Ellen’s Diary on May 23rd, 1955 talked about letting animals out for the spring, but, more crucially, the love that some Island farmers maintained for horses, even though more efficient options (i.e. tractors) were available to help complete farm tasks.
“After months of confinement, some of the cattle-kind were let today to a spell of pasturing. And Sara, youngest mare of all, friend but not playmate of the children also saw blue sky above and felt again barnyard clay under-foot. It was a new experience for her, after long stabling, this spell in the open and the Family came to watch while in a fine play of spirits she tried out her paces.
‘Watch out! She may go over that fence,’ we called to the children in their door-yard.
‘Isn’t she pretty!’ Granddaughter replied, quite lost in admiration for the moment.
“Elmer Gauthier 1950” from the personal collection of Marie Howatt
‘She has plenty of action’ James, nearer us, offered. ‘And I wouldn’t doubt,’ he nooded [sic] ‘a fair-good bit of speed!… There was a time in my life, Ellen, when to own the like of her, in the shape she’s in and idle, would be in the nature of a dream. But now, a driver on a farm is little more than a toy- there isn’t even time to break them! I’m sure ‘his thrift was coming uppermost now’ I don’t see why we keep so many. Still,’ he smiled, ‘I wouldn’t consider we were farming at all without them.’”
“Now all smiles and beguiling the May month scatters her favors- days warm and summery, skies clear-blue and sun-spread.
‘Any day now we’ll hear of farmers being on the land’ Mr. C. from the house on the hill visiting at Alderlea this evening commented to James.
‘Aye,’ James nodded, ‘if this weather keeps! Not,’ he added, ‘that a warm rain wouldn’t help considerably to brighten the fields.’
From the personal collection of Marie Howatt, South Freetown 1951
On this farm by day now and a company on them through the night, ewes and young are on the pasture. With Granddaughter, we helped James round up today’s new-born and their mothers and bring them down the rise of field behind the barn to their overnight shelter. How plaintive the new cries, and warm the bodies when carried- and fond the parent attending ones steps.”
“The April issue of the Royal Bank of Canda’s [sic] monthly letter, which treats “Using Soil Wisely” reached this farm today by way of a Doctor- friend of the family with this quite startling comment relative to this interest of his heart: “Apparently future generations will die of deficiency diseases or starvation unless some way is found to prevent soil erosion.”
“Through millions of years” the interesting article states “Nature built up a balance between animal, vegetable and mineral life. She tied the mixture in place on the earth’s surface by the interlacing of grass roots on our prairies and tree roots in our forests. The leaves she discarded in autumn became part of the soil that produced them”.
“But we humans came and broke up the prairies and cleared away the forests. We upset the balance of nature. Today our earth is sick…”
Soil erosion is a continuing issue on Prince Edward Island to this day.
“Just what in plain terms does this deterioration of land mean to us? One result of lack of conservation is a lowered level of living and the development of human erosion to be seen in the various deficiency diseases and hidden hunger. It is conceivable that if wastage of land continues, we shall be faced not with a struggle for markets but with a struggle for food.”
“Health is so important to us that we should be well advised to spend relatively more on knowing our soils and seeing that they are healthy, and relatively less on our illnesses, which are merely the outward sign of an often unrealized soil deficiency.”
“In considering health it is misleading to separate men, animals, plants. All are part and parcel of the same nutrition cycle which governs all living cells. The earth’s green carpet is the source of the food consumed by livestock and mankind.”
“We have passed the stage looking upon plants and vegetation as inexhaustible resources, but we do not yet fully realize how perishable the earth’s goodness can be..”
“What we seek from the land is that it provide the base of the highest possible standard of living for the people of Canada…” And we who farm for future generations recognize that the term “soil erosion” includes a number of things. It takes in not only the more and less depletion left in the wake of the wintry seasons and rains, but any careless mining of the fields without thought of much restoration which is some instances, with help scarce and time at a premium has to pass for farming today. And how shall conditions be bettered?
It is likely the 26 man committee set up by the Senate early this year charged with a “widespread study of land use in Canada” in a job described in the Chamber as one of the “most important the Senate has ever undertaken” will find some answers to the question. It may be that sooner or later, to work toward the benefit of all, that soil survey and regulation of arming to some extent will be out lot on farms.
Tonight the Maytime fields rest, quietly beneath a damp Spring-blanket of snow.
70 years ago, The Guardian of the Gulf newspaper published the following edition of Ellen’s Diary. Note the references to mixed farming, a practice that began to dwindle in the following decades thanks in part to farm consolidation, expansion, and specialization.
“Winter came back to Alderlea and the surrounding countryside over the week-end, hiding frostily Spring’s lovely promise- the faint green of meadows and in the prevailing coldness, silencing bird-song. A bit desolate we found it, though recalling, even as the glass dropped to freezing, giving James some concern about our “seeds”, that each day in turn brings the seedtime nearer. By lantern-light, James comes in now from a last round at the barns to offer, “This is another cold one!” to Mr. C. from the house on the hill commencing to make plans for the mill-sawing, “once this cold snap is over.” “You know,” James hangs up jacket and cap to say, “after the mild weather we’ve had it’s pretty trying for the young stock to get used to this. You’d be surprised how the difference in temperature affects them- especially the little pigs. They just won’t settle down comfortably. We hope it soon turns warmer. What did the weatherman say of it, Ellen?” But that is a difficult question to answer, since in the insistence of our duties this evening the radio has been forgotten.
James himself has been much too busy today to listen to forecasts, but has had to satisfy himself by taking stock of the rippling waves on the pond, no mean token of things to come. He has been the foreman of a small crew of helpers today, sometimes revealed to him only, we suspect, in the whisk of a skirt disappearing around a corner. It is better, if one has engaging interests of her own, or is inclined to indolence, not to show herself about the yard, when James single-handed runs the place.
He would be sure to find a chore to fit her, perhaps to “fetch over that pail” or these days to “drive those confounded turkeys away from here- can’t you see that they’re keeping the cattle” or it may be “the horses from drinking?” At tubs in the barnyard the stock now drink, the water pumped to mirroring levels by the engine, which during the Winter had proved its worth to the farmers in pumping refreshment to various piggeries. In fair weather the horses and cattle drank down at the stream, a practice cut short of late, because neither one of their keepers could suffer “that field” which lies between buildings and stream to be marred by the traffic of hooves.
But grand-daughter continued to be his faithful and interested helper in her waking hours, and in the younger farmer’s absence in the city, the two kept all in good order…”
“The brilliant sunlight lifted the last of the snow from the hillsides today and set streamlets to trickling happily down towards the mill pond. The day set nice winds to visiting quietly in our remnant of orchard trees and whispering in the spruces beside. They brought me, about my choring, subtle reminders that presently tightly curled buds will unfold and grass will green. Jamie has already found blades of grass in some sheltered spot but as he told us by ‘phone “jes’ bare nibbles of it” for the rabbits there…
As in former Springs, April brings “gull time” to the folks at Alderlea, and to the two in the house on the hill. In numbers they flock inland from the reaches of the river and from dawn until evening calls them to return there, we are aware of their presence. Like great flocks of white geese, they come down to rest on the hillside briefly, and noisily. But very beautiful they are as they swoop and soar above the stream while the sun shines goldenly on them and yet their screaming is so plaintive and continued that both Jeanie and I are relieved when at last in warmer Spring days they desert the neighbourhood, leaving it to the crows’ and other more musical calls. I thought that this morning’s light wind in the trees made a gentle apology for the dreariness of yesterday’s cloudiness and perhaps the coldness that has come tonight. But as James remarked when he came indoors after assuring himself that everything was ship-shape at the stables “It’s better to have this frost now than when we get into the cropping!” And in between April’s dark days and cold ones, one catches fleeting but heartening promises of delightful days to come.”
