Looking Back (By Ina McKenzie) "You will have time now to write memoirs," has been a frequent comment to us since our sale of the Witness became public knowledge, and when the new publisher suggested such a column, the idea appealed. An abrupt retirement is a condition we have never anticipated with pleasure, and writing two columns each week should prevent our "having time on our hands." Looking back! Where should we begin? The decision reached was that our first day in Bradford, September 10, 1931, should be a becoming beginning. In the weeks to come, stories may not follow calendar sequence, but for us, the day on which we began our first, and only business venture, is a memorable date. September 10, 1931 On that day, after signing all papers associated with the purchase of a business, we attended a luncheon meeting of "weekly" publishers from this section of Ontario, convening that day in the Queen's Hotel, Bradford. In those years newspaper men had a lively association, representing Simcoe, York and Muskoka, and the many aspects of the business were discussed, and ideas exchanged. In 1931 the drainage of the Holland Marsh was just beginning to attract attention as a wonderful agricultural project, and the newsmen of the district, anxious to learn about it, had Professor William H. Day as their guest speaker. What a story! The first drainage scheme on the marsh predated our coming here, but have always understood that first drainage dates back to 1926, and from what we saw after 1931, there was much to do in the clearing of the land between drainage work and it being ready for cultivation, therefore the story told by Professor Day at that newspaper convention, was the Holland Marsh gardens' first big "success" story. A quiet spoken little man, Professor Day stood before that audience of newsmen with map, and chart, listing vegetables, acreages, yield per acre and dollars, which in 1931 were fantastic. Professor Day, the drainage engineer from Guelph, whose insistence that the thousands of acres of marsh could be made an agricultural "gold mine", and who had finally seen his vision on the way to realization after he had convinced the councils of Bradford, West Gwillimbury and King to undertake the drainage project, told of his first big success crop - his 1930 crop. Professor Day and his sons, Bill and Harry, owned 37 acres of marsh garden land on the Bradford marsh and off those 37 acres they harvested a crop in 1930 which grossed $26,000, and, if his audience knew little or nothing about producing vegetables in quantity, $26,000, in those early "depression" years most certainly aroused attention. What would $26,000 be in dollars today? Memory does not retain figures accurately, therefore the printed page has been sought for reference, and that 1930 crop is recorded as follows: head lettuce, twenty-two acres; celery, six and one half acres; onions four and one half acres; carrots, two and one half acres; parsnips, one and one half acres. The crop harvested was listed as parsnips, one carload; carrots, two carloads; onions, four carloads; celery, seventeen carloads and lettuce, twenty-eight carloads, making a total of 52 carloads. Off those thirty-seven acres, Professor Day calculated that if the entire shipment had left Bradford at one time, the train would have been one half mile in length! Professor Day listed the expense side of the picture, which reduced profits to about fifty percent of the gross, but even with such a net, figures held his audience spellbound. Growers may note the change in vegetables acreage between that first recorded garden crop from those of today. Lettuce, without a vacuum cooling system, or refrigerated rapid transit trucking, found demand on local markets far in excess of production, because, as Professor Day reported, Holland Marsh lettuce is rated far superior to other Canadian lettuce or imports from U.S. From the time of that first success story of Holland Marsh produce, emphasis has been placed on "Quality."
