AN ORIGINAL MIXED FARM ECONOMIC UNIT
While I can recall a typical farm unit in Saskatchewan, as I knew it in the 1950’s, I thought it best that I write it all down for my family to know. Unfortunately, my grandchildren will never experience it and my children had a limited exposure to same. My children’s spouses, would probably have a difficult time visualizing all what I am about to relate.
I consider it a travesty that what I am about to describe, has basically been removed from the North American landscape and not existent in the Canora to Pelly areas of Saskatchewan where I was raised.
Most family mixed farms were at the 320 acre size or one-half section which was the amount of land that one man could farm with horses and the machinery was sized for four-horse teams. The most efficient scheduling of these teams is to work one set in the morning, another set in the afternoon and the third set, the following morning. Then the process would repeat itself. This allowed enough time for the horse to rest and graze in the pasture.
The farms were on land that became broken up as follows:
- Land with predominant rocks, sloughs and interspersed with forest was fenced for pasture that would have the farm buildings at one end. This allowed for tending the animals with barns and corrals within this space which, depending on the land, averaged about fifty to sixty acres
- There were sloughs within the farming area that became a late crop production of oats and grasses for fodder for animals
- So the average farming production area was about 200 to 240 acres within the 320 total owned by the farmer.
Wheat was the primary cash crop with some barley and oats grown for feed as required. Wheat was always higher priced but took the longest time to ripen than barley and depending on the year, wheat may be subject to frost and thus people grew both to ensure a source of income. Wheat had to be in the soil by May 10th to ensure a ripening season without frost so the later crops were preferential in a wet Spring.
There were usually about six to eight milking cows that was based on:
- Available pasture , hay and fodder
- Produce about two five gallon cream cans of rich cream a week which was shipped by rail to a Creamery within 20 miles distance. This was a valuable income that provided needed staples food, etc.,
- Cream was a product that a cream separator was able to derive from whole milk that was milked from cows, twice daily
- Some cows yielded a gallon of milk or more per milking
- Milk for the table as well as cooking
- The skim milk fed the calves and swine
- Calves were checked to replace aging cows but otherwise were used as veal for the table or shipped through the stock yards for needed income for repairs and gas for a small tractor that was becoming a replacement for horses
- Hides were used for tanning and became leather for harnesses, shoes, belts, etc.,
- Breeding was with an off-site bull to prevent in-breeding
Every farm had at least a half dozen swine that were:
- Bred for piglets that were grown for market and pork for the table
- Wastes from the table, surplus skim milk and lesser grains fed the swine very economically
- Breeding was with an off-site bore to prevent in-breeding
Sheep could graze on sparse pasture land that was not frequented by other farm animals and almost every farm had about a half dozen animals that became:
- Lamb and sometimes mutton for the table
- Wool for yarn that was knitted into sweaters, socks, toques, etc.,
- Wool that was carded to make warm blankets
- Skins were tanned and used to make mitts, overcoats, jackets
- Older sheep were marketed when replacement younger animals were available
- Breeding was with an off-site ram to prevent in-breeding
Ducks and Geese would habitate (usually about a dozen each) the adjacent sloughs. They needed guarding because coyotes, weasels, mink and other wild animals found them easy prey. Food for these animals required grain and ground meal from lower priced grains. Much of their food was as a result of foraging in the sloughs with all the bugs and organic growth present in the sloughs. These poultry were used as:
- Meat for the table
- Eider down for mattresses and pillows
Usually about two hundred Chickens, fed by ground meal or lower priced grains, could be available at certain times of the year:
- A hundred chicks in spring became food for the table or replaced aging hens
- Hens produced eggs for the table as well as being sold to townspeople for spare change
Many farmers owned Incubators that were heated with a coal oil heater and much careful selection with healthy graded eggs. This would economically for produce:
- Chicks
- Ducks
- Geese
About two or more dogs were always part of the farm yard and their function was:
- Alert the farmer should any predator enter the yard as well as a possible thief which unfortunately was always a possibility
- Communicate with coyotes on a cold winter’s night
- Could be a trained sheep-herder and many other functions
- Food is usually table scraps. (I have never witnessed a dog not being able to handle chicken bones that were ravishly devoured).
- A willing and trusted companion at all times
- A guide in winter storms
- A family protector, especially children
Cats are usually more than necessary as they propagate well and have these functions:
- Keep the mouse and rodent population in control
- Barn Swallows tend to over-populate and pollute the barns and out-buildings and are usually controlled by cats
Goats were more for show rather than a preferential farm animal depending on the Farmer’s diet but goats could be useful for:
- Dietry Goat’s milk and Gouda cheese
- Goat’s have been known to chase away coyote predators
Growing and the care of gardens was a fundamental food source for:
- Tomatoes
- Potatoes
- Carrots
- Beets
- Radishes of all sorts
- Cabbages
- Cauliflower
- Cucumbers
- Many varieties of Beans and Peas
- Strawberries and Raspberries
- Rhubard
- Crabapples
Wild Fruit was usually quite bountiful and was harvested for canning of jams, jellies, syrups, etc:
- Saskatoons
- Choke Cherries
- Pin Cherries
- Raspberrises
- Cranberries
- Gooseberries
- Mossberries
Various Edible plants such as:
- Wild Spinach
Nuts were also very abundant and could be harvested in season such as:
- Hazelnuts
Wild Game was a staple of most farm families and in season the following were shot for food:
- Canada Geese
- Mallard and Teal ducks
- Partridges
- Grouse
- Prairie Chickens
- Deer
- Moose
The near-by lakes and rivers were an excellent source of fish such as:
- Walleye
- Pickerel
- Jackfish
Muskrats and Fur-bearing animals were also harvested and Furs marketed to create additional income from:
- Weasel
- Mink
- Beaver
- Muskrat
- Rabbit
All excess fats were salvaged from cooking, trapping and then melted at various times, mixed with a formula of lye to manufacture soap. It was years later as a budding Chemical Engineering student that I realized the farmer was simply manufacturing Sodium Stearate and I said to myself, “wow, what great Chemists my parents were.”
Sewing as an art that was fundamental to the Farmer who would manufacture items for the entire family:
- Clothing
- Leather jackets, gloves, belts
- Rugs
Before fridges and freezers, canning was a fundamental preservation method for:
- Pickles
- Tomatoes
- Relishes
- Peas, beans, carrots
- Fruits, jams and syrups
- Meat and fish
Of course, there was a job for everyone on the farm and an excellent learning school for survival for the following:
- Splitting wood in the Spring to be seasoned for winter use as fuel for stoves
- Helping farm the fields
- Haying
- Seeding
- Harvesting
- Tilling the land
- Milking cows and attending to the separating the cream from the milk
- Making butter from the cream
- Making cottage and other cheeses
- Gathering eggs
- Feeding the poultry and other farm animals
- Building and repairing fences
- Tending the garden
- Picking wild fruit, nuts, etc.,
- Constructing, renovating farm buildings
- Carding, spinning wool into yarn
- Knitting, weaving
- Sewing
- All kinds of crafts like embroidery, rug-making
- Barn-cleaning
- Blacksmithing
- Mechanical repairs
- Hunting, fishing, trapping
There is no question in my mind that the farm unit was the most self-sufficent family method of life where everyone stayed busy and no one was left hungry. At the same time the farm produced food for the broader population. It provided local population for small but vibrant communities that cherished a “community spirit” where everyone had a purpose in life.
Why was it necessary to improve on a perfect working model by the super production farms powered by corporations and huge and expensive machinery as a result the small family must feel lost in huge urban communities and cannot support themselves? It is obvious that spiritual, emotional and financial suffering would occur once the pride of self ownership and direction is taken away.
I am now saddened as I drive in this area and see the grain elevators (usually 4 to 6 per community) removed from the landscape and replaced by an ulta modern computerized grain terminals of which 3 service a 50 kilometer radius. The towns have become weather beaten ghost towns of the original proud structures. Where a famstead existed every kilometer of so, one can travel 10 kilometers and not find a family living on the farm. Gone are all the animals. The poor horses are extinct as are the dinosaurs.
And so this is progress!
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Composed January 23, 2012