The Rural Voice, 1979-08, Page 10The Farmer
Eastern Canada's
Ituratinagazint
Volume XXXII Number 2
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Toronto, February, 1935
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Farm magazine asked in 1935
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Do your horses take a vacation?
BY JANE ALLAN
"Do your horses take a vacation when you need them most?"
A half -page advertisement with this slogan would appear
entirely out of place in a modern farm magazine, as would an ad
for our modern equipment in a magazine of fifty years ago.
While providing information and comment, a magazine is also
a reflection of the lifestyle of the time and region in which it was
produced. An old issue of a farm magazine can give an interesting
picture of how rural life has changed. The opening quote came
from the February 1935 issue of The Farmer --devoted to the
interests of agriculture in Eastern Canada.
Not unlike today's farmers the farming people of 1935 were
feeling the effects of rapid industrialization. An advertisement
states that, "On the farm it is also the machine age. New
inventions and larger implements that cover more ground and do
more operations, all tend to speed up farming in those seasons
when every hour counts."
These technical advances opened up many new possibilities
for farmers in 1935. An example of this effect is evident in one of
the feature articles. It describes an extensive attack planned
against the warble fly, or heel fly that had infested many of
Ontario's cattle. Before 1935 there hadn't been any wide -range
attacks against the warble fly because its life cycle was not
understood. Also, no safe, effective, easily applied method of
killing the grubs had been discovered until that date. The
Farmer, as a modern magazine would, outlined past successes
with the treatment and described the campaign planned to begin
in February of 1935.
A subscription to The Farmer was fifty cents yearly, or five
cents a copy. That nickel bought a large magazine with a full
colour cover picture and, in February of 1935, 57 pages of
farm -related material.
Published during the "dirty thirties", The Farmer may have
been the only publication coming into some farm households.
Each person in the family could not subscribe to their own
PG. 8 THE RURAL VOICE/AUGUST 1979
favourite magazine. For this reason The Farmer had to include
something for everyone.
The Farmer devoted 16 of its 57 pages in this issue to a
"Women's and Home Section". Along with articles on family,
cooking. and sewing, a special message on the Women's
Institutes page is dedicated to "A young girl and her
appearance". In the article girls are reminded that everyone
loves a natural, wholesome girl, and that "it is not good taste to
have your lips too red or your nails too vivid. Such things tend to
make you conspicuous and therefore vulgar." Emphasis is also
placed on bathing, as the "Saturday night only", bath is "a
thing of the past."
A feature that has disappeared from our farm magazines
which may have been replaced by television soap operas is the
fiction serial. Along with its highly emotional series "The
Straight Road", this issue of The Farmer includes "A Short
Story of tragedy, born of love, that will stir the deepest human
feelings".
Also included is a regular comedy page called "Chaff From
the Old Mill". Although our language has changed somewhat,
humour remains the same. For example: Miss Neverstop,
seating herself between two much engrossed elderly men
exclaimed: "A rose between two thorns," "No", retorted one,
"say a tongue sandwich."
A large proportion of The Farmer is made up of letters from
the readers. The News, Views, and Opinons section includes a
letter from a woman explaining how to raise tame chickens, and
a letter that would not be uncommon in a more recent magazine
emphasizing the value of post -secondary education for the
prospective farmer.
The magazine takes part in educating the rural youths with a
"farm management class" and a "home management class".
Each has a monthly lesson and a questionnaire to be answered
and mailed to The Farmer.