Canada -- Social life and customs; Ontario -- Description and travel
At a logging bee in those old times whiskey was ever present. All the
settlers in the locality would invariably turn out and help at the
logging. Wonderful stories they tell of logging an acre of land in an
hour and a half by three men and a yoke of oxen. Old men to-day tell me
that they were mere lads then, and were the “whiskey boys” at these
loggings. Whiskey was partaken of by the bowlful, and no ill effect
seemed to follow from it. If a man were to drink one-half the quantity
of whiskey to-day he would be more than drunk, and sick on the morrow.
It must be that the whiskey of those days was better than the modern
stuff. It was not supposed to be at all wrong to drink whiskey in those
days, and they tell of an Irish immigrant who settled in Pickering, who
had no cows, and had to provide food for his family during the winter.
He procured two barrels of whiskey, which he and the family used with
the cornmeal porridge during that winter. There were young children in
the family at the time. It was not maintained that the whiskey was as
nutritious as milk would have been, but yet they all came out in the
spring in good condition, none the worse of the thrice daily consumption
of whiskey.
Barns were sometimes moved from the manure pile about them. Manure was
not considered of any value upon the land, for the land was rich enough
without it. In a series of years the manure would accumulate about the
barns, impeding access thereto, and they were actually moved away to get
away from the manure, and then the manure burnt. Of course, we would not
think of such a proceeding now, but there are farmers in Darlington, in
the county of Durham, who burn their straw even now. When threshing, the
straw is spread over a field, as delivered from a machine, by a boy with
a horse-rake. It is then burned, relying for manure upon the ashes which
the straw makes. This is not told as an example of good farming, but it
illustrates the exceeding richness of Ontario soil.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account