One Aspect of a Farmer’s Life
by Elizabeth CampbellI thought this week would be a good time to look at one of the essential entries in the Red River farmer’s Day Timer. It’s an aspect of the livestock farmer’s life even to today: making hay.
As you will see, hay making was necessarily a community project, especially in the early days. And from the accounts of the activity in early settlement journals, we can learn some interesting things about life at the Red River Settlement.
Initially, the farms of Red River had ten chains frontage on the river, and extended back into the plains for the distance one could view beneath a horse’s belly – two miles. Hay priviledges were granted for a further two miles unless someone else had prior claim, in which case the use of an equivalent piece of land was offered elsewhere. Each farm also had a wood lot allotted to it on the opposite side of the river. Later the hay lots were granted in fee simple to the farmers.
These lots were often divided between children as the older generation passed away and, according to R. G. MacBeth, newcomers chuckled over the method of farming in lanes at Red River.
(reference: Rev. R.G. MacBeth. p. 33-4.)
Tags: agriculture, crops at the RRS, farming, social customs
