As I Remember Them

especially for his pugilistic skills, and I never had any further trouble with the boys.

Hughie was a good farmer and did not hesitate to experiment. He was one of the first to start growing certified seed potatoes. They were sold to Cuba, until MacKenzie King put an embargo on sugar so that sugar beets could be grown in Ontario. Hughie grew straw- berries and rhubarb. He was a trusting soul and would put a basket at the road, so that people buying products could leave the money. He was a progressive farmer who had a couple of Ayrshire cows. I remember milking a couple of pails of milk from one cow. He had the best sheep in the country but he did not mind letting them wander in his good oat field.

He always had big horses, which were very strong, and he taught all the young fellows how to plough, scuf- fle, etc. All the farmers took great pains to have straight furrows. Hughie did not care as long as the field was red. My father had a wheel on the plough to guide the depth, but Hughie did not use one. I think that helped me years later in handling the “Link Trainer” (in the RCAF). One was not only responsible for sideways movement, but also up and down.

He used to call for me, and he and Willie MacDonald would go and visit Charles S. MacDonald, a teacher who spent a great time reading. Charles S. MacDonald was a very intelligent man for his time. I recall one night he was explaining the atom, some years before I went to Prince of Wales College. He was saying how many atoms could be put on the head of a pin, and that if he could harness one of them, it would heat up the room for several years. I always appreciated that Hughie would take the time to take a ten year old to learn about such things. Charlie Was a self-taught man who read deep books which he

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