The Rural Voice, 1989-09, Page 22IPM
—international
Plowing
Match
' 89
INTERNATIONAL
PLOWING MATCH
SEPT.19•231989
John Fennell, general manager of the Ontario Plowmen's Association (right), and Stan Clarke of Teltrade, the
Scarborough -based company responsible for site co-ordination at the Essex County International Plowing Match.
AGRICULTURE IN ESSEX
Essex County, the "sun parlour of Canada," is host of the
1989 International Plowing Match. Lee Weber, agricultural
representative for the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and
Food, shares the wealth of his home county:
Essex County, which produces
more than $200 million in field, fruit,
vegetable, and greenhouse crops
annually, is probably the most inten-
sive and diversified cash -crop farming
area in Canada.
The most southerly county in
Canada, it extends below the 42nd
parallel, which is the northern boun-
dary of California. The moderating
effects of the southern Great Lakes,
especially Lake Erie, make the climate
in Essex milder than in most other
parts of Canada. Essex County has
the earliest spring and the longest
growing season in Eastern Canada:
208 days in the northern section and
216 days in the south, with an average
of 165 frost -free days.
In 1986, the census counted 2,644
farms in Essex County. Nearly
350,000 acres are in farm land.
The topography of the county, with
the exception of a few gravel ridges,
is quite flat. While soil types range
from heavy clays to light sands, the
Brookston clay and clay loam along
with a few other soils of heavy texture
cover two-thirds of the county's area
— including McGregor, Oldcastle,
Essex, Woodslee, Belle River, Staples,
and Comber. In these fertile soils
most of the grain corn, soybeans,
winter wheat, and processing crops
such as canning tomatoes, sweet corn,
peas, and pickling cucumbers are
grown.
In contrast, a smaller area of light -
textured soils which includes the
Leamington, Kingsville, and Harrow
districts and extends parallel to the
shore of Lake Erie is exceptionally
fruitful for growing horticultural or
processing crops of many kinds.
On these soils, fruit and vegetable
growers in Essex County produce
more than 30 important crops, includ-
ing early tomatoes, early potatoes,
fresh sweet corn, asparagus, cabbage,
and cucumbers. Essex County grows
nearly half of the processing tomatoes
in Ontario.
Vegetable growers also produce
peppers, melons and cantaloupes,
beans, squash, and pumpkins. Many
of these crops can be purchased at
stands along the roadsides.
There is also an region of muck
soils south of Leamington on Point
Pelee which grows onions, carrots,
and other vegetables. A large area of
the marshes and dyked lowlands
around Lake St. Clair has been drained
for crop production by an extensive
ditching and pumping system, as the
land is below lake level.
Leamington is the largest and
most intensive greenhouse vegetable -
growing area in Canada. About 300
20 THE RURAL VOICE