The Rural Voice, 1986-06, Page 39special relationship with the land.
To McArthur, farming was a way
of life — his Ekfrid homestead was
a precious inheritance that allowed
he and his family to recapture a
feel both for their roots and for the
land. Not surprisingly, in view of
this philosophical side, McArthur
was nicknamed "the sage of
Ekfrid."
Peter McArthur died in 1924, at
age 58, following surgery.
However his home is preserved in
Doon Pioneer Village, outside Kit-
chener, complete with his
typewriter with both the humorous
works and biographies that he
wrote and with other family
treasures.
Peter McArthur
once wrote that
he farmed
primarily "for my
neighbours'
amusement."
In case you're wondering if a
writer could really farm, one of
McArthur's biographers noted
rather bluntly that the writer's
farm was "actually a weed -covered
mess." Weed -covered or not,
McArthur's acreage inspired both
poetry and very readable prose, in-
cluding this short piece from his
essay Why I Stick To The Farm.
"To be born on a farm is
the greatest good that can
befall a human being. To live
on a farm and enjoy all that
it has to offer is the greatest
good that can be attained by
a poet or a philosopher.
I stick to the farm because
it is the only thing I have ever
found that is entirely depen-
dable. The seed time and the
harvest come to it every year
with easygoing and unwor-
ried certainty. They never
come twice at exactly the
same time nor bring the same
bounties, but they never fail
to come."
There's something very comfor-
ting about McArthur's armchair
philosophy on farming and ap-
preciating the land, particularly in
today's uncertain times. ❑
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JUNE 1986 37