The Rural Voice, 1985-07, Page 21Andrew Dixon: "I propositioned my father and we drove to
the property. He turned me down flat — not a cent for me. He
thought I might stick it out for the summer but I liked company
too much and drudgery too little."
scheme. Wheeler, a likeable fellow of
my age, was also a bee inspector who
owned bees. We decided that we
would buy 100 acres of land, second-
rate from the standpoint of
agriculture, which at that time could
be bought for a song. People were
desperate for money and nothing of
farm origin had any value: pigs were
four cents a pound, cattle three cents
a pound, and eggs twelve cents a
dozen. We planned to plant our land
with black locust trees. These trees
would reach post size in ten years and
the neighbouring hills were studded
with vineyards which used a large
number of posts. We could produce
1,200 posts per acre and we could get
40 cents per post, providing us at the
end of the first growth period with a
good annual income for as long as we
lived. As a sideline we would keep
bees because black locust, in addition
to producing very weather -resistant
wood, also produces excellent honey.
With an income from both posts and
honey we would have a Shangri-La
and live happily ever after.
Both Wheeler and I were serious.
We weren't just dreaming. We had
enough money between us to buy 100
acres which we had located and pric-
ed. Wheeler already had bees and I
had plenty of knowledge about
beekeeping and could quickly obtain
more bees. But I think I was the one
who scotched the idea because of a
conversation with a grape grower. He
had ten acres of grapes and his initial
investment in posts had been high.
But he did not expect to need any
more posts for 20 to 30 years. I began
to realize that while we might sell
some posts at 40 cents each, the sale
of 12,000 posts per year each year
through perpetuity might not be a
sure thing. A second sobering
thought was that the locust borer
would have a glorious time in our 100
acres. A locust tree infested with
borers does not make a post in ten
years; in fact, when badly infested, it
doesn't make anything in ten years.
Doubts crept in and a dream died.
My second dream of a somewhat
temporary nature again involved trees
and bees. On my return from New
York state, I got a job grading honey
for export. One of Ontario's big pro-
ducers at that time was Morley Petit,
who had a large operation in
Georgetown, Ontario. He also had a
holding in Georgia where he raised
package bees during the winter and
shipped them all over the continent. I
spent two days at his establishment
and we became quite interested in
each other. We spent one evening
from supper till midnight talking, and
from this conversation another
scheme developed which gave me
many hours of pleasant rumination.
In Georgia, pine trees grow very
quickly and two of the products of
pine are resin and turpentine, both of
which are used in the paint industry.
The market for both was quite good
and anything that would sell at that
time was regarded with esteem. Now
Mr. Petit was a beekeeper and I was
trained in this field. He was childless
and could use a reliable experienced
man. This man would be based in
Georgia during the winter and early
summer. Then he would return to
Ontario to help out with the Ontario
operation. Mr. Petit had a con-
siderable acreage that was in scrub
growth, but if it were planted to pine
could, in eight years, be made into a
turpentine operation. The one pro-
blem was snakes. The negroes feared
and hated snakes and set fires to burn
off the cover where the reptiles
sought shade from the sun. In this
way Mr. Petit's land was burnt over
once or twice a year, and if we were
going to grow pine we would need
fireguards and some type of under -
bush control.
Now while nothing definite had
been said in the way of a proposition
the inference was pretty obvious and I
spent the next two months resear-
ching the turpentine industry. On
paper it looked pretty good. It had a
fairly high labour input but labour
certainly was plentiful. So I would
work for Morley while the forest
established itself and then set up an
operation of turpentine and bees on
my own. In February I wrote a letter
to Mr. Petit offering him my services
and I received a prompt reply. He
would like to have me join his opera-
tion and would provide transporta-
tion, housing, and food and pay me
$60 a month as wages. Strange as it
may sound today, it was not totally
unreasonable. Unemployment was
rife. Honey was bringing eight cents a
pound and alsike for some reason was
no longer producing seed and sweet
clover no longer growing as it had
JULY 1985 19