The Rural Voice, 1982-09, Page 11IONAL
MATCH
Host farmer Allan Scott's farm, on County Rd. #/3, just west of Lucan, will soon be transformed into u tented city, featuring over 600
exhibits and seven streets. The Scott farm is part of A00 hectares of prime Middlesex County farmland that will he used for the 1982
International Plowing Match and Farm Machinery Show.
Carmichaels couldn't really think of any
arguments against the proposition. They
simply harvested crops a bit sooner than
usual and the only pre -match prepara-
tions Mr. Carmichael remembers was
removing some old fencing from the back
pasture. The pasture was used for the sod
plowing competitions and parking visi-
tors' Model T's.
Allan Scott himself wonders sometimes
how he's ended up hosting a match which
this year includes the Canada -wide plow-
ing competition and is expected to attract
well over a quarter million visitors to his
126 -acre farm.
His first involvement with the 1982
match, although he didn't know it at the
time, came seven years ago when Scott
Elevators Ltd. helped sponsor a busload
of county residents to the annual Ontario
Plowmen's Convention. Wilf Hodgins,
Biddulph Township reeve, and Scott's
neighbor, happened to mention that after
half a century, it was time to bring the
match back to Middlesex.
Once the county was given the go--
ahead, Hodgins started canvassing neigh-
bors for some potential host farms. Scott
says jokingly, "1 told Wilf to throw my
name in, just for the hellry. It was just
being neighborly." He assumed there'd
be so many other farms volunteered, his
I 26 -acre cash crop and beef operation was
safe.
Instead, neighboring farmers decided
the Scott farm was the perfect choice -not
only were the land contours ideal, and it
was right on County Road 13, but it was
also north of Lucan's new community
centre, which could be used for match
events.
The next thing the affable Mr. Scott
knew, he had a plowing match on his
hands. While he admits this has meant a
few more meetings and a bit more
thinking, he's not about to complain.
"Nothing changes my life, 1 work hard
during the day and I play hard at night."
The 1928 match wasn't entirely all work
and no play for the Carmichaels either.
The event opened on a Tuesday, with
the local Middlesex County Plowing
Match, which in those days included a
special event for Indian competitors.
(photo by Gibb/
Teams for the provincial match were then
rented from neighbors or else competitors
brought their still relatively new-fangled
tractors along for the match. W.H.
Atkinson from Port Elgin, competing in
his first provincial competition, drove the
entire 100 miles to the London Township
farm with a team and wagon, his plow
tied securely behind his seat.
Carmichael says the 1928 tented city,
right behind his farmhouse, really was
composed entirely of tents, except for one
small frame building.
Women played a much less active role
in the match than they do today. As the
retired dairyman recalls, the Women's
Institute ladies spent the four days of the
match trying to keep the 90,000 visitors
from complaining of empty stomachs.
Part of the host farmer's less enjoyable
duties involved carrying milk cans full of
hot water from the family's Medwar
Creamery across the road to the Institute
tent, so the women could keep ahead of
the stacks of dirty dishes.
Not that women were entirely relegated
to kitchen duties in those days. Mrs.
THE RURAL VOICE/SEPTEMBER 1982 PG. 11