News from our rich agriculture history

The Farms.com farm and rural history website is dedicated to celebrating and digitizing the last 150 years of success in the Canadian agriculture and food industry. The agriculture and food industries in Canada have a rich heritage of innovation, and have laid a foundation of excellence upon which we continue to grow. We celebrate Canada’s food and agriculture innovations on these pages.

A Look At the Next 50 Years

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED | WINTER 1964 | JUNIOR FARMER AND 4-H QUARTERLY

One can hardly mark the fiftieth anniversary of Junior Farmer organization in Ontario, without being tempted to dust off the old crystal ball, to take a peak at what the next fifty years may have in store.

CRYSTAL BALL GAZING

Now, before you become too enthused, let’s remember that our crystal ball may have a few cracks in it, and we can’t guarantee its

This cartoon first appeared in February 1940 edition of Canadian Countryman. It depicts a man representing “rising wages” leapfrogging over another

This is a treadle-operated grindstone used by blacksmiths, farmers, or any other profession who worked with iron tools. It is operated by sharpening iron on the sandstone

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Across the Plains of North Middlesex

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED | JULY 11, 1912 | THE FARMER'S ADVOCATE

That the Province of Ontario possesses a plains country essentially similar in some respects to that of the great Prairie West, will come as a surprise to most readers, but a trip north from London on the Huron & Bruce branch of the Grand Trunk, or west from Stratford along the Port Huron line will bring the fact home with depressing clearness. There are many wide, level stretches of

William ‘Bill’ Heeman

DECEMBER 1, 1933 – JUNE 28, 2017

Farmer and innovator. Born Dec. 1, 1933; died June 28, 2017 in London, Ont., age 83.

Bill Heeman worked literally until the day he died at the London-area retail greenhouse operation he and his wife, Susan, established 54 years ago.

The couple emigrated from Holland in the late 1950s. While Bill was a mechanic by trade, Susan was raised in a family greenhouse business and urged her husband to enter this field. In 1963, the couple built a 10,000-square-foot (929-square-metre) greenhouse for wholesale tomatoes near a strawberry patch.

The family has

JOHN BRACKEN

JUNE 22, 1883 - MARCH 18, 1969

John Bracken led an eventful life in the fields of agriculture and politics which included many high and low points. He was born June of 1883 near Ellisvale Ontario, but is most known for his time spent in the prairie provinces. Before moving west, Bracken attended the Ontario Agricultural College where he demonstrated great academic and athletic success.

Upon his graduation Bracken was offered a job in Manitoba as a seed control inspector at the Department of Agriculture which caused him to travel extensively through the prairies. He was exceedingly skilled at his job and his

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News from our rich agriculture history

A Look At the Next 50 Years

CRYSTAL BALL GAZING

Rising Wages and Rising Prices

Grindstone

Across the Plains of North Middlesex

lives lived

William ‘Bill’ Heeman

JOHN BRACKEN