The Rural Voice, 1983-05, Page 45STRIKING BACK
Growing crops in 1881
by Detonator Dan
In 1881, winter wheat averaged 20
bushels per acre and spring wheat 12
bushels per acre. And that on generally
virgin soil! The wheats were grown on a
variety of soils, from black muck to heavy
clay, with many different tillage prac-
tices.
An `Essex county farmer provided the
Commission with the following com-
ment. "The land is so rich that we just
keep on cropping away and we all get
good yields" (well! well! Ontario farmers
are still cropping away. I wonder if the
farmers of the 1870's practiced a very
special type of tillage that todays farmers
are very adept at — recreational til-
lage!!). The cost of growing wheat
averaged about $12.00 per acre with a
return of 95c per bushel.
According to Mr. Drury, wheat did
much better when sheltered by forest. At
the same time, farmers wished to drain
land and were prepared to pay 10 per cent
interest on borrowed money for drainage
(have we come the full circle?). Mr. White
of Charing Cross suggested to the
Commission, in 1881, that if wheat did
not come through the winter, it was
because there are no forests left in Kent
County to retain the snow and shelter the
plant (one hundred years later, Kent
County is still trying to grow trees).
Some of the wheat varieties grown in the
1870's were Fife, White Flint and Hut-
chinson -Clawson.
Barley was grown, with the costs
about the same as wheat. Twenty-five to
thirty bushels was an average yield, at
70c per bushel. Much of the barley was
used for malting. Many farmers reported
to the Commission that barley was a
more soil exhausting plant than wheat.
The average yield of oats was 33
bushels per acre at 35c per bushel. Black
Main and White Australia were two oat
varieties.
The pea crop was very popular with
Ontario farmers, unless interrupted by
the pea weevil. The crop generally
yielded 18 bushels per acre at 55c per
bushel. Second Early and Golden Vine
were two pea varieties. The pea weevil
apparently lead to the demise of the
Ontario crop (I have been told, that at one
time, the dry pea crop acreage was so
large in the Bruce Peninsula, that "unit
trains" transported the crop south from
Wiarton).
Indian corn was cultivated in different
parts of the province, with costs per acre
of $15.00, yields of 50 bushels and
returns at 55c per bushel. Corn was
planted in hills, about four feet apart with
three stalks per hill. A man with a hand
planter could do four acres per day, and
with horses, about 12 acres per day (I
wonder if the farmers of 1881 would
scuffle or cultivate for weed control?).
The most popular varieties were Large
Yellow, White Gourd and Flin. These
types all had eight rows of kernels. Corn
was cut by hand and bound at the top by
elm bark. The corn was later husked by
hand and stored in cribs for future
delivery to the distillers. To obtain the
bark, a notch was cut into an elm tree at
the base and then a horse was hitched to
the bark and it was peeled off. A man, a
boy, and a good horse could peel enough
bark in one day to tie the corn from forty
acres.
Mr. Le Duc had been involved with a
number of experiments to determine the
amount of sugar available from the corn
plant. He suggested that 900 to 1000
pounds of sugar was available per acre
and that Ontario should have a manu-
facturing complex capable of refining
sugar from corn to sweeten the tea and
coffee of Canadian people (100 years
later we do have a corn sweetener plant,
and do you know where the bulk of the
corn is grown that is used in that plant?).
Next month, we will share the Com-
mission's information on weeds and
manure.
Detonator Dan [a pseudonym as you
may have guessed] is a practising
farmer in the boondocks of Colborne
Township, Huron County.
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THE RURAL VOICE, MAY 1983 PG. 43