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.
The Application of Computers to Agriculture
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED | AUTUMN 1965 | JUNIOR FARMER AND 4-H AQUARTERLY

The “electronic computer” has been hailed as having possibly more beneficial potential for the human race than any other invention in history. It has already changed or affected whole areas of society by opening up vast new possibilities by its extraordinary feats of memory calculation. It has given new horizons to the fields of science and medicine, changed the techniques of

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Surplus Food

This cartoon originally appeared in the November 2, 1940 edition of Canadian Countryman. It depicts a Canadian farmer shouldering the heavy burdens of two bags labelled

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Cockshutt No. 1 Transplanter

This photo is of a Cockshutt No.1 Transplanter, undated, but is circa 1920s. This piece of equipment was horse drawn and was used for plowing grooves in the ground to

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Ontario Dairy Day Provided Education, Inspiration and Publicity
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED | JULY 1953 | THE CANADIAN DAIRY AND ICE CREAM JOURNAL

Ontario’s First Dairy Day on the farm of Melvin Shatnz, Alma, Ont. was an outstanding success and ensured that this event will become an annual feature for the dairy industry of this province. In spite of rain in many surrounding districts, and the prevalence throughout much of the day of that restrained form of precipitation known as “Scotch Mist,” milk producers and their

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lives lived

Stewart A. Brown

1898 - 1966

Stewart A. Brown was born in 1898, Southwold, Elgin West, Ontario. His parents, Mary Brown and Duncan Brown, were of Scottish descent. One of the premier men in Canada’s cattle industry, Stewart Brown was a remarkable breeder, exhibitor, exporter, and judge who left an undeniable impact on the industry. Throughout his career he dedicated himself to the improvement of the cattle industry, demonstrated by the various positions he held.

Brown’s career in the farming industry began early in his life. His parents were both farmers and he was born and raised on the farm. In

Charles W. Nash

AUGUST 15, 1848 – FEBRUARY 13, 1926

Charles William Nash was a distinguished Ontarian scientist who was most well known for his service for the Farmers’ Institute. A man of tremendous knowledge with a lifelong passion for ecology, he was diligently involved in spreading scientific information to farmers for the betterment of agricultural development.

Nash was born in Bognor, Sussex, England on August 15, 1848. During his early childhood he developed an acute fascination with the wildlife around his family’s seaside estate. Demonstrating a scientist’s inquisitiveness at a young age, he would

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