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.

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

Following the Great War, free trade with the United States was a topic of great contention amongst Canadians, it being strongly supported by the Liberal party. However,

This milker was designed by the Mehring Company. William Mehring’s major innovation was the inclusion of a foot treadle to power the milker. This type of design was

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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

Gilbert “Gil” Henderson

SEPTEMBER 5, 1926 – JANUARY 30, 2017

Farmer and conservationist. Born Sept. 5, 1926; died Jan. 30, 2017 in Brantford, age 90.

Conservation influenced most of Gil Henderson’s work in agriculture.

He earned a 2010 Lieutenant Governor’s Heritage Award for lifetime achievement for his conservation efforts. Together with his wife Molly, Gil won the Environmental Stewardship Award from the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association in 1998. The couple also won the Brant County Farm Family of the Year Award in 1997. They ran Onondaga Farms, a

William McCraney

DECEMBER 15, 1831 - JUNE 21, 1911

William McCraney was born on December 15, 1831 in Trafalgar township, Halton county, Upper Canada. His parents, Hiram and Louisa McCraney were one of the first settler families in Halton, being granted the land as did many other United Empire Loyalists who fled the newly-formed United States in the wake of the War of Independence. The McCraney’s were thus substantial landowners in the region, and contributed much to its early development. William McCraney used his family’s resources and his savvy business sense to make a name for himself and become a much-respected figure in

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News from our rich agriculture history

Ontario Dairy Day Provided Education, Inspiration and Publicity

Buyers Welcome, Sellers Beware!

Mehring Milker

Across the Plains of North Middlesex

lives lived

Gilbert “Gil” Henderson

William McCraney