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150 Years of History in the Hills

Article 20 of 24     

This article first appeared in the "150 Years of History in the Hills" column in the October 4, 2017 issue of the The Low Down to Hull and Back News.External Link Reprinted with permission. Search complete list of Low Down Articles.

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This is the twentieth in a continuing series of photo essays celebrating our Gatineau Valley history and heritage during Canada's sesquicentennial year. The series was created by the Gatineau Valley Historical Society (GVHS), in collaboration with The Low Down to Hull and Back News. All images are courtesy of the GVHS. Article and photo text was provided this week by Bob McClelland of McClelland Farm.

Down on the farm

When Canadians think of industries changed by industrialization, agriculture probably does not come to mind. However, it should - the post-World War II period saw huge advances in farm mechanization. Electricity became widely available, and every farm had at least one tractor. A single person could now operate a farm, where many hands had previously been required.

Down on the farm
This photo of the 1951 Lower Gatineau Valley Plowing Match originally appeared in the West Quebec Post. The accompanying caption read, 'One of the largest events in the farmer's social life was the annual plowing match'. The match was held on the farm of Homer Cross of Farm Point (now the site of the IGA), and featured both tractor and horse plowing. It is reported that several hundred meals were served over the two-day event.

 

Trace the history of any family arriving in Canada from Europe in the 1800s and chances are their first Canadian home was a farm. In fact, Canada was a predominately rural nation until the early 1930s,history171004-6 when things began to shift. By the 1931 census, of a 10.3 million total population, some 4.8 million Canadians were rural residents, compared to 5.5 million living in urban centres. Of that rural population, 3.3 million lived on farms.

The number of farms in Canada has also been steadily dropping (the 1931 statistic of 728,000 farms declined to 366,000 by 1971, and 193,000 by 2016). However, partly because of mechanization, more food than ever is being produced. Today, many dairy farmers have robotic milking machines which can be controlled with smart phones; guidance systems on tractors let them steer themselves.

Farmers still cultivate the soil and care for crops and animals, but mechanization has changed the farm forever and those early images of farming are but a memory.

 

Down on the farm
Edward Thompson and Charles Burton cutting and loading ice at the Ramsay Farm on the Gatineau River in 1951. Ice was stored in sheds under sawdust, in an era before electricity, when iceboxes were the method for keeping food cold during summer.
Down on the farm
The first tractor in the Meech Creek Valley and surrounding area arrived in the 1930s and was a steelwheeled Cockshutt 70. Primitive by today's standards, the tractor changed agriculture forever; it could work all day compared to a team of horses, which needed frequent rests.
Down on the farm
After daily chores, farm children always found ways to have fun, as illustrated by Mabel Baldwin with her sled and farm dog on the Baldwin Farm in the Meech Creek Valley, circa 1930. Mabel later married James Hammond and together they operated a dairy farm in Ironside, where there is now a traffic circle at St Joseph Blvd and rue Jean Proulx in Gatineau (Hull).
Down on the farm
Alfred Carriere with his one-man sawing machine, circa 1935. Every farm and rural home required large quantities of firewood, but cutting wood was hard work and time-consuming. Farmers who did not own a tractor or stationary engine soon figured out that if they jacked up their Model T they could attach a belt to the rear wheel to drive the sawing machine. Note the conveyor on the left to carry the wood away.