This worry now seems not to be exclusively confined to the New World, for we are told that France, the nation which prided itself upon its scientifically adjusted tariff and a perfect system, of small holdings, intended to keep the rural population happy, contented, industrious and prosperous, is face to face with the grave problem of providing city homes...

Have you ever thought what the result would be if all the farmer’s wives and housekeepers in this country were to form a sort of a labour-union and then go out on strike, for something under an eighteen hour day and a pay-envelope every Saturday night? If we haven’t been thinking of anything of the kind we may as well give a few minutes to the subject right now, for the world is moving and its inhabitants are organizing in a way that the past has never seen. And the fact that...

Kindly permit a few words of friendly comment on your editorial “The Provincial Political Arena.” Let me say at the outset that, to the best of my knowledge, the farmers’ political uprising is absolutely spontaneous. It is not planned for or directed from headquarters; at best the central officers can but advise and try to send speakers in response to requests for them. It may be that a mistake is being made in nominated too many candidates, but the officers could not,...

Women living in the rural parts of Canada are sometimes puzzled when they hear that there are many hundreds of graduate nurses in all provinces who can find no work. Puzzled because the woman of the small villages and the countryside knows her own needs and sees just what an abundance of work awaits the hand and skill of the trained nurse in every neighborhood. Puzzled, unless or until she begins to realize that on the one hand the average country dweller cannot afford to pay the prices...

In the abstract most of us will agree that nothing is too good for farmers’ wives in general and for our own wives in particular, but our actions do not always correspond with our sentiments, and the fact of the matter is that too many of us do not realize what an enormous assistance labor-saving devices and modern conveniences in the home are to our wives. Undoubtedly there is good reason for this state of affairs in a great many cases. A young couple start farming with limited means,...

The word “Scotsburn” in Nova Scotia is the short for good creamery management and large production, while in the produce trade it is a synonym for butter of the highest quality. In 1912 Dr. Cumming took W.A. McKay from the little creamery that was fast becoming famous, and commissioned him to “Scotsburnize” Nova Scotia, and for almost eight years Mr. McKay has been endeavoring to inoculate into the dairy industry of Nova Scotia a vaccine cultured from the co-operative...

An event of unusual interest took place at the farm of J. J. Elliot, Guelph on Wednesday June 9, when upwards of six hundred farmers and city people gathered to inspect Millhills Comet, the $34,000 Shorthorn bull and to do honour to his owner who showed faith in the livestock industry of Canada by paying this record price for a herd sire and taking the risk of bringing him across the Atlantic. It marked a new epoch in the livestock industry of Canada, especially in the Shorthorn fraternity....

The above is the title of an article by Sir A. Daniel Hall appearing in the May issue of the Atlantic Monthly that we found particularly interesting. The writer of the article was for many years director of the famous Rothamsted Experiment Station, and is the author of several textbooks on agriculture. He is at present chief scientific advisor to the British Ministry of Agriculture and is an authority on his subject. The problem he deals with is how the world is to be fed in the face of the...

A political revolution has swept the slate clean in the Province of Ontario, and a new era is dawning. During a revolution it is hard to predict whose head will go, and, in the upheaval still fresh in our minds, the weapon placed in the hands of Ontario’s electors fell with a vengeance. The ballot was not in every case, we think, used discreetly, but, unlike revolutions where the guillotine instead, instead of the ballot, implemented the desires of the people, there is a second chance...

Farmers are often accused of showing a lack of business instinct. It is certain that no successful business man would handle his products in the way some farmers handle theirs. This is particularly noticeable in connection with the handling of milk produced on dairy farms and one cannot help but be surprised that dairymen allow themselves to be so careless as to produce milk at considerable cost and have it turned back from the factory because it is too warm or has soured. No principle of...

Ontario’s First Dairy Day on the farm of Melvin Shatnz, Alma, Ont. was an outstanding success and ensured that this event will become an annual feature for the dairy industry of this province. In spite of rain in many surrounding districts, and the prevalence throughout much of the day of that restrained form of precipitation known as “Scotch Mist,” milk producers and their families turned out in large numbers, with estimates based on Provincial Police counts of cars...

The use of the airplane for applying various spras, granular or dust materials (predominantly insecticides) is now a common practice among Ontario’s flue-cured tobacco growers. Although the cost of application is often slightly higher than with ground equipment the airplane has been able to compete quite successfully. Possibly this is at least partially due to with which the job can be done as well as the prompt service. In addition, a surprisingly uniform and complete coverage of...

Contributed by Ontario Farmer Readers A Cabinet Wood Box Here are two sketches of a box to be used to hold wood for fuel in a kitchen. It differs from the other boxes of this nature, in having a drawer at the bottom. Inside each end of the box is a two-inch plank, nailed stationary like a baseboard, and on top of these rests the side ends of 2 x 4” scantlings, kept one inch apart by wooden blocks at the ends, to serve as a grate. The baseboards are to be 5½ inches wide or...