Page 32 - Starting with Our Cover Photograph" A Visit with Mary and William Crowdis

ISSUE : Issue 30

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1981/12/1

They had no hay of their own, and that's where they'd go. He'd never take anything for it. He'd give them a cartbox full of hay. Which wouldn't be very much, but e- nough for to have to feed the horses for a day or night. He was that much advanced. It was good land up there. Mary: It was so hard getting up and down the mountain, you know. But those old peo? ple, they never minded it. My grandfather used to come down to church two and three times on Sunday. Walk. William: Well, Mary twice. Mary: We were a Baptist, and they had service in the morning and at night, and if there was anything special going on, they would have it three times. Morning, afternoon, and evening. And he never missed. Walking, too. He wouldn't harness a horse to come down. He walked. (Because it was Sunday?) William: No. If you had a horse, they did the work. That was what you had to plow or pull a root out or haul the stones away. Mary: The horse would rest on a Sunday afternoon. (Did you really get to know Malcolm Fra? ser?) Indeed I did. I was quite a little chunk there (indicating the photo). He was my favourite. There was never a man like him. As far as ][ know, as a child, he couldn't be any better. An A-1 man, that's all. He was a hardworking man--he was a very hardworking man--he was a religious man. And he was a good, good-living man-- that's all I can say. He was awful good to mOo (Where did he find time for you?) Well, he was around 80 there. (Wasn't working as much?) No. He was lame. I don't know what ever happened to him that he was lame. He's buried up the Baptist church. The Bap? tist graveyard. William: I don't believe there's a tombstone. Mary: Oh, I don't ima? gine. Mary: Then after they moved down from Fra- ser s Mountain to where the house stands, after the Oxford Pulp and Paper Company started out St. Ann's--it was down on the North River, You must have heard of it. (See Issue 7, Cape Breton's Magazine, "In the North River Lumber Woods." It is re? printed in the book Down North.) But any? way, my mother cooked--my father and her went back up on the mountain and they worked for one of the superintendents, Charles Jackson. And they farmed that farm. And they had horses--oh, I suppose they'd have probably a hundred horses there at a time. William: That is, the woods horses. They'd come out there when the haul was o- ver. They came out and stayed the winter at the farm. That is, February and March and April. Mary: And my mother was a cook there. (So this was the farm that served the Oxford Paper Company.) Mary: That's right. They had it leased from my father. William: They had it for perhaps 10, 15 years. And their crop was mostly potatoes for the woods. Mary: Potatoes and turnips. Planting Forest Trees Bareroot seedlings and transplants are young trees with their roots freed from the soil in which they were grown. They are usually raised in nurseries from two to five years. Seedlings grown individually in small paper or plastic receptacles are known as con? tainer stock. The soil stays with the roots when the seedling is planted (although the container itself may not). Container stock is usually less than a year old at planting time. WHEN TO PLANT? Bareroot seedlings and transplants can be planted spring or fall. Spring is best because the trees can take root before freezeup. Spring planting should start as soon as the ground can be worked and should end be? fore the buds expand and shoots emerge, a matter of a few weeks. This period can be ex? tended by placing the seedlings in cold stor? age. n be planted over a longer period • from after the ground th. about mid-August (except in hot, dry weath? er). Fall planting runs more risk of frost-heav? ing because the seedlings may not have had e to take root. Container seedlings may be planted with the help of a planting tube To reduce frost-heaving, be sure the seedling is planted at the proper depth in a spot with a good humus layer Avoid jil, heavy planting each tree. need proper lure of a planta- depends a great minute spent in a hole big enough to spread the r lly and at the same depth they v then firm these A spacing of six feel ided • although • Drawings and text from Brochure 7--Forest Practices, Planting For? est Trees, Government of Canada, Regional Economic Expansion, Nova Scotia Department of Lands and Forests. (32) Nova Scotia Forest Industries Baddeck- Port Hawkesbury - Antigonish IN5FI The Pulp & Paper People"

Cape Breton's Magazine