Adapting is the watch word in a fast changing world.
A new economic order based on credit, increasing violent storm events as a result of climate change; force us to frantically try to understand this change.
Looking back over 170 years to the settlement of Mapleton can we learn from the past times?
The first agricultural census was taken in 1849, a mere four years after Peel was opened up for settlement. It indicates the 200 to 300 families in Peel produced 14,000 pounds of maple sugar. No doubt the families and neighbourhoods worked together in bees to collect and boil down the approximately 70,000 gallons of sap, joining together in the sweet joy of sugaring-off parties, which helped bind the community together.
What a product! Non-perishable, concentrated, a local source of scarce sugar, and surplus to be sold for cash. It is a good example of adapting to aboriginal customs and culture to produce a much needed cash crop in the backwoods; and a good example of working with the natural systems and not being so quick to rearrange the landscape.
Thinking back to the first timber barn built on our farm in 1858, it was a true bank barn, built into the bank facing south east. It had two drive floors with a straight approach without a ramp. It lasted 100 years. It had a double-walled stone foundation with rubble in the centre core. Excellent insulation! It was always warm in winter and cool in the summer, with access to a spring creek 100 feet away.
Most of the building materials originated on the farm. A roof with a long low slope deflected the wind. The 1884 F4 Goldstone tornado couldn’t dislodge it.
Later a windmill harnessing free energy pumped water to an attic tank, in the house, with an overflow running to the barn, regulated by a simple float box. A windmill on great grandfather’s barn roof was also used to chop grain.
Another good use of natural power was the hayfork. Lifting hay bundles by horsepower to swing along a wooden track, dropping into mows. Later bundles could be rolled down using gravity, which never failed as a result of an ice storm.
Rolling land was a competitive edge for the first 50 years prior to artificial drainage. A meandering stream didn’t need excavating every 15 years. It looked after itself. In the 1880s government sponsored tree planting motivated farmers to plant maples on each side of the roads to trap snow for easy and longer sleighing transportation.
On the down side, by 1870 the early settlers looked around smugly at the clear and barren landscape but started to shiver in the cold. No doubt they needed to clear the trees from the rich soil, but they didn’t realize the wind on this doomed plateau could rob them of energy, both plant and animal.
Some farmers had even cut their woodlots and had to buy fuel wood from neighbours.
Recent studies reveal that a well-managed woodlot produces more economic benefit than the same land in beans or corn; not to mention the other values, like carbon sinking, health and wildlife habitat. Later the lack of tree cover would wipe out most orchards in a severe winter like the present one.
Some commentators suggest that with the avalanche of technical adoption over the past 70 years, we have become so dependant on technology and so specialized that a fuel shortage or a storm event can bring us to a standstill.
Dare we ask: have we become maintenance slaves, constantly fixing until frustrated, even considering a sledge hammer solution at times?
Maybe we can learn from previous generations to adapt to, rather than destroy, natural systems. Windbreaks and shelterbelts to protect plants, animals, and soil. Living snow fences to save road maintenance and lives. Wetlands to maintain water tables during droughts. All components of a strategy worth considering.
submitted by Jean Campbel, courtesy of Mapleton Historical Society
