The Rural Voice, 1988-04, Page 311
1
Chanda Chilton of Bayfield "spent a lot of time driving around somewhat aimlessly searching for an interesting -looking abandoned
farm." She took an afternoon to explore the one she chose: "The barn still had a 1963 calendar hanging in it with the names of
some calves that had been born in December and a large array of bottles varying in size and alcohol content ... Outside beside the
house there was a shed filled with old implements and harnesses. And two shoes that didn't match. Behind the shed there was
a horse-drawn plow (sit-down style) and the skull of a cow ... "I would really have loved to see the place in its glory with the lawn
mowed and the trim painted ..." (Drawings by Chanda Chilton)
Linda Brand and Lorinda Telford re-
searched the history of the Brand farm. The
most dramatic event was the tornado of
August 5, 1968, which swept mud and tree
branches into the house and knocked the
barn off its feet. The next day, Linda
explains, "One of my uncles went out on a
tractor with the vet to put magnets in the
cows' stomachs because of all the metal
and debris laying in the field." All of the
calves but one survived, and most of the
cattle lived because they had been on
pasture. A few, however, had to be but-
chered because of broken backs and legs.
it's really amazing just what a storm like this
can do to your life. You've got to start all over
and hope that it won't happen again.
Fortunately, it hasn't yet, but you never
know when it will." William and Antonia
Brand had a new barn built and equipped at
a cost of $40,000. They live in Goderich
Township.
MECHANIZATION: or, tLL THE EGGS IN ONE BASKET
Steven Blake, of R. R. 2, Brussels,
compared modern farming equipment
and facilities to traditional farming
methods and tools. He included, for
example, photographs of a 300 -hp
tractor with a seven -furrow plow
(versus "the very old horse and walk
behind plow method"), an automatic
cleaning system (versus "the wheel-
barrow and shovel method"), and a
computer (versus "manual book-
keeping, or even memory").
"All this mechanization sounds
great," he reported, "but stop and think
about it for a while. What if the world's
supply of petroleum runs out? We have
all this machinery which is without fuel,
which is getting more expensive every
day anyway ... These machines and
devices create enormous input costs for
the operation. This is fine, as long as the
farm still makes money, but as we have
studied in the farm crisis section of this
course, many farms are not."0 (cont'd)
APRIL 1988 29