Last week, I received a phone call from an old friend telling me that he had found a few old farm magazines that I might like to look at.
Tom had been restoring a large mirror frame off a dresser and . . .
the mirror had been kept from rattling in the frame with three Farmers’ Advocates dated 1941. The old farm magazines had been kept in pristine condition safely tucked away and holding the mirror from rattling for 79 years. Because they were farm magazines printed in the middle of World War Two, I read them intensely from cover to cover.
After reading only a few pages, it became very obvious that our nation was much more concerned about doing everything to help win the war than about what the financial cost would be. Although most of the machinery advertised was designed to be pulled by horses, there was definitely an encouragement to switch to tractors. The tractors then were small in today’s standards and were from 15 to 45 horsepower. All of them were either built in Canada or sold by Canadian companies.
Mechanization was needed on the farms because many of the young, next-generation farmers were overseas fighting for our freedom. This meant that mom, dad and a few younger kids were expected to do even more than before. Four and a quarter million pounds of bacon were required each year in Great Britain alone. Tons of butter were also exported to feed the people in war torn countries. Similar increases were expected of grain and beef producers.
Even though farmers had a strong love and pride for their horses, tractors could work more land, run longer hours and younger children and farm wives could be excellent tractor operators. Hydro electricity is taken for granted today, but in 1941, most farms still used a two-holer and hydro was just becoming available.
The famous harvest brigade organized by the machine company Massey Harris consisted of fleets of new self-propelled combines which began combining in late summer in the mid-western states and worked their way up through the states and ended the season in western Canada in late fall, after harvesting hundreds of thousands of acres of grain.
During the war years, butter, eggs, sugar, some meat and many other foodstuffs were rationed and the consumer could only purchase these products if they had government distributed stamps for each rationed product. In each one of these 1941 magazines, there was a full page dedicated to print recipes to make cheap, nutritious meals without these rationed food products.
In all these old farm papers there was no mention of the financial cost of the war. There was an appeal for everyone, rich or poor, to buy Victory bonds with any extra pennies you had to make more money available to produce and supply equipment and supplies for our soldiers. There was a full page appeal from Mackenzie King who was Canada’s prime minister at the time to buy Victory bonds to help finance more supplies for the soldiers.
Many tractors were sold with steel wheels because rubber was needed for jeeps, trucks and gun carriers used in the war. Several small companies were building farm tractors from any parts they could find, engines from the auto industry, rear ends and transmissions left over from truck manufacturers who had switched to building war machines, etc. Most of these small tractor builders disappeared when the war ended.
If we compare today’s COVID-19 crisis to World War Two days, today’s biggest human loss is related to retirement homes and industrial meat packing plants. World War Two took the lives of some of our youngest and best young men. During World War Two much more concern was given to winning the war at all costs than how much it would cost. After the war, a temporary income tax was implemented to help pay for the past war. Today’s affluent society has trillions of dollars borrowed in every corner, be it federal, provincial, or private. This will eventually make it extremely difficult to pay off the COVID-19 pandemic. Looks like we all have to share the blame.
Chris Judd is a farmer in Clarendon on land that has been in his family or generations. gladcrest@gmail.com
