The Rural Voice, 1978-04, Page 3Seaforth
FARMERS CO-OPERATIVE
FEED FARM SUPPLIES
It's THAT season again
Get ready with:
•SEEDS
•BAG OR BULK FERTILIZER
•FEED
•FARM SUPPLIES
•PETROLEUM PRODUCTS
from our co-operative
Phone 527-0770
We have the largest selection of garden and flower
seeds in Huron County and we are preferred
pet supplies specialists offering
- bulk pet foods -
Buy just a package or in bulk...
"No matter how small or large the order, the service is
always personal"
at
Baker's Farm and
Garden Centre
Itormerly Durst's1
22 Isaac St., Clinton 482-9333
Opinion
"History repeats itself" is one of the truest truisms
written.
Again and again people seem to forget the lessons of the past
and fall into the same traps all over again. We're seeing that at
present in the farming industry with the problem of soil erosion.
About a year ago a concerned Londesboro man Norman
Alexanaer started getting a hearing for a long-time concern of
his that our farmland was being swept down the river systems to
Lake Huron. He was like a voice in the wilderness at the time and
was feeling pretty frustrated because no one seemed to care,
particularly in government. Today his plea seems to have been
heard because for the first time in years soil conservation is the
topic of meetings and seminars and magazine and newspaper
articles.
The big question is: how could we ever forget about
conservation in the first place? As a school boy growing up in
Bruce county, this writer can remember studying all about soil
conservation practices: about crop rotation and contour plowing
and such techniques. That wasn't all that many years ago but the
lessons learned by the past generations, the lessons learned in
the west during the dustbowl years, etc. were still fresh in
people's minds.
But somehow the lessons were forgotten and we plunged
ahead with new kinds of farming that ignored our knowledge of
the fragility of the top soil, the soil that keeps farmers in
business. Government was a major offender, paying farmers to
take out old fence bottoms and enlarge their fields and do other
things that promoted erosion problems. But farmers shouldn't
try to blame all the problem on governments as it is so
comfortable to do. Farmers must share the blame because in
most cases they grew up on the land and learned lessons from
their fathers but ignored them.
Luckily thanks to the concern of men like Norman Alexander
the problems have gotten a good deal of attention before they
reach crisis proportions but we're still a long way from solving
them.
Some farmers resent the fact that they may lose a bit of
production by conservation practices. They say they can't afford
to till less, to leave grass waterways etc. That kind of argument is
enough to bring back the idea of the farmer as a stupid hick. As
Dr. Dick Franks said recently, what good is it in getting a few
more bushels to the acre now if it means you lose the top soil that
is your very means of existence?
The soil is the farmer's heritage. If he doesn't protect it, it
won't matter if farm prices go up or down or the government
builds hydro corridors all over the place because there will be
nothing left to grow on. There won't be any farmers to protect.
the rural
Voice
Published monthly by Squire Publishing House, R.R. 3, Blyti.,
Ontario. NOM 1H0. Telephone 523-9636. Subscription rates: Canada,
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THE RURAL VOICE/APRIL 1978. PG. 3.