The Rural Voice, 1980-06, Page 12Sure
we're mechanized
BY ALICE GIBB
While predictions that the family farm is
dying are growing in number, as well as
concern that increased mechanization is
turning our farms into mini -factories, three
Huron County families prove that kids and
farms still mix.
John Hicknell, a Grade 10 student at
Central Huron Secondary School, Clinton,
still does "a little bit of everything" when
it comes to chores on his family's dairy
farm. John is the fourth generation of the
family to help with spring planting, milking
the cows and cutting the hay, and although
he uses mechanized equipment, the work
is basically the same as its always been.
John's father, Francis, of RR5, Seaforth,
said the family has been "in mixed farming
all our lives" and he's dealing with the
same Dublin bank that his grandfather did
when he moved to the farm in the spring o?f
1907.
MEDIUM SIZED.
Today Francis and his wife Marie, a
member of the McKillop township council,
raise dairy cattle and feeder pigs on their
190 acre farm. The couple consider
themselves "medium-sized farmers".
John is their third son, and as his father
points out, he's had two older brothers to
teach him how to operate the farm
machinery.
John's younger sister Margaret pitches
in at the barn whenever things are busy,
and starts supper every night while the rest
of the family are milking. The family's
youngest son, Stephen, four years old, still
hasn't moved up from the ranks of
spectator.
Francis Hicknell said when he was a boy,
his father sowed the crops behind a team of
horses. Mr. Hicknell said he remembers
:P0.1OTHE RURAL VOICE/JUNE 1980
But there's still Tots of room
for kids on the farm
helping his father lift 125 pound' bags of
fertilizer -bags with a distinctive beaver
logo -to spread on the land in the spring.
Now, he adds, "you can't ask anyone to lift
more than 50 pounds."
Francis Hicknell, also a third son with
two sisters, said he could harness the team
when he was 12 years old and "didn't think
anything of it." But most of the time he
worked with the horses, someone would be
with him. Still, a couple of times, he
recalls, the horses did get frisky and ran
away with him down the farm's long
laneway.
One change between generations Mr.
Hicknell notices must is that he and his
brothers would bring the cows in at night
on their bicycles. Now John uses his mini
bike, and Marie Hicknell said the cows
start coming up to the barn as soon as they
hear the bike.
The first tractor appeared on the
Hicknell farm about 30 years ago, and even
then the Hicknells were the last on their
line to sell their horses and, Francis said,
the last to get hydro. Mr. Hicknell
remembers the night his brothers first
turned on the barn yard lights with the new
supply of electricity.
THREE HORSE HITCH
While his father was still using horse
power on the farm, Francis Hicknell said
they plowed and cut grain with a three
horse hitch, which meant they usually kept
four or five horses on the farm. When
asked about safety then, as compared to
now, Mr. Hicknell points out a neighbour-
ing farmer was killed by his team and "a
lot were injured with horses as well as with
tractors."
When Mr._ Hicknell was young the family
milked 12 to 15 cows, but now, with
modern technology coming into play, the
family milks 44 cows. Although his parents-
worked
arentsworked harder a generation ago, Francis
Hicknell still believes they were happier
and "the kids were more content to stay
home then."
On Sunday afternoon, neighbours would
gather on a hill near the farm for
tobogganing and skiing parties, coming
by cutter and team.
The Hicknells hope one of their family
will decide to keep the farm, and so far the
likeliest candidate is John.
As this generation displays the lovely
framed portraits of the first Hicknell family
to settle the land, one senses their obvious
pride in their roots. The children, Marie
Hicknell says, have always been involved -
"well. you ca't be a family farm with-
out them ...n"
KIDS DO LOTS
Ker. and Carol Ryan, who live beside the
former Beechwood schoolhouse at RR1
Dublin, agree they don't know what they'd
do without their six kids to help on the _
farm -"They do a lot more work than you
might think" Mr. Ryan said.
The children, with the exception of
David who isn't quite two years old, all
have their own chores to do around the
family's mixed farming operation. With
the exception of Jean, 10, who yearns for
life in town and says it's just "too country"
on the farm, the family thinks life on the
farm is great.
Ken Ryan, who bought the farm from his
father 17 years ago. has everything his
parents had on the farm "except sheep and
work horses", according to his wife. The
"everything" includes 100 head of beef
cattle, dairy cows, sows and weaners,
enough hens and bantams to supply the
family's need and some goats.
Wayne, the oldest son, a 15•year•old