Page 71 - With Dan Angus Beaton, Blackstone: Farm Life, Dredging on the Great Lakes, and Tales

ISSUE : Issue 47

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1988/1/1

to hew them with the axe. Because they fig? ured that water would go in them more read? ily if they were sawed with a saw. And if they were done with the axe, the water wasn't so liable to go in them, and they'd last longer. (So would you square all 4 sides?) Oh, 6 inches thick. A big broadaxe. (So you had to do handwork like that on ev? ery tie.) Oh yes, yes, every tie, you had to take the face--you had to have a 6-inch face on it. 25 cents--that was big money. They were much less than that at first, they were down to as low as around 12 cents, but they worked up. During the war years they were 25 cents. You were lucky, lucky, if you got a hundred to make. You got an order for them. You couldn't go ahead and make as many as you wanted. And then, after the mines got going--the mines at Inverness, and during the war-- used to be pit timber. And pit timber then --you got 5 and 6 cents a stick for it. But you had to haul it to the railroad track, and load it on the car, and haul it to the trailer to take it to Inverness, and unload it there. (Was there any finishing work you had to do on the stick?) No, just limb it, and cut WHERE IS YOUR FUELWOOD? Is it still in the Forest, Uncut? Or is it Cut, Split, Stacked, starting to dry out and season? To burn your wood more safely, and for more heat value, you should have your firewood supply now. Properly seasoned wood should contain no more than 18% moisture. Remember that dry wood may be hard to get in the Fall. IFOR SERVICE, DEPENDABILITY AND HONESTY, PHONE: I 562-8400 or 562-1784 | Caribou Marsh Fuelwood Co. Supplying Firewood Is Our Profession-Not Our Sideline! it. They were usually a 7-foot stick. You left the bark on it. Oh, sometimes they'd haul them 5, 10 miles. It's up to where you're living. You (usually) got an order from the merchants for that, too. That was all winter work. You had your farm work to do in the summer? time. That was winter work. (And was there any money in farm work?) Well, the average two-year-old steer was selling then for around $16 a head. And during the '30s-- they called the Hungry '30s--things were desperate then, you know. People sent some beef away, and some older cattle, that got a freight bill, that the animal didn't even so much as pay for the whole freight. They got a bill for sending them away. I'll give you an example of it. There was, a fellow in Antigonish--Jewish fellow--and he was buying cattle all through Cape Breton Island here. And I sold him nine head of cattle, good ones. Nine head, nine head, for $74--and lucky to get it. He wouldn't give me the $75. Now, that's how valuable the dollar was at that time. That's how hard money was to come by in those days. Now the wife can add onto that, now, about when she started teaching--she can tell you. Do you know that they only got paid once a year, and the wages was only a- round--what--$325 a year? Catherine Beaton: $350 was considered good. You'd have to pay your board out of that. The first school that I taught in was in 1929. I got my Grade 11 in 1929. And we went to summer school, ones of us that were going to teach. And by passing there and taking a course in school on administra? tion, successfully, you could get what they call a "D" license. So that's what I did, and I had a license to teach. "D" was the lowest. But after I got teaching, and going back 4 different years to summer school, I had raised it to a "TC5." WE HAVE INFORMATION ON YOUR PROPERTY - AND YOU SHOULD KNOW WHAT IT IS! We have over 20 pieces of information on ewery number you see on this map, and we have a number on ewery property in Cape Breton, Richmond, Victoria, and Inverness Counties. That means we have a number on every property in Cape Breton Island. - A SERVICE WORTH INVESTIGATING - Land Registration /and Information Service Property Mapping and Records Division 66 Wentworth Street, Sydney, N. S. BIP 6T4 CONTROL SYSTEM of concrete monuments for surveying BASE MAPS: Orthophoto for rural areas. Line Maps for cities, town, villages PROPERTY MAPS with boundary information and ownership information REGISTRY ASSISTANCE for government and private users Your Property Is Our Business -Ask Us About It TELEPHONE (902) 539-2011 or (902) 539-2622 An Agency of the Council of Maritime Premiers

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