The Rural Voice, 1978-12, Page 12about eight cows. There was one sow, and Mr. Turner's father
"raised her litter . . . whatever she had, whether it was six or
13.
The Turners always kept four work horses, and two drivers,
one who could double in the fields. There was often an odd colt
around and always hens.
All summer long the cattle were pastured on the road, along
with a neighbour's sheep. When Mr. Turner, his brother and
sisters came home from school they had to fetch the cattle for
milking.
Also on pasture until fall were the Turners' flock of turkeys.
Every fall young John had to pick out his father's birds, which
mixed with two neighbouring flocks all summer. "We were
always short a bit but that didn't bother Dad."
The turkeys congregated in the willows at the back of the farm,
and roosted in the huge pine trees that stand near the house.
Although Turner hasn't raised turkeys since blackhead disease
hit early in the 1920's the tree limbs are bent to this day.
Mr. Turner left school early to help his father. . . his brother
Harold went to war in 1916 and John was expected to stay home
rather than go on to high school.
Cash was scarce on the farm 50 years ago. Naturally Mr.
Turner wasn't paid for working for his dad. He hauled gravel for
$5 a day eight or ten days in June, then spent three or four days
with a scraper and team building up road banks for the township.
Repairs and shoes for the horses came out of that money too.
"That was my spending money for the year." The odd time he
would take Greening apples to a drying mill near the present
Clinton Stockyards and get $9 for a load, 30 bags of apples.
TOUCHY
Turning a farm over to a son can be a touchy proposition and
John Turner has seen both ends of it. When he married, at
almost 28. (Mr. Turner's wife, the former Pearl Crich. died in
1963,) his parents retired to town. "Dad said 'the farm'll be
yours when I died and meanwhile we paid rent ... 5500 a year or
$300 during the depression plus milk, eggs and meat."
His father lived 27 years in Clinton. dying at age 90. That
meant that although he made the repairs, paid the taxes and
worked the farm pretty much by himself, John Turner actually
only owned the place for nine years.
He sold the farm outright to his son when he got married,
because he didn't want him to have the same experience.
HIRED MAN
John Turner started out farming pretty much the same way as
his dad, except he had a hired man, usually a neighbour boy,
every year from seeding till harvest. It wasn't hard to get help . .
. in the thirties there were few jobs available.
"I remember paying $15 a month plus room and board and I
had a heck of a job to get it", Mr. Turner says. "The next year
the Depression was breaking up a little and I could pay $40 a
month."
The Turners never had to dump or give away produce during
those tough years. "You could always sell. . . at a price," says
Mr. Turner who remembers excellent milk cows at $30 a head.
The Turner farm is much different now, with no dairy cattle
and a herd of about 20 beef. "A moderate set up," John Turner
says. George Turner has grown wheat in past years because, his
dad says, you need more help for corn but had bad luck with a
variety that winter killed.
"This is the first year in seventy that we haven't had wheat
growing on this farm", John Turner remarks. It's that kind of
perspective. . . the long view . . . that makes his th oughts on
how farming has changed interesting.
"Farming now is much harder on the nerves than it was years
ago," he says. "You went to bed and you slept. Now there's so
much tension. I can't see how a person can be having a better
life."
Farmers today have to spend so much money buying
PG. 12 THE RURAL vOICE/DECEMBER 1978
equipment that John Turner fears if we have bad times, the
government, the banks and "big interests" will end up owning
everything and supervising farmers making them in effect
"hired men."
"Yes farmers are handling more money," he says, with stress
on the word "Handling". "The changes are interesting but I'm
quite happy I've lived when I have."
After butchering
L
s5o
ATTENTION
0
s.\`)°° FARMERS "r00
We are now paying $5.00 = $15.00 for fresh
dead or disabled cows & horses over 500 lbs.
All calves & pigs picked up free of charge.
FAST EFFICIENT SERVICE
24 hrs. a day 7 days a week.
HURON DEAD STOCK
REMOVAL
CaII Collect 482-9811
Call us first
you won't have to call anyone else
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