Harvesting history
Farming in N.L. was a ton of work.
“It’s a tough place for agriculture. The soil and climate are limited, but having said that, everyone found a way to have a garden … some people even had to row for hours to get to their garden …”
The first thing that leapt to mind when I heard Jo Shawyer make this comment in the middle of an animated three-way conversation, was the energy of the average Newfoundlander, say, in great-grandfather’s day. To row for hours, then to launch into arduous work in a vegetable garden and, at the end of your day, to row home, takes special people. Many who planted this place were special people indeed.
In mid-September I sat down with two members of the Agricultural History Society of Newfoundland and Labrador. Shawyer is a retired associate professor of geography. She lectured at Memorial University. Kevin Aucoin completed a master’s degree in agriculture in 1971. He worked 30 years with provincial Agriculture in various positions, including provincial director of field services. He retired in 2001.
If I have heard anything about agriculture in Newfoundland over the years it has been that it never did amount to much. “Much” must have been in comparison with North American bread baskets.
In a schoolbook published just over 40 years ago (by Summers and Summers) a farmer Browne mused that “our vast boglands and barrens lands could be used” for growing pasturage … that large numbers of cattle would give us milk, meat and hides … and that “more people should keep geese, ducks and pigs and goats…”
The tenor was so often “should and could.”
In the early 17th century, Capt. Wynne planted wheat, barley, oats, peas and beans “a quoit’s throw from (the Ferryland) shore.” Mind you, planting is not necessarily synonymous with success. Quoits were heavier in the 1620s than they are today, so Wynne’s farm must have been kissed by the Southern Shore fogs, mists and salty spray.
Shawyer and Aucoin showed that while there are earlier indications that the government tried to encourage agriculture on this island, milestone legislation came in 1889. In part, it allowed for agricultural societies to foster and share information. With $1 as a government incentive for each member joining, societies sprang up around the island.
“It was a very meaningful step by government for agriculture here,” says Shawyer.
By 1912, there were 87 such district societies across the colony. Membership ranged as low as 50 but was much more in many cases: for example, Freshwater, 68; Wesleyville, 60; Carbonear, 83; Old Perlican, 250; Bonavista, 270; Marystown, 300; Kelligrews, 476; Harbour Main, 693; St John’s, 2,245; Channel, 170; Lamaline, 240; Fogo, 206.
In 1912, the board under which these societies operated placed with the societies free of cost 48 bulls, 539 rams, 290 breeding pigs, two stallions and 1,400 barrels of seed potatoes.
“These societies,” Shawyer adds, “were the only voice back to government on the things tried or the things needed”.
We can fast-forward for another view. In 1948-50, local production of vegetables was estimated at 30 per cent of consumption needs. Today, that 30 per cent would compare with less than 10 per cent of total needs. However, as Aucoin points out, we provide a higher amount for turnip, potatoes and cabbage. He adds, “not well recorded is data from roadside markets and farmer markets as to production vs. consumption needs.
“Bottom line is, we have lots of room to expand, if big supermarkets would support local products.”
Shawyer adds, “today we have very sophisticated farms — commercial farms — and we are self-sufficient in milk, chicken and eggs.”
Our award-winning Agricultural History Society, founded in 1986, has done, and is doing tremendous things. When you look at the list of articles the society prepares (see Agriview online), when you learn about the program honouring our “century farms” — which is to mention just two of the society’s initiatives — you have to wonder if Shawyer and Aucoin (and others) understand the meaning of retirement.
I found this fascinating extract in the Spring 2015 issue of Agriview (an organ of the Newfoundland & Labrador Federation of Agriculture). It was in the article “Newfoundland Agriculture Copes with World War I,” written by Shawyer:
“In 1917, the government experimented with growing wheat: ‘A promising experiment in the growing of Wheat and the conversion thereof into flour was made in the past year by farmers in certain sections of the District of St. George’s. The yield of the grain averaged about 26 bushels per acre (U.S.A: 17 bushels per acre; Great Britain 31 bushels per acre; Canada 21 bushels per acre). It was ground into whole wheat flour in a grist mill imported by a resident of Stephenville and made a palatable and nutritious bread. This is vouched for by the medical gentlemen and others to whom samples of the bread were submitted by the Agriculture Board.’”
Very early in our history, fish- eries had a head-on collision with agriculture. Fishermen did not like the idea of people harvesting caplin for fertilizer. A brief extract from another article by Shawyer quotes the legislative act:
“Whereas the catching and taking of the fish called Caplin, in large quantities, for the purpose of using the same as Manure, is deemed to be greatly injurious to the fisheries … no persons shall take any quantity of the fish called Caplin to be used for Manure or for any Agricultural purpose whatsoever …”
Of course, the legislation sprang from the fishermen and what politician could resist that bloc? In due course, the law fizzled. Many fishermen, as we know, also had farms, and the efficacy of caplin in nourishing the ground was too well known for such a law to survive.