The Rural Voice, 1978-07, Page 9The Voice of A Farmer
by Adrian Vos
A day on a tractor
Driving a tractor all day, a person sees many things he
wouldn't notice otherwise. He makes a turn at the far end of the
field he is working on and all of a sudden there are half a dozen
gulls pecking away at some succulent tidbit in the soil. Some
others are wheeling overhead, as if contemplating if it is worth
their while to land. When the tractor reaches the place where the
first contingent has landed, they stop pecking and watch the
approach of the growling monster with the human inside and
then fly up lazily to land .a short distance away behind the tractor.
We concentrate on our work again and after the next turn, the
freshly worked field is covered by a hundred of the graceful
birds. and still more are coming in from who knows where. They
don't scratch. That seems undignified. When we reach them
again. they merely fly aside and from a distance of fifty feet a
hundred heads are turned in our direction, as nuns in a convent
have their heads turned towards the altar. They do resemble
nuns. with their gray habit and their white coif. When we look
somewhat closer however we see that they utterly lack the
humility that nuns are supposed to have. In fact, they look rather
haughty.
Then all too sudden we notice a wounded bird in front of us. A
kiideer. She appears to be lame, for one wing drags over the
ground and she can barely keep up with the tractor. Ah, but she
doesn't fool us for a moment. This act we have seen too often
before. She has a nest close by and maybe we have allready
driven over it.
As in most parts of Huron County, our fields are gently rolling,
and our thoughts turn to how this land must have looked to the
eyes of the first white men to get here. Maybe the intrepid
Etienne Brule passed right through here on his way to the
Neutral Indians who lived here then. As far as history goes, that
is not so long ago either. At that time the Neutrals or more
properly called, the Attawandarons hunted here for food, and for
pelts to be sold to the Hurons, who in their turn sold them- to the
wfiite man of the North. the land of Kebec.
In later years. when the Attawandarons were butchered by
their cousins. the Iroquois. the land lay idle for almost two
hundred years and one can imagine the size of the maple and
dm. the beech 'nd the walnut trees. When the white man came
here to stay. he recounted that under the trees it was dark as
night. even on sunny days. Who was that man who wielded his
broad axe on this field where the gulls enjoy themselves now? In
the minds eye he has taken his shirt and undershirt, knitted by
his wife. off and his muscled arms go up and down like a piston
pump. He was lucky. for this land was not in the Huron Tract. It
was purchased from the Chippewa by the crown and so the
"Colborne Clique" who ruled the greater part of Mid -western
Ontario couldn't interfere with his doings. Who was this man.
Was he Scottish and thus a friend of "Tiger" Dunlop? Was he
Irish. and thus despised by the "Tiger"?
For the most part these pioneers left the feuds from the old
country behind them. The Orangeman and the Black Irish
worked together. So did the Scot and the Englishman. the Dutch
and the Belgian, the Hessian and the American.
The isolation of the times forced a tolerance that was unheard
of in the old countries, for here they couldn't have existed unless
they helped one another. This forced them to know one another
and when one knows someone, it usually means that much of the
feuding is based on misunderstanding.
This tolerance extends into our times. How else could we,
newcomers to this county and to this country, have been received
with such open hospitality?
It always amazes me that Colonel van Egmond succeeded in
raising even the semblance of an army in the Huron Tract in
what is known as "The Farmer's Revolt", for Huron people are
very loyal. Once they have elected a man to office, it is well night
impossible to dislodge him again. They are not so much loyal to
the party as to the man. The reason appears to be that in the first
place they make sure to elect only a man who thinks as they do.
None of that socialist dreaming. Where would the money come
from for these newfangled ideas, but from our own pocket?
By and large, the Huron people won't accept new ideas until
they are proven to work and no amount of oratory is going to
change that. That is the reason that our three politicians are safe
as long as they wish to keep that office. They have continuous
contact with them and look after them in a superb manner. They
know exactly what the majority thinks, and they act accordingly.
We, in Huron, are conservative. It doesn't matter which party we
believe in, P.C. or Liberal or N.D.P., we are conservative. Not in
our business dealings, mind you. We are quick to adapt new
technology in our small manufacturing industry or on our farms,
and the results can be seen by just driving through the county.
If a new idea is proposed that has not been proven. the
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THE RURAL. VOICE/JULY 1978. PG. 9