FARMING The first and only industry to have continued from the beginnings of settlement until the present is farming. Farming has changed over the more than 150 years and the number of farms, farmers and acreage farmed has followed the provincial pattern of increase until about 1920, then decreased up to the present. When W.W. Irving selected the site for Bonshaw Home farm, it was done to take advantage of the south-facing slope, which was important to the crop varieties being grown at the time. Many of the crops needed a long growing season and the upper parts of slopes were the best place to get this. As mechanization increased in the 1920-50s many of the slopes which were so beneficial earlier became a limitation and the sloping land was converted either to pasture or allowed to revert back to forest. It was farming which drove the other industries in the village. The tannery, creamery, grist mill and the stores could not have existed without the outputs from the farms. The merchants provided a market for the various farm products in exchange for goods that the farms couldn't produce. The stores and the associated warehouses, river boats and later the roads provided a connection with the rest of the provincial economy. One of the requirements for successful farming in the 19th century and the early 20th was the fertilization of fields with mussel mud. This was harvested from the riverbed in the tidal parts of the river through the ice in the winter. It was piled on shore and in summer, when the roads were better, hauled to the farm and spread on the fields (42). Making hay August 1925 courtesy of Billy Potts 64