Shelter belt care
In regard to your April 19 article regarding the planting of farm shelter belts, I have had some bad experiences. I would only plant caragana by themselves in a fence line or someplace where a person is able to control them.
Caragana do two things: they rob moisture from other trees as they have a tremendous root system and they reseed themselves and spread. When the seedpod splits open, they throw the seed some distance so it then starts another tree.
An abandoned farmyard of my folks, where they had planted spruce and caragana in the 1930s, there was a nice grove of spruce. The caragana reseeded themselves in and around the spruce. In the drought of 2001, they robbed the moisture from the spruce to the point where most of them have died.
Read Also
Agriculture needs to prepare for government spending cuts
As government makes necessary cuts to spending, what can be reduced or restructured in the budgets for agriculture?
Another bad experience I had with shelter belts is that I planted over a mile of mayday shrubs. I obtained these from the Indian Head nursery. They grew up and in the spring they were beautiful with all of their white blossoms plus the berries made very good jelly.
Out of somewhere there came the apple disease where the branches get huge blisters on them and kill the tree. About 80 to 90 percent of my trees are dead.
I think the government should be more careful in the trees they give out for shelter belts. It is hard to see 25 years of work go down the drain.
– Jim Golley,
Tees, Alta.
Farm pride
I can’t help sending a comment on the letter from Jennifer Zingre on “Life ‘out in the sticks’ is just fine” (April 5).
What a wonderful description of some of the great things about farming, livestock, nature and the fantastic things we encounter every day on the farm. For most of us, who don’t count our riches in dollars, and in owning lots of things, you remind us why we are so passionate about farming, all the joy and beauty of it.
I congratulate you on being one of us who feel proud of our farm, the job we do and who experience joy in everything about farming, and “life out in the sticks.”
You have a great attitude to work and play, to family and the lives of all creatures you encounter. Your farm must be just about as fantastic as mine – out in the sticks.
– Vera Mokoski,
Lousana, Alta.
No confusion
Many Canadian Wheat Board supporters are complaining about the voting process and the questions in the barley plebiscite.
Some are questioning ballot confidentiality. Some are insisting the questions were confusing. Confusing to who? Do they really believe that farmers are that stupid?
I can only speak for myself, but I found nothing confusing on the ballot and it doesn’t bother me if someone knows which way I voted. I voted for the second option, not because I ever wish to deal with the CWB, but because I think the board should be there for those who wish to sell through them, and I have no right to deny them that option.
Some have said the margin of victory for the choice side is not sufficient to make changes.
I remember the CWB director elections a few years ago. Only 11 percent of eligible voters returned their ballots. Of the 11 percent that voted, about 60 percent supported pro single desk candidates. The monopoly supporters considered that to be an overwhelming majority of support for the single desk. I suspect that many of the farmers who did not vote probably considered the CWB to be irrelevant to their business.
The market choice supporters accepted the results at that time. The monopoly supporters should accept the results now.
– Roger Brandl,
Fort St. John, B.C.
Not so clear
I am disturbed by the federal agriculture minister’s comments at (the) Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce breakfast. If (federal agriculture minister Chuck) Strahl really believes his own words, “let farmers speak by plebiscite, not by the (CWB) directors or government,” why did he gag the directors, create expensive government advertising for marketing choice, rig the questions, offer a fantasy option, send out erroneous statements with the ballots, scare voters off with numbered ballots, hide the voters list, shroud the scrutineers and self interpret the results?
If it weren’t for the democratic reputation of our Canada-of-the-past, this voting process should have drawn international observers and commentary with such irregularities!
Mr. Strahl appears to be threatening the CWB directors for deliberating the possibility of a legal challenge. Many credible studies and facts reveal the economic benefits of the CWB and the price of a court challenge pales in contrast to the loss of the single desk. He needs only to look in a mirror to see just who has created the disruption and confusion that he is trying to blame on the CWB….
I also question the government’s personal interpretation of the barley plebiscite results. How can they suggest they got a “clear message that can’t be misinterpreted”? How did they get to add two of the three questions together?
If there were to be two results then why weren’t there just two questions? I easily could argue that option number two was closer to a status quo option than an open market option. … …
(Strahl) has travelled around the country promoting marketing choice on my tax dollars, speaking to Chambers of Commerce and specially selected farmers and farm organizations that fuel his jaded thinking, but he is not available or willing to listen to the other side. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least to discover that the farmer-elected CWB directors get that same brush off. …
– Noreen Johns,
Allan, Sask.
TILMA concern
First it was the Canada-U.S. Trade Agreement. Then it was the North American Free Trade Agreement and now it is the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement.
Touted as a deal to enhance the economies of B.C. and Alberta by removing regulatory obstacles to trade, investment and labour mobility between the two provinces, TILMA is being promoted throughout Canada. Its real objective is to remove provincial and municipal barriers so that public policy could be harmonized in the U.S., Canada and Mexico under the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America.
While CUSTA and NAFTA applied to regulations under federal government jurisdiction, international corporations still found provincial and municipal regulations an impediment to the maximization of their profits.
Adoption of TILMA across Canada would be another step toward undermining public control over natural resources including water, energy and food security, social programs such as health care, environmental, tax, foreign and defence policies, and much more. Most of the decisions regarding these agreements are concluded in secret meetings behind closed doors and without public participation.
Our politicians are gradually allowing power to be shifted from government to private corporate boardrooms. It is my view that Canadians must not allow this to continue. What is at stake is no less than Canadian sovereignty itself.
– William Dascavich,
Edmonton, Alta.
Best gas supply
One politician tells us that we have to have ethanol in our gas and another says we don’t. Well back in the 1930s, when we had little money, that’s all we poured into the truck, as we made it every day. So is this anything new? No.
We are told that gas from the farm can be only made from grain but you know, there was a fellow who made gas from cow manure. I believe it can be done but I believe that we should be having this plant in Ottawa, as those fellows are sure full of it. Always go where the best supply is, is what my dad always said.
Is the reason that everyone is afraid the fact that finally farmers have figured out a way to make a living without those darn support programs? Will we run out of grain? No. The problem is that there just won’t be as many hands in our pockets taking the profits…
It’s good getting a pension cheque, because once a month we can go to town and buy food, a tank of gas and a tire for the garden tractor. I sure hope the politicians don’t attack seniors like they did the young farmers. We will then have to get a horse but I question how many horses it will take to pull a 40-foot air seeder.
I suppose to get enough pressure to run the darn fan, we could pipe it in from the horses’ rear end and feed them beans. …
Let the farmers of this country (be) free to change this farming situation. Quit trying to predict what you do not have a clue about. Quit having the large fuel companies playing pocket pool with you, the politicians, because they will only play as long as it feels good for them and not you.
If an old fart like me can see the light, and my sight isn’t that good anymore, maybe we need a new political party in town called the Proctitist Elimination Party. Our goal will be to keep everything moving freely so the people of this land do not get tears in their eyes, from having everything back up…
Take care now and don’t kick those horse pucks anymore, because it is spring and they are soft and there’s already enough crap flying around.
– Bob Thomas,
Regina Beach, Sask.
