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.

Raise the Standard of Farming

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED | SEPTEMBER 11, 1919 | THE FARMER'S ADVOCATE

May I be allowed a small space in your valuable paper to speak a word to brother farmers on the question of the young folks leaving the farm? Although I am not, to say, a farmer on a large scale, but a rural mail carrier driving through the farmers’ community daily, still I suppose I should take some side like the professor in the following incident: “What were the doings over at

This cartoon originally appeared in the May 1934 issue of The Farmer. It was intended to be a humorous satire of the proposed National Products Marketing Act, which was

Referred to as a “Cutting Box” this contraption functioned largely as a homemade wood-chipper, although it could be used to break apart other items such as

Submit Article Idea

The United States Tariff

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED | SEPTEMBER 30, 1922 | CANADIAN COUNTRYMAN

There is little use attempting to persuade ourselves that the new United States tariff bill, which has recently come into effect, and which takes the place of the Emergency Tariff, will not have an injurious effect on the trade of this country. There is nothing to be gained by minimizing its effect on our commercial activities and on prices, but, at the same time, we should not be guilty of

Charles A. Zavitz

1863 - 1942

Little is known of Charles A. Zavitz’s early life save for his birth in Coldstream Ontario, 1863. By the 1880s however he had left Middlesex County for the Ontario Agricultural College in Guelph, Ontario. In 1887 the University of Toronto agreed to issue Bachelor of Science in Agriculture degrees to a select and competent class of O.A.C. diploma graduates. One of only five inaugural graduates Zavitz quickly secured employment at the school as the assistant superintendent of experiments.

During his first years Zavitz conducted valuable research and secured the construction

William Vanstone

FEBRUARY 2, 1833 - MAY 2, 1890

William Vanstone was born on February 2, 1833 in Devonshire, England. As a family, the Vanstones had little money and no property, and so there were few prospects for William but to become one of millions of landless labourers in Britain. However, some of his family had left the mother country and found success in the Empire’s overseas colonies. Some of his cousins went to Australia, but most of them had ended up in British North America, in the province of Upper Canada (modern-day Ontario). It was there that William would seek the opportunity he did not have in his home country. In

This website uses tracking tools, including cookies. We use these technologies for a variety of reasons, including to recognize new and past website users, to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests.
You agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Access by clicking I agree.

News from our rich agriculture history

Raise the Standard of Farming

Kin I Sow Oats

Cutting Box

The United States Tariff

lives lived

Charles A. Zavitz

William Vanstone