The Rural Voice, 1993-09, Page 11AvirsITE qv
` THE
latNATIONAL
PLOWING MATCH
FARM MACHINERY SHOW
& DEMONSTRATION
SEPT 21-25
Thcy say Rome wasn't built in
a day. That's clearly
understandable. It takes
years and years to build
cities, or does it? A few
weeks ago in Walkerton there was a
field, prickly with the stalks of shorn
grass, which in a matter of weeks
underwent a startling transformation.
It took many men, and many hours,
but there's no doubt that old adage
about Rome doesn't apply here.
It's called the Tented City. What
was once a hay field is now a thriving
city complete with water, electricity
and sewage — a veritable town of
avenues and streets, offices and
business, food courts and parks which
make up the 80th Annual
International Plowing Match, Farm
Machinery Show and Country Living
Exposition.
It's quite likely organizer Jim Roe
doesn't know a lot about the planning
that went into building Rome, but the
straightforward Cargill -area man
knows quite a bit about the planning
and work involved in
metamorphosing a dormant field into
a thriving city. The former farmer
had heard tales of the work involved
from his father-in-law, the chairman
of Tented City for the 1976 plowing
match held in Bruce County on the
same site. This foreknowledge
combined with the managing
experience he's garnered in his
present role as the Production
Supervisor at Canadian Agra Cubing
Ltd., an alfalfa dehydrating plant near
Tiverton, has stood him in good stead
as he co-chaired this year's Tented
Building
a city
Turning a hay field into a 100 -acre
city complete with electicity and
water is a huge task for IPM
organization
By Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot
City Committee with Les Young,
Roe's neighbour and himself a beef
farmer. The pair has worked in
partnership before on each other's
farms and when Roe was looking for
a co-chair, he naturally turned to a
man he's worked comfortably
alongside for years. Young also lent
his own experience to the committee.
He was on the health and sanitation
committee for the 1976 plowing
match held in Bruce County. All
they needed to complete the job was
some good old fashioned community
volunteerism — something they've
found in abundance.
As much as they were prepared for
the work, they weren't primed for the
community spirit that saw over 150
people turn out for the first phase of
constructing the Tented City — the
dismantling of the previous year's
urban settlement. Every year,
explains Roe, the host county is
responsible for tearing down the city
and carting the material back to their
county. The supplies are owned by
the Ontario Plowmen's Association,
the organization which established
the Plowing Match in 1913.
It's a phenomenal job, and one
that Roe had predicted would take at
least three days. But he was elated
when, like a Roman army, the
volunteers surged through the site
and carted away the spoils within two
days. "We started at 6 a.m. Saturday
morning and were finished around 3
p.m. the following Sunday," said
Roe, whose pride in the spirit of the
workers is evident as he lists the
immense amount of material that was
Dave Hart of Fuller Utility Services
installs hydro poles on the site.
SEPTEMBER 1993 7