(Second in a series written on a cross-Canada dr.ve.)

CHATHAM, ONTARIO — Today I drove over the rich,
biack soil wear Lac St. Clair to what used to be my grand-
father’s farm and looked at the old appie tzee.

I remember him telling me
about that tree.

One spring day he had whittled
off a switch from another apple
tree on the farm and used it for a
cane, having hurt his leg. At day’s
end grandfather Alexander poked
the stick into the ground, left it
and forgot it.

The stick took root and became
a tree, and although the apples
never amounted to much the fam-
ily kept it as a testimony of sorts
to the richest farmiand in Canada.

- Qne of the winter winds will br-
ing the old tree down soon and

’ this land will be left flatter than
ever. Already, this patch of
prehistoric lake bottom, lying be-
tween St. Clair and Lake Erie, is
almost completely bald.

+. ..Anxious to cultivate every last

“square metre, farmers have elimi-

“mated every tree or shrub except
for a handful around their far-

. mhouses. There are no hedges, no
woodlots and to the greatest ex-
tent possible, boundary fences

shave been made as small a possi-
ble, serving as little more than
property line markers.

-. Every spoonful of soil that can

” grow a cash crop does so.
~, Ona hot summer day —- and
usually, they are very hot for this

 Jand has the latitude of northern

California and the humidity of a
-steam bath — you can stand
shoulder deep in corn and see
nothing but cash to the far, flat,
“, featureless horizon.
++ In Canada, farm markets have
gone to heil in a bushel basket for
’ em years. In British Colum-

including all painted
- folk art plecesi!

August 7-31 only!

SECOND TIME AROUND
ANTIQUES

4428 Main St, Vancouver fil

facross frorn McDonalds
Restaurant at 29th St)

Call 879-2513

Paul
St. Pierre

PAULITICS & PERSPECTIVES

bia’s Fraser Valley, farmers
ploughed their lettuce fields under
because they lost money
harvesting them in the face of ag-
ricultural dumping from Caiifor-
nia.

On the Prairies, the sour joke is
that the wheat farmers lose money
with every hectare they plant, but
they go ahead anyway hoping to
mseke up for it with volume.

Here, in the hot, rich land cail-
ed Canada’s Sun Parlor, farmers
like Archie Peltier, who tills Jand
that was once a St. Pierre farm,
talks about the new farm tractor
being produced for us by Japan.
It has no seat and no steering
wheel and is for farmers who are
flat on their ass and don’t know
which way to turn.

Like any farmer, Archie is a

FORMER WEST Vancouver
Mayor Don Lanskail is
recuperating at home after he suf-
fered: a. congestive heart failure
condition last month.
’ Lanskail, 74, spent nine days
in Lions Gate Hospital, three of
them in intensive care.

But he said he is feeling better
now.

“It was quite serious ‘there for a

ADVERTISING
CORRECTION
Why Wait-Home and Linen

' Wednesday, July 29th
Page 5, item H: Alexvale Furniture is in-
correctly described, Should read: Multi-
Cushion back with fringed accent
cushions. Plaid, Ditsy and Tapestry.
BaskToSchool #1
Wednesday, August 12th
Cover Story (Page 2), item 1, Ft. Levi's
Hooded Top. Colour is not as iliustrated.
Page 11, Item €: Boy's Suede Hikers not
as ittustrated. Should be navy with red
stripe.
Page 11, item N: Girl's Sugar Cane ‘Lisa’
Suede Fstrap not as described: Not alt
sizes and colours in all stores. Also
label should read ‘Sugar Cane’
Page 13, Items J/K: High Sierra Back
Packs — keying on illustrations is in-
correct.
ltem J, shorld be K — Executive
liem K, should be J — Lakewood
Page 13, tem D: Samsonite ‘Sammies*
Boom Bag and Bonus Boxer Shorts, col-
ours not as ittustrated.
Should be: Baom Bag, Purple with Teal
Stripes, Boxer Shorts, Dark Purple.
Page 18, items A/BICIC] — Bonus
MC60 Sony Microcasseite Tapes and
HF6O0C Cassette Tapes are not as il-
lustrated.
Back Page, Item D: Levi's Hooded Top
— colour not as illustrated.
Due to supplier delivery probiems, the
following item will not be availabie:
Page 11, Stam LC: Girls’ Playschool
Suede Oxfords will not be avaitable.
Inadvertently, the errors listed above
have appeared in our advertising. We
sincerely regret any inconvenience or
confusion to our customers.

EATON'S

compulsive gambler. Every spring
he gambles on the weather and the
market price his crop will com-
mand when jt comes off the
fields.

As President Jack Kennedy’s
speech writer said so many years
ago, he is one of that dwindling
company of men who buy at
retail, sell at wholesale and pay
the freight both ways.

Last year, drought withered his
corn. This summer has been the
wettest and coldest in living mem-
ory, and his soybeans drowned.

Because of rains, he has been
unable to harvest his wheat, and
the big fields are now dark brown

and, with a moisture content of

more than 22, will be fit only for
cattle feed, if they ever are
harvested at all.

True, it is rare to find a farmer
anywhere, any time, who will ad-
mit to making money. That’s a
characteristic of the breed. But
there is proof of the disastrous
decline in the agriculiure industry
here.

I yet own some family property
in Canada’s Sun Parlor. When {
was in the air force in 1941, such
land sold here for $1,009 an acre,
a price then almost unbelievable
to agriculturists in other parts of
Canada.

A decade ago, the government
tax assessors rated its value at
$3,000 an acre. It had scarcely
kept up with inflation but was still
a property of value.

Today, the real estate agent says
I might be able to sell for $900 an
acre, provided | could find some-
body who'd been locked up ina
cellar for the last decade and
hadn’t heard about farm prices.

Who wants to buy land, here or
in B.C., that you cannot subdivide
and that cannot return you half as

while. | had a lot of trouble at the
start, but I feel fine now," said
Lanskail

“| had an irregular heart beat,
and my lung filled up with Muid.
It’s just something that suddenly
came up on me.”’

Friday, August 14, 1992 — North Shore News - 9

Every spoontul of soil put to good use

much as a Canada Savings Bond
does?
Well, it might help if we

remember that when our ancestors
came into this Eden after the Na-

poleonic wars and built the big
barns and the red brick farm
houses, they had hard years also.
The first years were very bad.
Our local community was named
Pain Court. A priest chose the

name because he found the first
settlers short of bread.

We have been poor, and we
have been rich. Being rich was
better, but everything happens by
turns in this world.

There is comfort of sorts, I
don’t know why, but there is, in
Grandad Alexander’s old volun-
teer apple tree.

| BUILDING SELF-ESTEEM
H Positive self-esteem can be learned and used
effectively to counter negative conditioning
from our past. Improvement can be made in
8 our relationships, our families, our jobs, and
@ within ourselves. Many have been able to
§ achieve these gains through professional

A assistance.

For further information call Dr. Neil Friedenberg,
Registered Psychologist at 987-0343 .

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