The Rural Voice, 1990-09, Page 40You can't do more than practise every day, and Jonathan Hugill
of R. R. 2, Seaforth is doing just that as he gears up for the Huron
County Plowing Match at the farm of Lionel Wilder, south of
Varna.
Fifteen -year-old Jonathan won the Huron County Junior Cham-
pionship and the best crown and finish at last year's Huron
match. He has competed at the International Plowing Match for
the past two years and hopes to be in competition at the
International Plowing Match again this year.
story by Jim Fitzgerald
photo by W. Merle Gunby
A
FALL
IYs Plowing
s regular as the autumn gathering of the
first flock of Canada geese in the stubble
of Ontario grain fields, it's once again the
season for a tradition that's as old as our country:
the fall plowing match.
In hundreds of fields of grain stubble or run -out
hay or pasture all across the province, people ranging
from bright-eyed teenagers to seasoned senior
citizens are busy practising the age-old craft of
turning over sod with a piece of curved steel.
From the simple one -furrow, horse-drawn plow
guided by a skilled craftsman with a barely audible
cluck, to a slick, expensive four -furrow machine fine-
tuned to give its operator every possible advantage,
all are lining up for one thing, a plowing match.
Although not as prolific or quite as well-known as
fall fairs, the annual plowing matches held in dozens
of townships and counties across the province are
every bit as loved and revered by their participants.
Though the evolution of tillage from turning every
acre available to minimum tillage and zero tillage has
brought changes, the plow is still in widespread use
as an important implement on many farms.
Over the past 150 years, the plow has gained a
pride of place that harks back to the pioneer days
when a family's whole year's food supply hinged on
whether the newly cleared ground between the tree
stumps could be adequately plowed and planted by
one person laboriously steering a hand-held
implement behind a straining horse or ox.
Now, although getting the land plowed each fall
isn't the life and death situation of a few generations
ago, the ability to plow a straight, clean, and consis-
tent furrow is still an important way to measure a
farmer's skill. The competition is keen as man and
machine or man and horse are pitted against the
sometimes unco-operative earth which gives us our
sustenance.
And if you're good enough at one of the local
matches, and work your way up through the matches
like a seeded tennis player, then you could face the
ultimate test in the big league: the International
Plowing Match and Farm Machinery Show — where
the deans of sod -turning from around the world meet
in friendly, convivial, but fierce competition every
year.
The International, which has the unique idio-
syncrasy of being the largest travelling farm show —
at least in North America — this year lands in Brant
36 THE RURAL VOICE