years the snow plow, many of them summer road plows converted to handle

snow, have really come into use, so that at the present time all modes of

transportation move almost as freely as on any day in summer. Even the

railroad train has had to take second place in the competition with the auto

to such an extent that the Freetown Station House, that mecca of bustle and

business for over seventy-five years, was sold to Harold Drummond in 1969 ‘ for about the price of the coal that was stored in it, and was hauled back a

few yards and converted into a garage.

To—day in Lower Freetown horses are as scarce as auto 5 were in 1910 perhaps half a dozen in the whole district, kept mainly for hauling outi manure in the winter or hauling firewood or lumber. Even firewood,§ owing to high labor costs, is going to waste, and is being replaced with oil , or electricity. The price of furnace fuel, oil. delivered to the householdcré has recently risen from $21.10 to $23.80 per hundred gallons. Most of thei homes in the district range in age from seventy- -f1ve to one hundred years,1 with some older, but most are in a good state of repair with modern 1 convenienLes including electricity, plumbing, telephone etc It looks as if, 1 in the future there would have to be a building boom to replace all these 1 old houses. I

In farming the trend is all for larger and fewer farms. With the large expensive machinery in use to-day a large acreage is a necessity to meet 3 overhead, consequently the small farmer is gradually being pushed out, to 1 the detriment of community and Church life. Indeed Churches all over the Island are being forced into the same pattern, with many of the smaller} ones being closed and larger ones being built in more populated areas to accornodate several congregations. Although farm land has increased in value over the past few years. in some cases selling for $200.00 or more per acre, on many farms the outlay for machinery far exceeds the value of the land. For example: a self-propelled Grain Combine costs $8000.00 to $12000.00 single row Potato Combine $7500.00, Tractors $3000.00 to 10,000.00 each, to say nothing of mowers, balers, rakes, plows, harrows, graders, escalators, trucks, Spreaders, seeders, etc., etc. A farmer with all this investment cannot possibly make it pay with less than four or five hundred acres, and to borrow money from the government at the rate of SSW/r is simply courting bankruptcy. The minimum hourly wage as set by Legislature as of August first last year is $1.25, adding, of course, to the farmers cost of production. Compare this with 50¢ for a ten hour day paid by farmers in 1870 to 1920! All citizens over sixty-five years of age receive a pension of $80.00 a month, with an additional fifty-five dollars per month, if need is proven.

And so, dear friends, “Good-by”. It has been a pleasure writing to you. My hope is that this pamphlet will instill in the minds of all of you, the desire to preserve the precious memories of our heritage, and also so to

live in the future that the past hardships and sacrifices will not have been in vain.

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