The Rural Voice, 1992-10, Page 27other trees on the farm, Andy hopes
to prune the trees so they will
eventually produce logs. Mulberry is
a seldom -used wood but is a bright
yellow with a nicely figured grain.
With 54 logs it would be possible to
sell the wood for special projects like
wood trim for an exclusive mansion
or custom paneling for an executive
office. In his dreaming, he suggests
the trees might someday be worth
$100 each.
At 85 years of age, Andy Dixon is
unlikely to ever see the maturity of
any of his projects but his enthusiasm
is still infectious. Mention the
patience needed for such projects and
he denies any special perseverance.
The good things about trees, he says,
is that you can take a little time to
plant them, then go about your
business and they keep growing and
making you money.
If you have some land, one of the
best things you can do for a 10 -year-
old child is to take him or her out and
plant trees. If you can then keep the
child working a few hours a year to
look after those trees, he will have a
guaranteed retirement fund without
much more work.
Dixon feels farming is in an age of
huge change and predicts farms will
soon break down into two categories:
huge commercial operators or what
he calls "entrepreneurs", small
operations with unique ways of
producing for niches in the
marketplace. Trees can play an
important part in the future, he says.
If, for instance, a farmer has to get
out of farming to make a living in an
off -farm job usually he has rented the
land out to his neighbour. The
neighbour then produces as much or
more than the owner once did, still
creating a surplus in production that
drives prices down. Twenty years
later, the landowner has soil that may
have been farmed out by his
neighbour pushing the land to try to
make a profit, and little money to
show for those years gone by.
What's needed, he says, is to get
land out of production so there won't
be so much over production. If the
farmer, instead of renting the land,
had planted trees, he would have land
that's in better shape and with a
healthy cash -crop of trees on the way
to maturity.
"You've been given this time," he
says. "Now, what are you going to do
with it?"0
Now available from:
HILL & HILL FARMS LTD.
• SEED CORN - Golden Harvest
H2349 - 3050 H.U.
- Funks
G4281 - 2975 H.U.
G4260 - 2950 H.U.
G4160 - 2850 H.U.
G4120 - 2725 H.U.
• SEED SOYBEANS
- Secan - Maple Glen - 2600 H.U.
- Maple Donovan - 2750 H.U.
- OAC Dorado - 2850 H.U.
- First Line - AC Bravor - 2700 H.U.
- Secord - 2800 H.U.
- Brock - 2950 H.U.
Remember: Quality Is Not
Expensive, It's Priceless!
Call Pete or Bev at 519-233-3218
Hill ANI) Hill
FARMS
LLMiI1D
VARNA ONT.
Contact:
BEV HILL
233-3218
or
PETE ROWNTREE
233-7908
OCTOBER 1992 23