S 535 .C2 ri5 Copy 1 CHILDREN (?/THE LAND The Story of the Macdonald Movement in Canada By HERBERT FRANCIS SHERWOOD Reprinted by permission from The Outlook New York, April 23, 1910 CHILDREN «/ THE LAND The Story ot the Macdonald Mo\ ement in Canada HERBKRT FRANCIS SHl.RWOOn Reprinted b\" perniis>ioii trum The Outlook N\nv ^'nrk, April 2 :, , Hjlo ClllLDRKN OK TMK LAM) Tlic Stnrv of the Macdon.ilJ Mu\cnK'iit in Canada CHILDREN OF THE LAND THE STORY OF THE MACDONALD MOVEME"NT IN CANADA BY HERBER.T FRANCIS SHERWOOD AMONG the ISC' who. more than a cen- tury ago, received an allotment of land in Prince Edward Island was a Scotchman who had been an officer in the British army. He possessed all the ginger and independ- ence of spirit of the Scotch Highlander, and was in no fear of the constituted au- thorities when they did not agree with his construction sir uiiium of things. When he spoke, it was as it he were upon the housetops. He cared not who knew his views. On one occasion he was very outspoken regarding the behavior of the legislators of the island. It came to their ears, and to them it looked very much like con- tempt of authority as represented by thenis'elves. Thereupon they sent their clerk to summon this audacious citizen to appear before them and answer to the charge. When the clerk, fully armed with the majesty of authority, ap]jeared upon the farmstead of the Scotchman, the latter called forth his muscular farm- hands and had the clerk locked in the stable on the charge of trespassing on a freeman's property. This action scared the poor clerk, and when he was finally released he returned such a report to his official superiors as to cause them form- ally and solemnly to resolve — as they put it — not to further the desires ot this contumacious man for self-advertisement by paying any more atten- tion to him. This independent-spirited Scotchman was a grand- father of Sir \\'illiani C. Macdonald, the tobacco manufacturer of Montreal, who has .given more than eight millions of dollars for the advancement of educa- iMA( DONALD tion in Canada. He helps one to account for the vitality, the energy, the persistence, which his bacheloi grand- son has exhibited in his career, and for the fact that the latter gives one the impres- sion of being nearer threescore than iiis actual age of seventy-eight years. Sir William is one of two men <.)f Sc(.itch ancestry who are recognized from one end of the land of " Our Lady of the Snows '" to the other as among those who are leading Canada forward to hi.gher things. The other is James Wilson Robert- son, the former Principal of Macdonald College, for the construction and endow- ment of which Sir William gave approxi- mately five millions of dollars. The\' are not so well known on the southern side of the Canadian border as they ought to be. Sir William was born on Prince Edward Island. He left home at an early age to make his way in the world. For a time he was employed in New York, and then 891 892 THE OUTLOOK he turned his face toward Montreal and became interested in the manufacture nf tohaccii. The conditions existing in the liiiled States at the time of the Civil War urealh la\nred his enterprise, and at that time he hud the fiiundation of his fortune. He is a man of simple tastes. ( )iie ot the thoroughfares in Montreal wliich ihe visitor is exiieeled to see is .Slierlirooke Street. If one could think of Montreal as one thinks of New \'ork, it would be styled the Fifth Avenue of Canada's chief cit)'. It is the street upon which front the homes of many of Montreal's fore- most citizens. The two streets also have another characteristic in common. The houses are not equally pretenti(.)us, the owners of .some caring less than do their neighbors about external appearances. The block of gray stone houses known as I'rince of Wales Terrace would be especially noticeable for its ]ilainness. C)ne of these has been the home of Sir William for forty-five years. The office where he has conducted his tobacco business for so many years that it has become one of the landmarks of the city is even more unpretentious and indicative of the tastes of its occupant. It contains no rich furnishings, no highly polished cherry tables and leather-uphol- stered armchairs and sofas. In one room the visitor sees two or three clerks. In Ihe next, at a modest desk, is seated a gray-bearded man in plain black. He rises, takes the hand of the visitor in both of his, and welcomes him with the formal courtesy of the old school tnodified and warmed by a smile that makes the visitor feel at home. The visitor is not long in the dark as to the secrets of Sir William's success in life, for a chat with him is quite apt to reveal that he is a believer in the gospel of work. An independent thinker and a lover of his countrw he long ago formulated a ]jlan for its benefit and the method of carrxing it out. "Build up the country in its children " became his motto. As iiis wealth grew he sought means of ap- ]i|\ing it. He observed that, among other things, Canada needed trained engdneers for its future development. He there- ii]ion provided McGill University w'ith a fully ec|uipped engineering building. Fol- lowing this came his gifts of a physics building and a chemistiy building, and an endowment for the maintenance of this w.n-k. 'I'hese efforts at the realization of his idea were not to be the culmination. Can- ada is essentially an agricultural country. A large proportion of its people support themselves by the tillage of the soil and hv animal products. He discerned the fiuulameiital importance of a prosperous and contented rural population if the future of Canada should be what he wished for it. How to reach the children of the land was. i^erhaps, the most difficult of his problems. Often the problem and the man who promises a solution develop alongside each other. This happened in the case of the rural problem of Canada. Sir William is the largest stockholder in the great Bank of Montreal. He is also one of its directors. The policy of Cana- dian bank directors has long included the establishment of branch banks in prosper- ous farming communities for the purpose of receiving deposits. Sir William noticed that in the communities where creameries were located the deposits increased in a marked measure. He inquired further, and learned something of the methods employed in the operation of these cream- eries. What had been accomplished in I'rince Edward Island, his native place, especially attracted his attention. This was largely due to the work of one man. That man was James Wilson Robertson, Commissioner of Agriculture and Dairy- ing for the Dominion, another Scotchman. Twelve years ago the two began laboring together, the (.)ne furnishing the means, the other executing the idea. Sir William used to think of his share as " putting in a little yeast." If one may be permitted to carry the simile a little further, Dr. Robertson may be said to have co-oper- ated by kneading the dough and setting it in the oven. In this fashion began the execution of the agricultural phase of Sir William's idea for the improvement of Canadian life, which has been labeled the Macdonald Movement for the Improvement of Rural Conditions. To those unacquainted with Dr. Robert- son's origin the burr in his speech would betray it. He was bom fiftj'-two years nil s( HUOL GAKUEN 1!5 ll.NK HI' Tllli Kl\s OF THE MACDONALU MOVli.MENT CHILDREN OF THE LAND 895 ago on a farm at Dunlop, in the county of Ayr. In his eighteenth }-ear his father migrated with his family to a farm in the neighborhood of London, Ontario. The lean-faced youth was ambitious to become a physician, but fulfillment of his desire meant money for training. There was little available for such a puipose. His father was gaining his livelihood in part from the purchase of dairy products for export to (j-reat Britain. A knowledge of the dairy business, possibly, would assist in furnishing the means. Near IngersoU, Ontario, was a first-rate cheese factory where he could learn thoroughly how the best export cheese was made. He began with a wage of $13 a month. The work included tasks which could not have been altogether congenial. He was called upon to scrub the factory floor, no pleas- ant work for a man of the sensitive nature of X'liung Rubcrtsim. The young man's empl(.)yer became ill. Demonstrated capacity resulted in the se- lection of Robertson to manage the factory. His management was a success fr(.>m the start. Ability, conscience, and energy produced cheeses which won the respect of the critics. The output of the factoiy was soon recognized as among the best in the countiy. Time passed. His winters were spent in reading and the study of literary and scientific subjects. One winter he studied at Woodstock College. This was his only college training. In summer he was doing what he could to make cheese manufacturing a success, and. thinking large tilings and connecting their accom- plishment with small beginnings, he re- solved to do all that lay in his power to bring Canada's dair\- products to a higher level in quality. Then he went " north and west,'' the synonym in ( )ntario at that time for Horace (ireeley's advice to a young man, and took charge of a fact(3ry at Cotswold, Wellington County, for a joint stock company of farmers. In a few months he was supervising with suc- cess the operation of eight factories. Xot all of the farmers knew how to make the most of their herds, either in i^iuantity or quality of product. He ar- ranged to meet those who needed this kind of knowledge and offered sugges- tions as to feeding and caring for their animals. As he learned how to present UK. JAMES WILSON" ROUERTSON Formerly Commissioner f.f ARriculture and Dairyin- for llie D.. minion the fruits of his experience and thinking in an interesting and piractical w.iy the meetings grew in size and numbers and the C)ntario politicians began to observe the results. It was noted that he had something to say that bore fruitage. The politicians said, " We can do something for our farmers in this direction." This led to his connection with the noted Agri- cultural College at Guelph as Professor of Dairy Husbandry. He was now, at the age of twent\--eight ^•ears, fully entered upon the field of educational work, with little prospect that his youthful ambition to be a minister to human bodies would ever be fulfilled. I'or four years he served at Guelph so successfully that the latter half of his term of service foLuid him also serving Cornell as a non-resident lecturer. In this period he was not only lecturing and carrying on research work for the benefit of his lec- tures, but he was also exhibiting his capacity as a commercial agent and using his powers of observation abroad. He was sent to London to look after a Gov- ernment exhibit of cheese ant: butter. There he found that Canadian products were in competition with those of Den- mark and other near-by countries. " Why should not Canada have the IJritish 896 THE OUTLOOK trade ?" he said tn himself. And, liiidiiii;' that one of the holds which these f(jieij;n countries had upon British niarfcets was qualit)', he visited those countries and studied their methods of production. When he came Iwcl';, lie was ready to tell Ontario how to increase its sales in the mother country. It was by furnishinjj; what was desired of high qualil\'. Jn 1890, at the age of thirty-three, he was appointed the first Commissioner ot Dairying for the Dominion, with head- quarters at Ottawa. I'aking pieces of metal and fashionir,g them into a successful machine is one thing. It is (|uite anotiier to mold an unorganized mass <)f human beings into an effective machine .__., for the accomplish- ment of better things, each unit, perforce, remaining independ- ent in volition. The new Commissioner possessed the large ness and clarity ol vision, the technical knowledge, the or- ganizing ability, the energ}', the enthusi- asm, and the capac- ity' for expression essential to the suc- cess of such a task. He sent out traveling dairies, distributed educational bulletins, and went around preaching the doctrines of better farming and better products in his plain, logical, phhy fashion. He taught that hay-sell- ing robbed the soil of its plant food at a rapid rate, and when hay was exported the Dominion was depriving itself of a portion of its wealth-producing energy. The hay from two hundred acres, he asserted, contained more of the elements of soil fertility than were carried away in ji6,0C)0,000 worth of butter. In the ex- port of cheese the same was true. He was teaching a people the value of con- servation of natural resources and ex- tending an industry which educates the mind and improves social conditions. There were whole provinces in which dairj'ing could be introduced to the ad- HOLSlrlNs ON I CESSFI L LKi \M CLITFI , IRINLL vantage of the inhabitants and the Do- minion. The words "paternalism" and " .Socialism " had no terrors for him, nor did they ha\e for the people of the dif- ferent provinces after experiencing his form of " paternalism." In 1892 the people of Prince Edward Island had lost their geiieral markets through the opera- tion of the McKinley Tariff Bill, and had become disheartened. The Federal Gov- ernment of the Dominion agreed to lend some mone)- for the develo]_iment of the dairy industry iir the island, and C<:>m- missioner Robertson took charge. He started co-operative cheese factories. He also undertook to find a market for the product. The milk producers were ^ _ charged a percentage ^"'" ' to cover the cost of operation. \Mthin li\e years dairying in the island had reached such propor- tions that it no long- er needed assistance and had recom- ])ensed the Federal Covernment for all its effort. Where in 1892 four feeble creameiies produced cheese valued at $8,448, in 1901 forty- seven creameries put out cheese and butter to the value of $566,- 824. This product was of high grade. Robertson's work had developed winter butter-making as well as summer cheese- making. A people had been helped to help themselves, hope had been stimulated, and a door opened to prosperity. The local government now emplo}'s a traveling in- structor in cheese and butter making, who visits all the factories frequently so as to maintain and advance their standard of production. In 1895 Commissioner Robert- son began to help the Northwest Territo- ries in the same wa\-, practically all the creameries being in a bankrupt condition and the crops poor. People were trek- king from the Territory. The tide was turned, the people were lifted over their difficulties, and now they have prosperous diversified farming. iNE ^4^i^^:.f^^^^>%:^^^^^^^^^^'^%J^ illl-.lU'-KAl.slNl A LAH(,E SOritCE UF PKOFIT IX M.iVA bi The quality of the cheese and butter product of Canada was improved to such a degree within tlie decade and a half between 1890 and 1905, comprising the period of Dr. Robertson's incumbency of the commissionership, that the exports of these products rose from §9,700,000 to S3 1,500,000 a 3'ear. This was an in- crease from an average of S- to an aver- age of $5 for each man, woman, and child in Canada, the latter sum averaging mcjre than $10 for each person living on a farm. It is not often that a man's efforts can be so concretely measured. Looking into the background of this single accomplish- ment, one sees that it has a close connec- tion with the fruitage of life itself. With the means to provide them, doors to fresh contacts are opened and the desire is in- creased for higher culture as expressed in more comfortable and artistic surroimdings in the home and greater opportunities for obtaining education. Dr. Robertson is essentially a pioneer. Having planted the seed, demonstrated how t(.) make it fruitful, and won friends f^'^^iS^^ I 'J (i -^»^i THE COLONV PLAN OF RAISING FOWLS AT .MAt UONALU COl.LEOF 898 THE OUTLOOK for il, lie leaves the harvesting to others and presses into a fresh field. ( ine for- ward step each year is his aim. By 1895, when he was appoinled ( "i.nnmissioner of A,L;rieultLn-e, in addition to his tiffiee of Commissioner of Dairying, the Dominion had been lca\'encd rather thoroughly as to the advantage of dairying. There re- mained the markcling liid to be per- fected. The goods were not reaching the English market in good condition, and the price that their quality warranted, therefore, was not being obtained. Steps were taken to develop a chain of cold storage that should begin at the creamery and terminate only at the market (in the eastern .side of the .\llantic. 'i"he idea was approved by I'arliament, and once more " paternalism '' was permitted to per- form its work. 'IVi-day. assisted by the Dominion ( 'loxei'nment, the chain is com- plete. Il ser\es not onl_\- for butter, but for every other product that rec|uires refrigeration. The service extends from one end of the Dominion to the other, and is within reach i.if producers both great and small. The tale 'f his multiplied activities and accomplishments in the combined offices is a long one. Whatever things would work together to make farming more profitable through economical management and in improvement in quality of product, to that he turned his attention. Did he desire to assist in the development of a bacon in- dustry ? He experimented with different foods, and, sitring astride the animals, killed them with his own hand, in order to determine the effect upon them in rela- tive vitality by counting their dying gasps and feeling the force of the pulsing heart- beats in the struggle against death. What poultryman has not sighed for a large supply of eggs in the winter season, when the prices are high ? ]!y taking fowls back to the simple life of pure air, plain food, and plenty of exercise. Commis- sioner Robertson demonstrated how they could be made to lay abimdantly when tne temperature was fifteen degrees below zero. Having rounded out in a measure his scheme for improving agriculture as a profitable occupation for adults, he turned his attention to the future of ( 'anadian farming. At this point his planning began to parallel the idea of Sir William C. Macdonald. He, too, was thinking of Canada's future in its children. " 111 fares the land, to hastening ills a prey. Where wealth accumulates and men decay." 'I'here are few thinking people in the United States who do not realize that there is great room for improvement in educalional facilities in the rural sections of the country, and also a demand for better etiuipijcd farmers. Canada's problem is the same as that of the United States. Lord Salisbury once said that the great problem, not only of England, but of all humanity, is to maintain the fertility of the soil by the activity iif plants and the activitv of bacteria. Tliree essentials for the progres.sive development of human life are: (1) food, (2) protection for the voung. and (3) continuation of the lessons of experience. The three fundamental occupations, therefore, in Di'. Koljertson's view of life, are farming, home-making, and teaching. Upon this " tiipod," as he calls it, he is building his scheme for rural improvement. Whether we like it rir not, it must be that some shall till the soil if the human race is to survive. How are the conditions to be amended ? I )r. Rob- ertson proposes two ways : (1) By practical illustrations of how the occupation in each locality may be made more attractive, profitable, and satisfying to those engaged in farming. (2) By such an adjustment of schools and of training that the children will be attracted to rural occupations and will be cjualified to be successful in them. This is his educational platform. Dr. Robertson is constructive. He always has an end in view. These two planks comprise the platform of the Macdonald IMovement, which he organized. Working in harmony with Sir William and Ixrcked by the fimds of this con- structive manufacturer. Dr. Ivobertson introduced the leaven of a system which correlates education with agriculture from the primary school in the country district to the college. The two mon have pro- vided a specimen of what they think the Dominion of Canada needs, in the hope that its value will be so clearly demon- strated that the people will carry it for- ward themselves. 'I'he gifts of Sir William are intended as leaven only. IIK.II DEVF.I.DP.MEXT IN I'EACIl Cl'LTUKE The philosophy and practice of this pair of men in their undertakings for " building' up the country in its children '' are illustrated in the metlntd which they took for teaching the lesson of cro]3 im- provement to Canadian farmers. In 1899 Dr. Robertson wished to learn whether the countiT was ripe for the acceptance of the theory that it is worth while for a farmer to use the best seed, and whether the interest of children in agriculture could be stimulated. He took from his private purse the sum of $100 and offered it in prizes to Canadian boys and girls who would send him the largest heads from the most vigorous plants of wheat and oats taken from their fathers' farms. The response was remarkable. The letters which Dr. Robertson received from the farmers and their boys and girls were so suggestive and encouraging that the following winter he said, in substance, to Sir William : " Here is a great chance to do some educational work in progressive agri- culture ; to do something interesting, something attractive, something definite, sometliing beneficial to the whole com- niunitv, something easy, and vet with plenty of difficulties. Farmers and their families may fail to appreciate the educa- tional advantages of a plan or scheme set out in a written statement, but here is something which would be so helpful and instructive to boys and girls that they would go on with it, and the habits of observation and thought and study would go on with them. I would like yiju to give me $10,0()0 for prizes to set and keep this thing going for three years." Sir William gave the money with a right good will. For the main compe- tition the competitors were required to pick each year by hand the largest heads from the most vigorous and productive plants in sufficient cjuantity to obtain seed from these heads to sow a quarter of an acre the following year. The careful records which were kept of the number of grains a hundred heads, and also of the weight, showed that in the three years the percentage of increase on the average for the Dominion for spiing wheat was 18 per cent in the number of grains and 28 per cent in the weight, while in the oats the figures were 19 and 27 respect- ively. I'hese were the results from sev- eral hundred seed grain plots operated by 900 THE OUTLOOK 23 April boys and girls under eighteen years uf age. As niav be imagined, the cliildren were not the iinly "ncs who gained from this practical demonstration. Tiieir parents and neighbors learned the lesson also. This contest gave birth to the Canadian -Seed Growers' Association, organized for the purpose of improving the crops of Canada ; it is coextensive with the Do- minion. It was estimated in 1906 that the crops of Canada already had been increased in value to the extent of half a million dollars as a direct result of the competitions. Moreover, it had been demonstrated that children could be inter- ested in agriculture. Manual training, the vehicle by which agriculture and education were to be brought together, was the next step. Ar- guing that an examiile provided in a town is the must effective method of stimulating the officials of rural schools, Sir William, upon the advice of Dr. Robertson, h mnded thruughmit ( 'anada manual training c;jnters at twiniv-one places. These were attended b\' 7,(Hi() children and cost $3,600 a month fur teachers. At the end of three years the liical authorities were free to continue the schools or not, as they chose. The leaven performed its task. In every case the school was taken over and others added. In Nova Scotia more than a score of school centers of the Macdonald type have been built and are conducted by means of local funds. In Ontario the three Macdonald centers have grown t(.) more than twoscore. The next step was the introduction into the rural schools of manual training, iTKjd- ified for the ]ierformance of its new duty. In order to make manual training effective in the country, and of such a nature as to accomplish the desired results, it was essential that it have certain character- istics. It was desirable that nature study, elementary biology, and elementary agri- culture should become a part of the cur- riculum. The two leaveners now took two steps. They introduced the leaven of school gardens and the consolidation of rural schools. School gardens were attached to each of five schools in each of five provinces. A trained instructor was put in charge of each group of five schools, devoting one day a week to each school in his circuit, and giving instruction to the teachers as well as the children. The gardens have been a marked success, not only educationally as manual training, but agriculturally. Most useful lessons were learned of the advantages of using selected seed, of the methods of protecting crops from insects and fimgous diseases, and of the rotation of crops. At a school garden in Prince Edward Island the children reaped 32 per cent more wheat from a plot sown with selected seed than from a similar plot sown with unselected seed. In most of the gardens two plots side by side were planted with potatoes. The treatment of each plot was similar in every respect, except that the plants in one were spraved with Bordeaux mixture to prevent blight. In every case the yield of pota- toes , from the sprayed plot was larger than the other. ']"he increase was from 41 to 111 iicr cent. liowcsville, ( intario, the iciUci' of the largest potato-producing section of eastern Canada, was put on anolhcr footing of ]3rofit by the work done at the Macdonald school garden at- tached to the school there. .\s remarkable as these results with crojis were the effects on the children themselves. In (!)ntario uniform exami- nations for entrance to the high schools are held in July. In 1906, in Carleton County, in schools without gardens 49 per cent of the candidates passed, wlule of those w\ia came from the five schools to which were attached gardens 71 i^er cent were successful. Apparently the work with the hands in the garden in- creased the capacity for work with books. Sir William fotmded four consolidated schools, one in each of the provinces of (Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and I'rince Edward Island. The school work was graded, provision was made for classes in manual training, household sci- ence, and nature study based on \\