The Lost Code

Farmers Had to Be Competitive

The Harvest in 1914

Musée de la civilisation, fonds d'archives du Séminaire de Québec, BENOîT, ROSARIO, 1914, PH1986-1910

Farmland was increasingly scarce, and obsolete farming methods had sapped the fertility of the land. Farmers' earnings dropped. In the last decades of the 19th century, farmers were encouraged to modernize their techniques and mechanize their operations. Buying farming machines and seeds was expensive and indebted rural residents who already had trouble getting the credit they needed. On the whole, Québec farmers did little to modernize. The size of farms remained roughly the same, and mechanization took root more slowly here than in the rest of Canada.