The Rural Voice, 1978-12, Page 13Two horses,
one wagon
Basic equipment when Bill Millen started
By Alice Gibb
When Bill Millen of Teeswater bought his farm in 1944, his
basic farm equipment included two horses and a wagon. Any
other equipment he needed, he shared on a co-operative basis
with family members working neighbouring farms.
Today, retired from active farming. 64 -year old Bill Millen can
look back over some of the changes which have taken place in the
agricultural commumity over the past 35 years.
Certainly one of the major changes Mr. Millen has witnessed
is the mechanization of agriculture. Mr. Millen said when he
started farming on his own, there was " a lot more manual labor
and I think farmers were just as happy."
In the 1940's, combines were scarce, and threshing machines
were the order of the day. Some people stooked their grain
before threshing it, and othersstuffed their crops into the barns
and then took them out again to have them threshed. Whatever
method was used, threshing meant some good, hard, manual
work. Farmers in a neighbourhood hired one custom thresher to
come in and Mr. Millen recalls one machine might thresh 30
farms or more.
Threshing Dinner
While there was lots of work involved, threshing also produced
one of the farming community's most sociable events -the
threshing dinner.
Mr. Millen said a farmer's wife could usually expect 17 or 18
hungry men in for a meal and usually had a dozen pies baked to
prepare for the onslaught. If farmers were threshing oats, the
dirt and dust often affected their appetite, so they "weren't quite
so hungry, "Mr. Millen recalls. However, men whowere
harvesting corn could be depended on to really work up an
appetite.
The feast was the best part of threshing, Mr. Millen recalls,
"Except at the odd place where they were a little stingy."
Today the threshing bee is almost a thing of the past and
farmers rarely need more than two or three others to help them
at harvest.
Mr. Millen feels there used to be more of a neighbourly spirit
in the farming community when he started up his dairy and hog
operation in the 1940's. He said farmers helped each other morre
then, changing work back and forth for harvesting, threshing
and wood.'itting. Now Mr. Millen said, farmers tendtohelp each
other only in cases of a disaster.
The farm population also didn't travel as much in Mr. Millen's
younger days since daily chores tied the family to the farm,
particularly families who couldn't afford hired hands. The farmer
said while his dairy herd tied him down seven days a week, and
he just didn't take trips, he always found time to visit the
neighbours - either in the afternoons or evenings. Now he feels
the only time some farmers see their neighbours is when they
run into them in town.
Farm Forum
Teeswater area farmers however, have preserved one tradition
of the rural community which ensures they still socialize with
their neighbours - the Farm Forum. Mr. Millen and his wife, who
now live in town, still attend weekly meetings of the group
during the winter months.
When Farm Forum groups were originally organized,
members listened to an educational radio broadcast over CBC
and then discussed ideas or issues raised on the show.
When this format ended, many farm forum groups tried to
Feeding Chickens
continue as social gatherings only, but gradually disbanded as
other organizations assumed the original education goals of the
forum.
Today Mr. Millen knows of only two other active farm forum
groups in the province - one in eastern Ontario and the other in
Lambton County. The 30 member Teeswater group has survived
by remaining true to the original intent -they still invite guest
speakers to many of their meetings to discuss a variety of
subjects.
When Mr. Millen started farming in 1944, he had eight dairy
cows and three brood sows. Looking back, Mr. Millen said, "1
started milking by hand, got lazy and got a machine and got
lazier still and sold them all."
Automatic
When Mr. Millen first switched to an automatic milker, he said
some people thought he was crazy. But Mr. Millen wasn't the
only one in the neighbourhood who had made the switch. One
neighbour had made the changeover before hydro was available
and ran milkers with a gas engine. But even more unusual was
the case of another neighbour who pumped the automatic milker
system by hand, instead of "pumping the cow's tail," Mr.
Millen said.
After running a mixed dairy and hog operation for years, in
1972 Mr. Millen sold his dairy herd to a Brucefield farmer and
went into beef cattle. Then four years later, when one of his five
sons decided he wanted to take up farming, Mr„ Millen sold the
farm to him.
Today, although officially retired, Mr. Millen spends most
days back on the farm - working either for his son or other area
farmers.
Specialize
Today Mr. Millen said not only does it take a great deal more
capital to start farming, but young farmers "can't seem to start
small, they have to specialize."
Also, when he started farming, Mr. Millen said land sold for
about ten times less money, people didn't go into debt the same
way to buy a farm, and most changeovers in farming operations
occurred when a farmer went broke or else sold his farm.
Although Mr. Millen did change to a beef operation four years
before retiring, he said he still preferred dairy farming which
was more of "steady, safer bet." In the time he ran a dairy
operation, Mr. Millen sold his milk to the Teeswater Creamery
and the Blyth Co-op.
When the dairy chores became too much for him, Mr. Millen
made the changeover to beef and while "beef was easier. it was
a real gamble." Now Mr. Millen shakes his head in amazement
when he sees younger farmers making changes in their
THE RURAL VOICE/DECEMBER 1978 PG. 13