109_Mort-Stratton_Farming.mp3

otter.ai

20.01.2023

no

Unknown Speaker 0:00
And

Unknown Speaker 0:05
I'm happy to talk to you about farming. I have a feeling that I'm on the wrong side of the table, you know that I really shouldn't be down there listen to some of you telling me about farming on Saltspring. But in order to be safe, I'm only going to talk about periods before 1914. Well before the memories of probably everybody in this room, because that's the period I had been working on, people came to Saltspring in 1859. And as I looked at the whole span of agricultural history on Saltspring, it seems to me that you can divide it into four periods, I've really only worked on the first two. But I think we've been divided into four periods, from 1859, to about 1885. It's a period really right, just a struggle to survive. Or people come in here and try to carve out a farm out of, you know, the virgin forest. And it's pretty tough building the year 18. Five is it is just an arbitrary symbolic date. But at some point, other people were beginning to get established and make them go up. From 1885, down to 1914. I think you definitely had an interesting period, because a lot more people come on the island a lot more farms. By 1914, all of farmable land on Saltspring has really been taken up. And in that period, you begin to get some farms that they are moving beyond just the sort of subsistence operation to the point where they're producing fairly large quantities of crops for sale. So that is a kind of a capitalist agriculture that's developing. And I want to comment on these things. The war came along World War One course, came along and really disrupted things, a young men were called off. And there were all kinds of ways in which the islands suffered and agriculture, I would think from that dislocation, down through to the dislocation of World War Two, you've got to kind of period, you've got the dislocation, the first floor, and then the second floor. And in between, you have the time of a fairly rapid change on the island, mechanization, modernization of agriculture to change the lifestyle of people. So that that's a time I call a time of stress and strain and change, and 1914 to into the 1940s. And then I think, from 1940, someplace, and again, these are just kind of an arbitrary, cut off. But so at some point, or other farming cease to really be a profitable enterprise. And not only that the people who weren't farmers coveted the land and the island. And so the island really moved from being a farming community to being a residential. Farming really just became a hobby or a sideline, or something of that sort. This is the way this is the way at the moment. Anyway, I see the general development of farming on the island. Now I want to say just a little bit very little about that first period of making 59, Deacon 85. And mostly talk about the period of growth and specialization and so on. After that date. The people that came I have notes here. And you know, my problem is, I really held it up here to talk about it. But I kind of don't like to do that. So then I write it out. So what do you do with that? I mean, probably say sis dilemma to some of you. But in this first period, you do have people coming in for the two very different kinds of groups of people that come in, in 18 5960. In his very early years, you get a group who are really just cast off from the gold fields. These are people that came to the West Coast, not the farm, or but the strikers Richard Goldfields. But when the failure river go, boom, sizzled these people, some of them couldn't afford to go home. And so what did they do with themselves and a few of them came to Saltspring, somewhat the other island somewhat other places, but they took up farming simply in order to stay alive. So that you get quite a ragtag band of people that came over here in the 60s. And I don't think they probably anybody in this room, have a family that descended from people who came in at first wave of sort of cast off from Goshen. There was a very different group that came right at that first time, and that's a few Negro families. There had been a group who truly know who came up in California in 1858, Vancouver Island because they were trying to escape the racism and the discrimination that they were facing down there. And so they were invited up by Governor Douglas and up they came in a few of those Negro families came over to Salisbury Nyan. the Stark family did come in first year but actually came in at 60. And they're still descendants of that family on the island. I don't think there are any others. These Negro families came and stayed for 1015 years, but they almost all as a fairly soon by the 1870s, if you begin to get people coming onto the island, who were not cast offs from any place, but they simply were people coming from the old country who may not have heard about Saltspring. But they may have heard, would have heard about British Columbia, and many men came to Victoria. And then they heard about Saltspring and came on over Saltspring so that you're getting people and some came to the States and didn't like it. For one reason or another. This would be true of Santo baetis and raffles pretty. And they read I think Nebraska for a few years and came up to Griffis who ran a nursery by Fernwood converted Mormonism back in England in Salt Lake City. And they didn't like the atmosphere down there. And so they escaped and came up here. But you are getting people coming in directly from your country or via the US and settling on Saltspring. This was a really tough thing. I mean, can you really imagine coming on to an island, totally covered with trees. And according to the testimony, the trees and the Burgoyne Valley and up here in the North, and many of them are seven feet in diameter. And what would you do if you want to start a farm and forest with trees, seven feet in diameter, I mean, I really staggered by the curves and the people and the work involved. And the thing that I found that was new to me anyway, totally is. Of course, they didn't have chainsaws, but some of them didn't even have saws. And some of them weren't even big enough to span these trees. So that a common technique and I ran a run onto several cases of this. So obviously, this is the way they did it. They took an auger and they board holes, maybe two or three holes into the trunk of a tree. And then they put holes in there and set fire to it until they weaken the tree and the tree fell down. But I'm still staggered with the thought of what to do with a seven foot three once it's on the ground. And you haven't got any bulldozer anything. But the pattern that came to be the common pattern. This was true right into the 20s For sure, was that you would in the wintertime, if you had your eye on a certain piece of ground that you wanted to turn into a farm, you slashed his slack in the wintertime you cut everything that's good to just let it sit there in the wintertime, then it sat out in this nice hot sun all summer long and dried out. And then in the fall, you might extract from that a little bit of wood if you were going to build a barn or house or fences or something like that. But basically you waited until fall to dried out set fire to burn and whole thing. Burn the whole thing. So they were left with hopefully it did clean job of a field with a lot of stumps scattered around. But you could then begin to farm seed down or wait and plant potatoes, potatoes or peas were usually the first crop that they planted. The stumps would take decades to get the stumps out of the fields, a dick time they have collected some lovely pictures of early days on Saltspring. And you'll see that they're firing around stumps. They didn't even have option some of the first one. But in fact they did. And they plowed and they plowed around. And the beauty of oxen is that if they hit a stump, they stopped. You know, they didn't panic. Like horses, they didn't try to break loose. But they got going. And again another thing that surprised me a little but I can see grieving for it. Almost from the very beginning that farmers began to sell produce or fire.

Unknown Speaker 9:21
They weren't just raised for their own needs. And you can see why that has to be to be hammered. And I can make remarks about this. That they had to make the land pay after fashion almost immediately, because you had to buy shoes to the baby and you know, people didn't really make their own shoes. You're gonna buy flour and sugar, just buy a certain amount of hardware, things like that and like a hammer fault, and so on. So that from the very beginning, they had to pass the test and really the only way that you met Pat was to talk to few A's, maybe turn some butter, a recent group or things like this and sell it in the market. Getting the market wasn't an easy thing. By throwing in a rowboat or get the Indians to take a canoe, or something of that sort, and go over to you up in Nanaimo or down to Victoria or someplace along Vancouver Island, so that they were engaged in a certain amount of exporting of the excess, from almost the very beginning. Now, I'm going to talk too much about this period if I'm not careful, but it is an interesting period. And it must have been an awful lot of work. A lot of problems. I mean, consider a person like Henry Rocco, who came I think, in 1872. Down there at Beaver point, who did he have for Navy? He didn't have anybody for navy. Emily Bettis when they came down their foreign footbed its road there at 1884. I think she said she'd really just never saw anybody that's certainly not a woman, a white woman. In the first year that she was on the island, it was a lonely life. A lot of these men were bachelors, where did they find wives go the faithful and found his wife. You know, come over on the bride ship. theater or tray ghee, and Michael Jai, married Indian girls. I think Escalon Bittencourt, who had the you know, were down there at the zoo was, I think because America local girl from Victoria. Born in the United States, I think some went back home to say England or Scotland to get their brides. But it was a lonely life. It could be a dangerous life. For the for the blacks, especially the negroes, I'm gonna hung up on this because I grew up seeing the growth and the effects of transformation. But nowadays, you know, you're supposed to say blacks. But the Indians didn't respect the blacks, the way they respected the whites. And they harass them directly to have these black people murdered over on the start of creators and their North students in 1868. So they felt more threatened physically, the whites who had the gunboats in the government behind them, so I think maybe the end of it a little more respectful of the waste. But in any case, there was some physical danger. And they certainly were economic problems in the early days, like getting the produce market, or things like that. There were no roads on the island. First, you couldn't really get from one place to another. So that was an isolated lonely and difficult life. But nevertheless, this is what they had to deal with. And, and there were the usual kinds of things that you have to deal with on Saltspring. Like the deer for example. Now, this is just a year or two beyond our period. But when Samuel Bendis started up his orchard in the 1880s, he said he lost 500 young fruit trees to deer. This is a real loss. Blue Jays reportedly have good days, done the pages out of the grab that your plan is on the first for an awful news. And you hear about that all through the 19th century that the peasants were an awful nuisance, so that there were all kinds of things and not to mention, you know, raccoons stealing the chickens and things like that. And of course, there were bears the start said the bears came up and stole the pigs right from their front door. There were wolves on the island. So that there are a lot of there were a lot of predators. But the bigger predators like wolves and the cougars and things like that, were such a menace that the farmers really just organized policies, and certainly within a matter of, I guess, 15 to 20 years. Not too long before they were pretty rare on the island. Now to get along with this by 1885, some of the families were beginning to make that ever getting established and doing all right. Most actually, the early ones probably had moved on, but a few were making it and beginning about 1885, you do get a great expansion of the population. Now this growth of population on Saltspring, and foreign population, most of it not all, there were some and then there were others. But this expansion was a part and parcel really population explosion in the province of British Columbia, in the 1880s 1890s on down this is a time of very rapid growth. And some of it spilled over onto our islands here. So it's a time of rapid population growth. We're just on the heels of that by 1885. After 1885 There are a lot of people do come and some of them are better healed, you begin to get what you call gentleman immigrants, or by the 90s as they call them, remittance man was kind of a dirty word. You begin to get some better healed Irish and English families by the 80s and 90s. So that the social complexion of the island was changing a little bit when you get later on into the 19th century. I haven't got time here. I have done it in my essay, but I haven't got time here really talks about the growth of population. This this part was resolved. deliberate propaganda at all levels, that is to say the federal government had a program to stimulate immigration into Canada, including into the west of Canada. And some of them ended up in BC and someone Saltspring the provincial government did, there were posters, and placing young couples in England to come over, you know, I'm trying to look at the United States, we're doing the same thing trying to track them down there. So that was a lot of propaganda. And here on the island, they were also carrying on their own little propaganda campaign, in order to try to get people here. Reverend Wilson came here in 18 9040, you know, hard to get settled down. Then he started to write, in fact, this fall after he got here, started to write a little booklet, little pamphlet called Saltspring. Island, 1895. Many of you read, it's full of all kinds of interesting information. But the point of the thing was to try to attract settlers to the island to try to paint an attractive picture what it was like here for agriculture, and to get people to come to the island. Just very shortly after that, 92 Mr. Phillips, who is a local person, back there, watercolor artist and so on. But anyway, he also wrote a pass upon salts bringing the same perfect find a tease people into coming from England, especially over to Salt Springs, so that this population growth isn't just accidental, it's, it's something that people were trying to achieve. You get in this period, I think it's the most important, it's certainly the most, right. The period after 1885 is the sort of capitalist agriculture, that is a gross production of certain crops in a fairly large quantity. Although I think that's the most striking feature, you know, the big archers, you know, and other things, I think the most characteristic feature of salt culture, right down the night before, it was probably still the small family subsistence farm, the kind of farm where you had a few cows, you had a few trees, you know, you had a few chickens, you had a few pigs. And that kind of thing, you raised a little bit of this, and you didn't sell very much, but you might sell off a few extra pigs, you might sell off a few eggs every week, maybe a few boxes of apples with two or 300 in the fall, and you got a little bit extra money, just enough extra money to pay for the kinds of things you had to bite out of the store. I think that kind of subsistence farmer they don't really read about much, was probably the important thing. When Wilson wrote his Bachelor's in 1895. He mentioned about 20. Better to do more successful Iowa farmer. But he didn't say anything about the other 80 or 90. You know, I mean, I think most of the people that wanted me to talk about they were the ones that were just making it. And actually, I think a good example of the sort of small family farm that maybe turned a bit of a process but not much. But nevertheless, support is a decent lifestyle was actually Reverend Wilson's farm. Tony far probably knows more about the Reverend Wilson farm than I do. But he farmed, he bought 100 acres down here across the road. You know where the golf course is. I paid $600 for this at 90 tour. I didn't have any buildings on it worth mentioning, you know, shack. Basically, Bush, it had belonged to one of the Negro families who lived there but hadn't developed it. So he really started from scratch in 1894. And he graduated with the help of his boys, clear the fields, built a couple of hay barns and the cattle barn, sheep sheds, chicken houses, things like that planted an orchard. And the Reverend Wilson had a relatively nice farm there. And of course for about 10 years. He hoped he could turn a little profit because he was only making about five or $600 from the church. So he thinks to be making the lecture off the farm. That wouldn't be a good idea. But it was several years before he began to turn that profit. Now we have that they can find it here somewhere. We have

Unknown Speaker 19:09
Norman Wilson's farm accounts. For the first year that he has a farm Norman Wilson turned farm over to his son Norman in 99. And retired down to California for a while. We have enormous farm accounts for the first year. And in his first year 99 and 10. You're interested to talk to them for three days. It was $204. He made $742 on a dairy he had about I think that that time that he made $380 $9 on his fruit on Georgia. He made $130 on pigs. So he made some money over what awesome but he spent $45 on his team proposes $223 For Hey and see $274 For hired. So the deal ended up with about $925. Profit. And that of course, you had to support himself and his wife and develop farm a little more. So that I think this is the kind of operation that's probably fairly characteristic Saltspring, where you just maybe make a little bit, but not very much. But the thing that that's, that strikes you the most as is the development of some, as I say, sort of production for market. And I'd like to just pick off a few of these things that were grown in rather large quantities, the sale back in the 19th, early 20th century, and one was root crops. I think root crops were the first big patch crops. root crop time talking about beets, and sugar beets and turnips, and potatoes and carrots, this kind of thing I'm talking about root crops did well here, they found that out from the very beginning. They keep well, they grow a lot on a rather small piece of ground. And anyway, they planted a lot of root crops. And for me, farmers, I think, the sale of turnips and sugar beets and carrots and potatoes and things like that is what supported them in the time while many of them were developing their orchards because you know, it takes you know, whatever it is five years or so, between the time you plant an origin, the time and begin to get much from it. So there's a time and they're really seeking for income. They certainly sold a lot of these in 1891. For example, we have a report from the south end of the island that they raised 60 tons of sugar beets, 60 tons of carrots, add tons of turnips, three and a half tonnes of potatoes. Now the potatoes obviously we're just getting going because later on they became much more important. And in the next year of trade, you're making this report and currently together. He was reporting on the sort of central part of the island here. They reported 250 tons of root crops at night. Anyway, and a lot of these are potatoes. Mr. Connery who was a fellow from Vermont, who bought up the land down around Rockford late and early 90s. Mr. Connery in 1899, I think was a tip off 19 tons of potatoes, two or three quarter acres. And we know the records because we have a bill of sale or whatever. The record was sold 20 tons of potatoes in 1913 to a wholesale grocer over in Victoria. So that sort of thing was pretty big business. tree fruits, as opposed to raspberries or strawberries or something, you know, in other words, apples and plums and cherries and things like that. Tree proof became a very important part of Saltspring. Until three as you probably know, most of the big orchards on the island were planted in the 80s and 90s. Fact by the early 90s. The Orchard really coming into full production was a very large export fruit by the early 1890s. We have reports on the same effect I have over here, I'll put out in the table. One of the early reports the Department of Agriculture, and that's where I get a lot of these statistics. But there were a lot of big Archer the biggest one was probably Theodore trade. Down Richmond Road in the south end, about 1600 trees. Scott W Scott Fruitvale down again, the Harvard other side of the harvest side of the harbor had about 1200 trees. I think that Margaret Cunningham has father had about maybe 900 or 1000, something like that. Raffles pretty better through he had a big orchard. And there were a lot of other pretty good sized orchard Billy's Lee brother deadly and they had, he had an orchard down there. I think probably the last good sized orchard on the island was that Mr. Monk who was a school teacher from Saturday came over about 96 established between packets Berger and Tracy on the south coast. So that was pretty good sized orchards and a lot of more smaller orchards. And what are we talking about here Turkey was shipping up to 2400 boxes wrapped over the year 40 pounds offices in 19 to one of the problem to solve financial benefits may have been a sustained view of what this treasure is doing. He just happened to read that one year until 2004 and I had this finger on the on the Scott brothers put up 20 tons of truth but 2010 prove 20 tons of proof through their evaporated in 92. They didn't always keep evaporating. Sometimes they sold them you know this is wrong. By 1913 there is what's called a conservative estimate that from Saltspring there is so good markets 20,000 boxes of apples and also a lot of pears and cherries and things like that. 20,000 boxes of apples worth about two cents a pound incidentally. And that cattle, there was really only one beef cattle operational now I don't and that was Maxwell's done bird going there. Mr. Maxwell John Maxwell came here in 1860. He imported the Texas Longhorns. He sold beef cattle and they continue to sell beef cattle there is some James Maxwell died in 97. His son James continued to sell cattle right down to World War One. That's gonna be a dairy cattle. Well, I guess the first family knock cow came in, but we'll start the food and he had a pre action just to north of the series. There are ways for about nine years. Then he moved over to Fruitvale on the side of a harbor down here. And then he went over to the night when he got murdered. But anyway, he's probably the first theory. And everybody you know, had a tower too. I mean, you've got to have it for the family. And so they all had a tower too. And by the 1890s, farmers wise, were beginning to turn some of their surplus cream and we're beginning to sell butter off island by the 90s. We know to creameries on the island in the 1890s. One belong to Melton Purvis, who had the store here at Central and then later on downtown Malcolm and purpose and the other one was the so called Salt Spring Island, English freeway on boats property down here. And that ran for about three years from 1896 59 year. John Collins who lived up the way here and dairy farmer later, he operated that for about three years. There is an interesting remark here from Reverend Wilson who sent cream to the column operation for about a few months. He said he did not answer very well. And people complained that his keeping a pig yard close to it. Anyway, it didn't last very long. It broke down and I don't think it ever opened up again. The creamery that really put Saltspring butter on the map was the Saltspring Island Creamery Association, which was established in 19, three by a group of prom farmers, including Mr. Bullock, and Scott and various others, and that they started that operation in 94, and just the beginning of 94 in the winter there, and that within the phone building, that's, you know, part of the bakery downtown MV bakery, and they got their water supplies and our farm property, dug well up on our property mountain there, and they get the cold water for the premium a year round from that. But this Saltspring on Creamery company was a co op. And it ran until 1957. And it really was the mainstay of the dairy industry on the island for a very long while. And they did pretty well I have some figures here if you're interested in figures, you can find them.

Unknown Speaker 28:39
Butter sold 19 for 8000, a little over $8,000 worth of bundles, sold 19 for producing up to 1400 pounds of butter a week in the first year to pretty substantial operation they were engaged in there were not many big dairies on the island even when the creamery got established. Mr. Connery who had that Blackburn property, actually, before the printer was established, he had as many as 30 calves. So anyone milking cows? Well, I hope he had helped. No, but anyway, the average turd I think was probably five to 10. It's pretty small peanuts. Really, in terms of numbers. There weren't many big herds back in the day, one of the nicest ones, probably was the jersey herd grown to AJ Smith, who had a farm down here, where the Bohannan is now you know, it was the old Norton farm. He bought it from John Norton, the Portuguese pioneer in 19 Three, and he important Jersey cows from already appeared yet I love New Jersey, and supplied milk to the north end by the long run for several years, 23 years, but there were some nice herds and it must have been, I think, myself, you know, a beautiful sight to see all the dirty herds scattered around Saltspring Island has a jersey with beautiful animal I'm just worried about poultry, what the time is doing. Anyway, worried about poultry. You have a lot of flocks of chickens by the turn of the century 200 300 You know, kind of small kind of thing that you can do in your spare time. And you'll begin to get some what you call poultry fanciers on the island by the turn of the century. I think the first one least anyway, that I found reference to was a man by the name of Alan and I don't really know anything about it. Ted Brown might remember the name, but there was an H O L, and apparently was a poultry fencer in Victoria, we bought property and the cranberry in 19. Two, and was going to set up a poultry operation, but I don't find any other reference to it was in the poultry Association. But as far as I was the first one. Perhaps the best known poultry breeder on the island before the war, was Mr. Edwards who ran the store down Berglund Valley about halfway down the valley, a behemoth for something that they raised some exotic breeds, but most of them went to the practical version Orpingtons if you know Coltrane, a buff Orpingtons, the popular one that came into saver in the early 20th century white lineups. So they tended to go for the race, a lot of Leghorns. And what they called Fanny style, like the blue and the losers, and monarchy is black and white monarchy. So that there were quite a few different kinds of chickens that were raised. But the light on probably was primarily one phrase, and rude I haven't read. But it were not supposed to farmers on the island actually formed in 1913, a poultry Association. And they showed that the fall fair was going in. And they actually held their own exhibition in December in 1913. And they did farm in the war each year. It held their own exhibition. And there were over 200 entries and posted in that first exhibition in 13. So it was pretty lively branch of agriculture, I think, before the war, then I have to mention sheep. I have to mention tape. Every farmer has a few sheep. And they tend to work around sort of far and grand on up into the mountains where they could find something to forage on. But there weren't any big sheep pond or sheep branches. Except just one. Mr. Boy Well, I suppose you could probably tell us here in a moment said a little bit but between them because it's a broad level allegedly turned back some of the most secret straight on the property. stormed out of the mess permanently. For good. When that window went into the Methodist Church, which was crisis a shepherd with dedication don't run. Anyway Broadwell did thankee booth booth canal booth has a he has a fair sized keep operations but the only big sheep operation on the island was really on that farm now who is really on the back side. And not who's F raking it. They told us mustard is not as ever sheep running there. By the mid 70s. The pin berry brothers who had come over from England had 350 sheep there in 1874. We know that there's only just now getting dressed something but a land surveyor exam that you can set before I came across in counseling and landed with the fingers plays there will be so much land now. And he said there were 360 Cheap long fingers. The pin berry brothers pulled out that will go with Duncan and they sold out to Mrs. Much greater in 1885 Musgrave Edward Musgrave was the fourth son of an Irish nobleman. Obviously they had lots of money. He went out to New Zealand ranks the middle and then he bought a big spread down in Argentina. But he moved back to Ireland to raise his boys and then came to Salt Spring 1885 And he brought up the timber operation down here and he ran Mason 8589 to quite a big shift. He had about 100 sheep down there. We know about this because he had a Scottish shepherd named Alexander Eskenazi it and this young fellow just fresh out of Scotland. Was it separate from 1891 to 92 effective diary every day We absolutely price those records, day by day of everything that went on that must be the safe down there for a whole year. So you can follow the cycle through, you know, the hay and oats and the beats and the pigs and the cows and the sheep and the whole business, because there was a farm there, as well as this major operation. In the spring and the time here in the spring around the sheath of the shear, what they do is get maybe 10 or a dozen Indians from the couch and area sent across for a few days and go down maybe get one of the Hawaiian one of the connectors or two from the bring them up. And then akin the shepherds, they would go out on the mountain and there'd be so many yards and how far apart are they reported my car, and they would sweep a part of the mountain like that. And then the next day, they sweep another part of the mountain and try to get the sheep in there. And in the spring sheared sheep. In that spring of 1891. They sold whatever it was 4000 pounds of wool that they sacked up and sold. kicked it out on the Izabel, which was a steamer that stopped by them. I never really gave him the high side. They sold a few sets sheet. It didn't seem to sell. And Elena says we'll take them cheap, I'm sure so what they were really into, was selling the wool Musgrave sold out in 1892 and moved over to Duncan and many ultimately moved down to Victoria project, we have a lot of real estate down there. And the trenches bought the property from Trent. Two sons and I don't know the details on this. But I think probably the transports continued to cheap operation down there into the 20s. I don't know how long that continues. But that's the one big chief operating on assaults and really down there on the far side and on from from Isabella point to Cape capital, the Burgoyne made of the Maxwell property and then up to the top of the mountain what they call the trigger. That was not kind of up there behind the towers. So it was a pretty big operation. Let me mention a few operations that didn't succeed. Didn't one was maintaining the orthotist. Of course, we're used to having bees to pollinate fruit. But it didn't work that very fun Friday, but all the reports indicate that just simply wasn't enough to be passed on Saltspring this point, and I think even better, you're going to do well. Somebody like that joining me may keep bees but he seems to be getting money off the nursery business. There wasn't no established 1860 That's only a year after people came down from Vega firmly established. Land, of course, that sort of thing. And it probably went to 1520 years in other words into the 70s. And then we lose track of it. There wasn't man the name Andrew Barrows er. And he had a really fine review across here where there's no hiding office drops, they're fine. They're free from the early 90s until 91. And then he sold out and went over to she made some place. That was a really nice nursery. But he gave it up. I think maybe he gave it up possibly partly. But he also was in the strawberry business for strawberry businesses work. But we do have a record that he shipped over one ton of strawberries. One year, one set of strawberries.

Unknown Speaker 38:37
Just that same period. And we're talking about small fruits now is that same period, Joel Rodwell who lives just right across here in Taos shipped to two tons of black Kearns two years running curls. But small fruits never did they the problem with small fruit was that you really need to get them to market regularly in good conditions. And they just didn't they didn't have the ferry service and the transportation service to be able to market small foods. So these didn't it didn't work. And I might mention that the market garden ever seems to develop on Saltspring I think on Main names is quite an important thing. But Bullock had a couple of acres of asparagus according to be him but there never was any other reference it in the market garden on the island that's all

Unknown Speaker 39:41
well and good for any Matthew seven five minutes how long have I been? Here another 15 minutes let me know about You want to send me to go to sleep?

Unknown Speaker 40:03
snore. I did want to say something about farmers organizations. And then I wanted to say something about the problems in general. But I, I'll try to make this on the farmers organization. But I was a little intrigued by this actually a short time, because we're thinking about how these organizations came into being. But there were three different farmers organizations that came into being in the years making 95 to 98 2000, masculinities, and 95, and 631. Three of the first of these was the central hall associated, there was a meeting and December the 14th, was 1895 held up here. And I don't know exactly where it was held at some of the local local farmers of Broadwell, and Bullock and Barrow at the nursery, and Turkey. They got together, and they a brother had a scheme for creating joint stock company that would build a whole system, we build a hall, and they would hold an Agricultural Exposition here. And then they would do for various other things. So this was the idea of this Central Hall Association. While they went ahead and built the hall Hall was completed by about September of 1895. About September of 1896, but they got out of the exposition business, because that part is putting on a false failure, because we would say or show was taken over by another organization that came into being exactly the same time, because three days after the meeting occurred, where they decided before. They had another meeting up here. Now this was held, actually and murdered feminine house a lot before she lived there. This was a Stevens Churchill farm. And they met there on the 17th of December in 1895. And it was a group of 14 fortunate. And they listened to a lecture by the provincial inspectors of plant diseases. He gave them a lecture. And then when they were done, they sat down, I had a long discussion. And they decided to create a local branch of the provincial fruit Growers Association. So they appointed a committee and so on. Well, the next spring, by spring, they decided to do two things one, at first, it was just one of the top growers. But they decided to run it out and invite everybody to come on. Board as being I thought, oh, bring it up, read it up. I also decided that they were going to be interested in more than just fruit growing, and we're going to be interested in all kinds of agriculture, everything and they would put on a fall fair, they would fall on that position, the fall. So as this group, it was called the horticulture Association Saltspring Island, horticulture and fruit Growers Association. So it was this group that started out as a group started Association has broaden that, and actually put on the first of all fair, October 14, at 96. So that you have now the next in at 97. At their first annual meeting, they change their name, this is what would make this confusing going back down, put this together, they change the name to the islands, fruit growers, or agricultural and fruit Growers Association. To change the name. They really needed they realized that they needed some kind of homegrown and then also, since they broaden it out when we get people from all the islands, and since they wanted to get visitors in from Victoria and elsewhere, they decided to better to have their, you know, their exhibition halls done again. So in 19 119 to two years, they built man Hall wasn't called back until 94. But they both need help. And they bought four acres of ground and they put up poultry sheds and things like that. And once they got their plant established, so to speak, this organization would normally call it I already took the pictures associated, continue to stay in default areas, I wasn't really major activity. Now there was a third organization that was established in 1898. And that's on the farm visiting partners. This was a provincial program, actually, the provincial government at 97 borrowed a program that was working well in Ontario, and they got it organized here and at 98 there was Saltspring branch so the fruit of the farmers Institute and the farmer It was an educational organization. They distribute literature, they had a lending library. They had lectures come in free gratis from the government talks about agricultural topics. And they put on demonstrations and they put on theater competitions like planning matches and things. They sold this was a government program began in 19. One, they sold blasting powder at cost to the farmer's field. And it did other things. Very useful, very useful kind of thing. But the word came along and what's harder is organization. And in 1918, they decide to join that is to say the poultry association that I mentioned, the token fruit Growers Association, and the farmer history, they all merged in 19. A isn't a part of the present payment. But the farmers were active. I don't, I don't want to take you backwards in history, but actually Saltspring belong to what was called the keratin Saltspring and humaneness agricultural society for 30 years before any of these. And they had their fall fair, I feel repeat, obey. But the Saltspring got out. Now, and I'm going to make this brief, the farmer did have problems and that we simply just tick off the problems. These are basic problems. One of the problems in New York is that we have a wet damp climate and the apple trees, it's sad or diseases and insects Thrive this moist climate. So the orchard has always had a problem. They experimented a lot to try to find varieties that would die found it funny in Brian's room back in the 90s. And I'm sure there's a lot more than that. But the weather did create some problems for the farmers. A more basic problem is that this kind of thing was transportation is simply never was adequate, regular, frequent enough transportation for the farm. It got better when the store is not in person and most got their own boats and began to tire crazy. So they weren't dependent on the CPI. The transportation was always a problem, getting things in and getting things off. They didn't solve the problem market. And one of the problems is in the early days. You know, I had some extra so I think Nanaimo, I think the Victorian a little bit coming on now. You don't have any bargaining power. It was realized by 1914 that what they really needed was an island cooperative Marketing Association. But they never did get to that they ever did get to that. So marketing was another basic problem it didn't solve. And then there was competition by 1914. The Okanagan came on strong really the first decade of the century. So the Okanagan was beginning to compete, and Washington State was beginning to compete. So there was a lot more competition for Ireland fruit. And although the commentators don't have that same loyalty to salt for improved BC, fruit proof was better than anything else. Nevertheless, it apparently wasn't as well packed and they couldn't produce it as pieces that didn't wash because labor costs more. And that's the other problem I want to mention. And that's the high cost of casual labor. In the 19th century, they rarely get Indian factories or just migrant white semi solids or something. And they can do pretty well. By the 20th century, slavery was getting too expensive. By the 20th century, they were pretty much relying on organic, Japanese and Chinese for their harvest hands under casual labor. And you were beginning to get a result. That's something that other people have because they're beginning to be more numerous on the island. By 19, five I noted the emergence of racial sentiment, in that era, Chinese on the island here is constituted by the SPCA, and find cities all happened. In 1914 1000, leads are reported every 12 Chinaman. Now I can do another laundry to start. And they say these are desirable acquisition. I think people were a little bit appreciate all the Oriental super coming on the island. Things were certainly changing by 1914. And I just conclude by saying that already Saltspring was getting a reputation as a place to retire.

Unknown Speaker 49:50
Place to summer homes in the year two before 1914 The Lord property is It used to be the token pocket and Charles token play there was subdivided a Rainbow Road, hair fruit in the sense that Philips labor cut through there. And they made last man to sell it off. I think the crossing property federal property was divided up at that point in a bid in Florida when the Soviets began to subdivide his property at that point. So you've been in development pressures and farms that were given way to a residential settlement. 14 Things have changed. And the other thing I wanted to mention, by way of conclusion, is that automobiles This was another time, never going to be priced the same. And I got to conclude by reading just this one thing from John. If I can find that somewhere in another world, throw off the murder following California 911. We can't run on the roof now motorcars royal Blackburn, we're just smashed normally bugging motivation cream to drive up and down. Just looking into this. They wanted to meet some more people. In Sears, Captain Sears was one of the very few survivors of the Iroquois disaster. People say Fast and Furious and blackberry wants to be put to jail, but whether it's public or private. So thanks for checking out the automobile. And there are other signs of change. At this time. People are finding it hard to make a visit. Prices were low problems.

Unknown Speaker 51:44
Before the war. People were getting eaten. People are living in apartments and an easy way to sell a lot.

Unknown Speaker 52:07
More questions, games environment. Apples, having spent a lot of years in the Okanagan. Later 40s which is far later, we used to ship 800 boxes of apples. How did that man move

Unknown Speaker 52:25
on there any record of well, they moved by the CPR themers. And because the CPR was certainly a couple of times a week, I think it was 1970. And maybe more than that. In the 20th century. People had their own style. This is a picture of the wars of the Socratic Fruitvale where the scouts died. So some people had down the mountain the fervency men had their own private boats. The mountain the first boat was the 60 foot boat. So they were selling it off. Rocco was selling it I'm sure from his work down there because they put it to 95 or maybe 89 selling them as it was a work of Burgoyne there around the bay award

Unknown Speaker 53:29
my brother so there was a lot of fun they were fun to call and wrong in 1912 the trading company can listen to both but I think they have engaged in the wholesale business but I don't know about that. So that combination of public transport and I think just using your own but that for a lot of boxes doesn't

Unknown Speaker 54:06
make any sense joining us

Unknown Speaker 54:22
from London through yaki might not be a place to write back and you see the monster stacks of apple boxes over there. It's really quite incredible. You think all the butter that was sold and I'm very thing chickens, a lot of live chickens were sold in one year $7,000 worth of live tickets sold off again. I took that anyway it's really impressive. The amount of stuff that went off this island back before

Unknown Speaker 54:51
World War One. Please. Yeah, I was just wondering, opening up the CPR as much as possible.

Unknown Speaker 55:04
Yes, I think oh the rally. Yes, I think so. Because then the Navy people that come in here Yes 8085 is another reason why 1885 is a pretty good day because it is just an arbitrary date, but it does represent that. It's also the date to 10 Six. There's not a lot of changes. But yes, that was important. The TPR was important too because they put the record out on business was putting us out good because they ran it further down. They were near burning Okanagan land and then they put a big team in Aberdeen that ran down on a regular schedule. And when they did this in the 1890s someplace that opened up the Okanagan and changed my ranting area was the degree that irrigation so the coming of the railroad is always very important

Unknown Speaker 56:09
Thank you very much for being very patient yeah

Unknown Speaker 56:17
and

Unknown Speaker 56:23
I was curious to know pretty well, that they were seasonal

Unknown Speaker 56:34
seasonally to plan the pumps and things like that, but they did turn on the island. And they have a

Unknown Speaker 56:47
number of questions. Boyd I just like to thank you on behalf of the Society for your brilliant presentation. It really was a

Unknown Speaker 56:57
wordy wordy

Unknown Speaker 57:01
ramble 45 minutes and I wasn't going to research I know you've been researching the subject for several years now. I think what's your take on here any history