Canada -- Social life and customs; Ontario -- Description and travel
At the next race he enters him again, and again backs his own horse, for
success is this time assured. By some mischance this time he again loses
the race, and his money at the same time. But by this time his courage
is up, and he’s bound to win, so he buys a better horse. Again the
process goes on, at the end of which he still finds himself out of
pocket. The 150-acre farm, which his father prided never yet bore a
mortgage, now gets “a plaster” put on it. While this racing has been
going on, his farm has been neglected, and does not produce as formerly,
so that he is in a poorer position to pay the interest on the mortgage
and make both ends meet at the same time. In most cases such young men
lose their farms, and at middle age have to begin at the bottom of the
ladder and work their way up by themselves and unaided. Fortunately for
them, however, they know how to work, and can get along even in their
reduced state.
The hunting farmer is another class which we have in Ontario. Like his
sporting brethren, he, too, has inherited a farm and can easily make a
living, and some money besides. He keeps some hounds and a
breech-loader. Do a flock of pigeons fly over, the plough is left in the
field to get a shot at them, and the balance of that half day is
consumed. Or it may be that some ducks are around in the swamp or creek
a mile or so from his house, and a day must be given to them.
A fox has been seen around some hills in the neighborhood, and he must
have a day with the hounds. While all this is going on, with the press
of work, while he really is at home, many things are neglected. Fences,
which his father used to pride himself in keeping always trim, begin to
lean. A gate has lost its lower hinge, and a few shingles have blown off
the corner of his barn. Gradually his farm loses its neat, trim
appearance, and the neighbors begin to call Johnny So-and-so a shiftless
fellow. Hunting farmers do not usually lose their farms, for their
losses are mainly through want of care for their farms. Unlike his
sporting brother, he does not bet, but has a keen zest for the chase,
and must indulge in it.
If you will look about you, you will find that such persons do not add
to their means, but just get a fair living from their farms, and do not
make any great improvements on the homestead. His neighbor beside him,
who may take even a day now and again for a hunt, but who daily plods
along and follows his plough and drives his own horses, has bought
another farm and has a credit at his bankers or at some loan and savings
company.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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