MARGAREE AND METROPOLIS: ECONOMIC MARGWALITY AND DYNAMIC UNDERDEVELOPMENT IN A TWENTIETH-CENTURY RURAL CAPE BRETON COMMUMTY
Jon-Callum Makkai
Submitted in partial fùlfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts
Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia September 2000
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To my dear friend. #E&kcT.and to rny rnother, Ann-Noreen. for their boundless encouragement, patience. and support. TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
IlIustrations and Tables vi A bstract vii Abbreviations and Terms viii Acknowledgements ix
INTRODUCTION: Literatm & Methodology
CHAPTER
ONE The Domestic Economy: Margaree Pior to the Second World War
TWO Dynarnic Underdevelopment and Capitalist Hegemony in Inverness County, 1945- 1970
THREE Agncuhre and Adjustment in the Margaree Valley, 1 945- 1970
FOUR Tourkm Developrnent, Imperialism, and Resource Management in the Margaree Valley, 1945- 1970
CONCLUSION
APPENDIX A: Charts "A" Series
APPENDIX B: Charts "P Series
BIBLIOGRAPHY ILLUSTRATIONS AND TABLES
PAGE
Table 1 - 1 Average Acreage per Land Occupant 37
Table 1-2 Improved Land and Woodland in Proportion to Total Acreage 37
Table 1 -3 Average Livestock per Land Occupant 38
Chart 4- 1 Annual Salmon Catch fiom Margaree River, 1947- 1977 185 ABSTRACT
In response to weaknesses inherent in the macrostructuralist approach of previous scholars concemed with economic underdevelopment in the Maritimes, the author combines oral and written evidence to explore popular responses to underdevelopment between 1945 and 1970 in the Margaree Valley area of Inverness County, Nova Scotia. The foundation of Margaree's domestic economy in the inter-war period was occupational pluralism within a semi-market subsistence econorny which the merchant supply system regulated. Market involvement provided the structural basis for the dynamic underdevelopment of the domestic economy in the decades following the Second World War. Irnperatives relating to poor economic conditions arising fiom the on-going restructuring of the traditional economy fbeled a political campaign in the 1950s for the establishment of a pulp-and-paper mil1 in the Strait of Canso area. The abandonment of petty commodity production for waged employment in the pulp industry was a major reaction during the 1960s to the deterioration of the agrarian economy. The pulp industry's economic rewards were fundamental in generating popular support for a capitalist hegemony which spelled rapid resource depletion for the sub-region. Despite the industry's considerable input into the domestic economy, out-migration and agricultural decline continued to plague communities like Margaree throughout the 1960s. Margaree residents adjusted to petty producers' weakening structural position by out-migrating, exploiting non-agricultural resources, and adapting production to take advantage of technological changes and market opportunities. Tourism became increasingly important to Margaree's economy with the decline of fming, but conditions of economic marginality necessitated local accommodation of touristic demands in a manner that yielded a pattern of development constrained considerably by local resources. Local responses to the pulp industry, agricultural restructuring, and tourism development were consistent with the conclusion that accommodation and adjustment characterized popular reaction to the dynamic underdevelopment of the Comestic economy in the period following the Second World WY. The apparent robustness of capitalist hegemony in nual eastem Nova Scotia casts senous doubt on the assumption that the processes of semi-proletarianization and urbanization accompanying capitalist underdevelopment should have sparked class struggle arnong petty conimodity producers.
vii ABBREVIATIONS AND TERMS
Agricultural Rehabilitation and Development Act, or Agncultd and Rural Development Act
Beaton Institute, University College of Cape Breton
CBC Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Department of Agriculture Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture and Marketing
Extension Department Extension Department, St. Francis Xavier University
ICFA Inverness County Federation of Agriculture
MG Manuscript Group
MLA Member of the Legislative Assembly of Nova Scotia
NIDC North Inverness Development Cornmittee
North Invemess Northem area of Inverness County corresponding to the C héticamp-Margaree census subdivision.
NSFA Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture
PANS Public Archives of Nova Scotia
RG Record Group
WWII Second World War
viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Dalhousie Association of Graduate Students and Dalhousie's Faculty of Graduate Studies helped fund my trip to the Margarees. The Grand Lodge of Ancient Free & Accepted Masons of Nova Scotia granted me access to the Masonic collection at the Public Archives of Nova Scotia. Anne LeBlanc at the Coady & Tompkins Mernorial Library at Margaree Forks was most helpful during the fieldwork. 1 also appreciate the assistance of personnel at Dalhousie's Killarn Library and at the Beaton Institute, University College of Cape Breton.
Many individuals helped me during the research and the manuscript preparation. Andrew Jones and Ruth McLellan-Nugent entnisted me with their computers. Other logisticians * *& - were and David Jackson. Thanks also to R. Lynn Folvik and Harvey A. Whitfield. People who loaned me documents were Hugh Creighton, Frances Hart, Dr. Kyle D. Kauffman of Wellesley College. and various anonymous residents of the Margaree Valley. 1 am especially indebted to Claudia & Donaid Fortune and Evelyn. Marcella. & Sadie LeBlanc for their generous assistance and hospitality while 1 was staying in the Margaree area. My deepest gratitude goes to my mother. Ann-Noreen Norton, who hüs gone well beyond the cal1 of duty in supponing my work. I wish to thank my supervisor. Dr. Sean T. Cadigan. for his excellent guidance. Finally. Iam deeply grüteful to the numerous people who helped me make contacts and who participated in the study.
J. Callum Makkai August 1 3'h, 2000 INTRODUCTION
Literature and Methodology
Siveet to me is the music of the great river as it meanders amidst the glory of ifs beauty; as long as ir continues to course ro ihe sea, I will never hate the Braes.'
Conventional accounts of the Margaree area, like these lyrics, have typically extolled the beauty of this corner of Inverness County. Margaree's splendid hills and valleys follow a complex watershed that flows hmthe Cape Breton highlands and fiom Lake Ainslie out toward the coast where the Margaree River meets the Gulf of St. Lawrence at Margaree
~arbour.'T.C. Haliburton prosaically described the "River Marguerite" as descending
"fiorn the northem hills of the interior, flowing with a winding course through hills of woodland and glades of intervale, offering pleasing views of park like scenery, the cultivated intervales, adomed by graceful elms, appearing with fine effect at the various tums of the river."3 At one time the intervde lands dong the Margaree River supported herds of cattle and flocks of sheep. The beauty of Margaree's pastoral setting led one
Margaree man to opine that "the people here should never cease to be thanfil for the
' "Gur binn leam cedl na h-aibhne mdir', 'S i falbh an glbir a h-hilleachd; Cho fad 's a shiùbhlas 1 gu cuan / Cha toir mi fùath do'n Bhràighidh." From the song "Am Briiighe," originally written by Malcolm Gillis of Margaree, an "edited" version appearing in Helen Creighton and Calum MacLeod, Guelic Songs in Nova Scoria, National Museum of Canada Bulletin No. 198, Anthropological Series No. 66 (Ottawa: Queen's Printer, 1964)' pp. 64-66. Mi'kmaq names for Margaree Harbour and Margaree River were Oochaadooch and Weukuch', respectively, according to Elizabeth Frame, A List of Micmac Numes of Pluces, Rivers, etc., in Nova Scotia (Cambridge: J. Wilson, I892), pp. 1 1- 12. pleasant place in which their lives have fallen."4 Yet depictions of Margaree that emphasize its natural beauty, or that nostalgicaliy larnent the loss of "a less complex world," risk glossing over the difficult economic conditions and the waves of out- migration that fiected the community throughout the twentieth century.' Margaree's economic history was first that of struggle in the face of pervasive economic marginality and then, following the Second World War, that of adjustment to the dynamic underdevelopment of the region's rural economy.
Issues sumunding economic underdevelopment have long concemed Maritimers and the students of Maritime history. Since at least the tum of the twentieth century, and certainly by the inter-war period, Maritimers' popular recognition of regional economic disparity had evolved into a discourse that was dominant in the political life of the region.
Subsequent scholars' preoccupation with the development question is hardly surprising given that the discourse of underdevelopment has so shaped the region's political and social history. Many different schools have emerged since the 1930s when economist
Harold Imis pioneered the orthodox "staples" perspective on regional disparity in the
- ' Thomas C. Haliburton, An Historicul and Stutistical Accounr ofNova Scotia: in Two Volumes (Halifax: Joseph Howe, 1829), p. 228. Quofation attributed to an unspecified Margaree resident in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's production, Twenty Barrels A Day (1966). Another documentary on Margaree is the National Film Board of Canada's Margaree People (1978), featuring narration and photography by Geoge C. Thomas. The NFB's film The Chairmaker and the Boys (1959) is a story based around the life of Margaree native Ernest Hart, a blacksmith 1 carpenter who for years ran a carding miIl at Nonheast Margaree. The Arnerican artist George C. Thomas, who arrived in Margaree fiom the United States in 197 1, ernphasized Margaree's aesthetic appeal in his collection of photographs, Margaree (Margaree Harbour: Harbour Lights Press, 1980), n.p. Despite Thomas' penchant for the quaint, many of these photographs capture traces of a world that was well "on the way out" by the time Thomas arrived on the scene. Thomas wrote in this book, itself an exercise in anti-modernism and nostalgia: "i realired that the last vestiges of a passing lifestyle were vanishing. That earlier way of life appealed very much to me. it spoke of a less Maritimes. However, while students of the "Maritimes Problem" have entertained diverse theoretical approaches, one ovemding concem unifies the body of scholarship.
That concem has been the need (or desire) to identie the root cause(s) of the Maritimes' economic ills in order to offer solutions. This diagnostic and prescriptive quest has motivated practically al1 these scholars in their studies and writings about reg ional economic development. As such, the current literature is predorninantly aetiological in orientation.
The first major scholarly attempt to explain the economic underdevelopment of the Maritimes came in the 1930s when H.A. lmis and his student, S.A. Saunders, advanced the "staples approach." This approach was the first school in a tradition of
"regional self-balance" theory that emphasized the role of "institutional or bctoral malfunctions" in the production of economic ~nderdevelopment.~From a staples perspective, the characteristics of a region's exports detennined the nature of that region's economic development. Thus, in the case of the Maritimes, the region's productive and distributive processes reflected the nature of its staple-based export economy.' The staples approach placed primary importance on the ways in which geography and technology inhibited or released a staple's economic potential.' In the case of the
complex world, a conserver society, and a way of life which emphasized hark work, intimacy with the earth and nature, and attitudes of pride, independence and self-suficiency." L Gene Barrett, "Perspectives on Dependency and UnderdeveIopment in the Atlantic Region," Canadian Review of Sociofogy and Social Anthropology, vol. 1 7, no. 2 ( 1 980), p. 273. ' A.M. Sinclair, "Problems of Underdevelopment in Atlantic Canada with Special Reference The Maritimes' economy detenorated because the region could not, for geographical reasons, make the shift to the continental economy that Confederation pr~moted.9Economic "stagnation" was the logical result of the region's inherent "weakness" and inability to integrate into the continental economy. Factors such as the loss of overseas trade and the demise of the "wood, wind, and sail" economy worsened the region's ills." As Fay and Innis wrote in their contribution to the Cambridge History ofthe British Empire: "The competition of iron and steel destroyed a magnificent achievement, an integration of capital and labour, of lurnbering, fishing and agriculture, on which rested a progressive comrnunity life."" Innis espoused the notion that in pre- Confederation times the Maritimes had enjoyed economic prosperity by virtue of a "natural" balance between the forms of staple exploitation. The rise of industrial capitalism and the failed "nationalization" of the regional economy threw off balance the integrated staple industries that the region required for economic well-being. In his work, The Cod Fisheries, for example, Imis specifically attributed the decline of the vital fishing economy to the deleterious effects of industrial capitalism." Saunders followed - - - Barrett, "Perspectives on Dependency and Underdevelopment," p. 273. 'O Bickerton, Nova Scotia, Ottawa, and the Palitics of Regional Developrnent, pp. 12- 13. " C.R. Fay and H. A. Innis, "The Maritime Provinces," in The Cambridge History of the British Empire, vol. 6 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1930), p. 663. l2 Gregory Kealey, Ian McKay, and Nolan ReiIly, "Canada's "Eastern Question": A Reader's Guide CO Regional UnderdeveIoprnent," Canadian Dimension, vol. 13, no. 2 (1978), p. 38; Harold A. Innis, The Cod Fisheries: the History of an Internalional Economy, Revised Edition (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1954), especially pp. 492-508. his tutor's lead with greater force, pushing further the argument that modemization in the hands of central Canadians had devastated the Maritimes.I3 The staples advocates conceived of regional disparity in terms of the simplistic notion that Confederation introduced a fundamental tension between continental and maritime forces. Fay and Innis saw the Maritimes as having succumbed to "the pull of the land." a force that drew the region away from its natural maritime economy: "The economic history of the hee provinces since 1867 is one of prosperity so long as their face was towards the sea, and of struggle against adversity when the pull of the land increased, as happened very shonly after [C]onfederation."" While potentially pessimistic about the Maritimes' ability in the 1930s to escape regional entrapment in the continental economy. Innis believed that the Maritimes' economic interest rested on retuming to a maritime economy in which commerce with "countries to the south'' figured prominently. '' The orthodoxy of the staples approach enjoyed widespread acceptance into the 1970s when it came under the attack of emerging schools of underdevelopment theory . Critics dissented on staples advocates' overemphasis on the potential role that staple industries could play in the formation of the economic base necessary for industrial deÿelopment, especially given that staple industries had declined immensely in the early- l3 Kealey, McKay, and Reilly, "Canada's "Eastern Question"," p. 38; S.A. Saunders, Studies in the Economy of the Maritime Provinces (Toronto: Macmillan Company, 1939), especially pp. 159- 178,256- 265. '" Fay and Innis, "The Maritime Provinces," p. 670. l5 Bickerton, Nova Scoria, Ottuwa, and the Politics of Regional Development, p. 13; Fay and Innis, "The Maritime Provinces," p. 670. twentieth century.I6 Another weakness of the staples approach was its tendency to represent the Maritimes as an economically integrated region whose cohesion resulted from a natural balance of the staple industries. As histonan T. W. Acheson remarked, the Maritimes pnor to Confederation was not a "single integrated economic unit," but rather "a number of British comrnunities clustered on the Atlantic fnnge, each with its separate lines of communication" into the Imperia1 metropolis." The model's geographical and technological determinism tended to deny agency in matters of development, thereby bolstering Maritimers' "sense of political helplessness."'s The staples literature supported Maritimen' feelings of inability to control their destinies while obscuring industrial achievement that had occurred in the decades following Confederation.19 Fay and Imis argued that i[t]he econornic history of the Maritime Provinces since [Clonfederation is largely a history of the effects produced on them by economic movements" of the Western nations."' The export basis of the staple economy meant that economic dynamism within the region fiowed From processes in other parts of the world. This emphasis on the prirnacy of extemal factors obscured important developments within the region itself. The staples approach largely ignored the role of actors and govemments while falling back on a vulgar geographical and '' B ic kerton, Nova Scatia, Ottawa, and the Politics of Regional Development, p. 13. " T. W. Acheson, "The National Policy and the Industrialization of the Maritimes, 1880- 19 10," Acadiensis, no. 1 (Spring 1972)- p. 27. ''Kealey, McKay, and Reilly, "Canada's "Eastern Question"," p. 38. Kealey, McKay, and Reilly, "Canada's "Eastern Question"," p. 38. 'O Fay and Innis, "The Maritime Provinces," p. 657. technological determinism to account for underdevelopment." The perspective fit easily into the ideological framework of the frontier thesis - first advanced by Frederick Jackson Turner - which argued that economic growth was inherent to the fiontier economy while older colonial economies were intrinsically stagnant. Because staple production was scattered spatially, and because it relied on *inferiorWtechnology, the staple economy engendered popular conservatism which hindered economic deve~o~ment."The staples perspective validated stereotypes that saw the region's malaise as rooted in popular "conservatism." Orthodox aetiologies of regional disparity have ofien combined "cultural factors" with the geographical and technological explanations of the staples perspective. Maritimers possessed a parochial attitude toward economic development because the region's supposed "isolation" bred a population with an ingrained suspicion of change. Maritimers thus tended to avoid the risk of making new investrnents, diversifying production. or hamessing "superior" technologies. These attitudes resulted in a paucity of indigenous entrepreneurship that effectively stifled the emergence of a strong manufacturing sector." A prime example of the cultural orientation to underdevelopment theory is R.E. George's A Leader and a Laggard. In this study, George concluded that underdevelopment resulted fiom the weak entrepreneurial ski11 of the region's peopie, a condition enhanced by cultural factors, complacency, and a dominant pattern of family- ''Bickerion, Nova Scotia, Ottawa, und the Politics ofRegiunai Development, pp. 1 3- 14. R. James Sacouman, "The 'Peripheral' Maritimes and Canada-Wide Mmist Political Economy," Sides in Political Economy, no. 6 (Autumn 198 l), p. 136. Bickerion, Nova Scotia, Ottawa, and the Poiitics of Regional Development, p. 14. oriented business." The notion that entrepreneurid failure induced regionai disparity was quite popular among some neo-classical economists also, dcspite the fact that neo- ciassicai theory, with its emphasis on markets and resources as determinates of economic development, could not account for why entrepreneurs did not enter the Maritimes to take advantage of opportunities that unadventurous Maritimen passed up." For proponents of the cultural explanation, Maritimers' parochialism was the "factoral malfunction" that led to underdevelopment . The cultural thesis compnsed one part of a larger discourse surrounding the metropolis-periphery model of economic growth. In a variation on the doctrine of the frontier thesis. the rnodel ofien assumed that society on the periphery must be "isolated and "traditional" since the "backward periphery had less contact with the "progressive" metropolitan centre? This type of thinking no doubt intluenced histonan T.W. Acheson's work on industriaiization in the Maritimes. Weak entrepreneunhip aliegedly accounted for the region's failure to maintain its mmufacturing industry. When Montreal interests, with their strong financial system and sophisticated marketing apparatus, challenged native entrepreneurs in the late-nineteenth century, the latter simply "drew back and even participated in the transfer of contr01."~~Acheson accounted for the abandonment of the region's nascent manufactwing sector in terms of a colonial ='Barrett, "Perspectives on Dependency and Underdevelopment," p. 274; Roy E. George, A Leader and a Laggard: Manufacturing indrstty in Nova SCotICI, Quebec and Ontario (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1970), especially pp. 106-1 15, 166-170. '5 Sinclair, "Problems of Underdevelopment in Atlantic Canada," pp. 60-6 1. '' B ic kerton, Nova Scotia, Ottawa. and the Politics of Regional Development, p. 1 5. " Acheson, "The National Policy," p. 19. mentality among the entrepreneurid class, arguing that "[ilnherent in most of [the entrepreneur's] activities was the colonial assumption that he could not really control his own destiny, that, of necessity, he would be manipulated by forces beyond his control."" Acheson depicted the regional entrepreneur as weak and inept and, betraying the condescending attitudes that so fiequently plagued the cultural approach, he concludeci that "[u]ltimately, perhaps inevitably, the regional entrepreneur lost control to extemal forces which he could rarely comprehend, much less master."" More dubious perhaps was the ease with which the cultural approach wrote off huge sections of the population - whole sub-regions, cornrnunities, and classes of people - as having little to contribute to the region's economic devel~prnent.~' Along with the argument about entrepreneurial failure, Acheson subsctibed to the view that central Canadian political domination had played a central part in generating regional disparity. Scholars such as T.W. Acheson and E.R. Forbes have perceived a root of the problem in central Canadian capitaiists' use of politicd influence to dominate the periphery. Through politicd influence, Canadian interests manipulated policy in order to achieve the de-industrialization of the Maritimes and to secure their monopolistic hold on secondary production." The task that faced scholars in transforming the metropolis- periphery mode1 of domination into scholarly knowledge was to detemine exactly how the central Canadian metropolis achieved its hegemonic order. In this regard Acheson's Acheson, "The National Policy," p. 28. '' Acheson, "The National Policy," p. 28, with emphasis. 30 Kealey, McKay, and Reilly, "Canada's "Eastern Question"," p. 39. work was most valuable, the historian having etched out the process of capital consolidation by which Montreal de-industrialized the region begiming in the early 1890s." Acheson's pioneering contribution to the histoncal literature was his argument that. contrary to orthodox thinking, the Maritimes did experience a period of industrialization in the decades following Confederation through a transfer of resources fiom the staple industries into an emerging manufacturing sector.)) Taking advantage of oppominities that John A. Macdonald's National Policy created, regionai entrepreneurs developed sugar, textile, iron and steel, cordage, clothing, and even automobile ind~stries.~'However, these industries consisted of family fims that had difficulties raising large amounts of capital. One problern was the Maritimes' lack of a developed financial system to provide the capital required for the manufacturing sector's growth. The relative weakness of Maritime enterprises allowed metropolitan interests to gain control of most sectors of the Maritime economy by the 1920s.'~ Acheson perceived this development as the result of a process whereby the Maritimes passed from the control of the British metropolis to the control of the central Canadian rnetropolis. The Canadian take-over occurred in response to the demands of its business class and as a result of an inhospitable economic context that forced -- -- .- " Michael Clow, "Politics and Uneven Capitalist Development: the Maritime Challenge to the Study of Canadian Po 1itical Economy," Sludies in Political Economy, no. 14 (Summer 1984), p. 120. '' CIOW,bbP~liti~~ and Uneven Capitalist Development," p. 1 19. 33 Acheson, "The National Policy," p. 3. '' Barrett, "Perspectives on Dependency and Underdevelopment," p. 274. '' Acheson, "The National Policy," pp. 6-7. James D. Frost challenged Acheson's argument that the region's banking institutions could not support indigenous enterprise. See, J.D. Frost, "The "Nationalization" of the Bank of Nova Scotia, 1880- 19 10," in Acheson, Frank, and Frost, Industrialkcïtiun and Underdm2lupment in the Maritimes. 1880-1930 (Toronto: Garamond Press, 1 98S), pp. 27-28. consolidation in order for these interests to maintain their hegemony." The polemic for the Maritimes was not the reality of metropolitan control. The Imperia1 system had traditionally sustained the economic activities of the region. The crux of the problem was the new metropolis' failure to meet its responsibiiities in the mehopolis-periphery relationship. Central Cana& did not provide a market for the output of regional industry - a function that Britain, with its large overseas markets, had served in the past. Instead. overlapping production and the resulting cornpetition between metropolitan and peripheral industries forced the horizontal consolidation of offending regional industry. Acheson took the point of view that "this rationalization of industry, banking and railways was a necessary preîondition for the protection and development of a viable Canadian economy."" The destruction of indigenous industry was the "unCortunate" outcome of this process, one which Acheson saw as an instance of domination in a colonialism "far more totalitarian in concept and cffectiveness than the unwieldy British sy~tern."'~ Another vehicle of metropolitan domination was federal transportation policy. E.R. Forbes emphasized how dominant central Canadian interests used their political clout to change transportation policy to the metropolis' advantage and at the Maritimes' expense. Central Canadian manufacturers were key in pressing for the abolition of the preferential fieight rates that were part of the government's promise to Maritimen for '6 T. W. Acheson, "The Maritimes and 'Empire Canada'," in DJ. Bercuson, ed., Canada and the BurdrB of Unis, (Toronto: Mcmillan, 1 977), p. 93. 17 Acheson, "The Maritimes and 'Empire Canada'," p. 95. Acheson, "The Maritimes and 'Empire Canada'," pp. 96, 103. their involvement in ~onfederation.'~Growth of regional industry required a system of freight rates that worked for regional and national interests alike. Succumbing to political pressure from the central Canadian business class, as well as other interest groups, the federal govemment "destroyed a regionally oriented rate structure which had made possible much of the reg ion's industrial devel~~ment.'"~For decades federal polic y inhibited economic growth in the Maritimes, an issue which became a focus of the 1920s movement for Maritime ~i~hts." Observation of "urifair" political praxis at the seat of the Canadian state led both Acheson and Forbes to lay responsibility for rcgional disparity on the federal govemment. Their work argued that only change to the Canadian political system would bnng about a more equitable political economy in the mari tir ne^.^' Acheson believed that the Canadian state, having used Confederation to annex the Maritimes. was responsible for remedying regional disparity. This "burden of unity" was "a moral and social responsibility which the Canadian state [could not] refuse.'"" Inevitably, the federal governrnent would grapple with the problem of regional underdevelopment for "SO long as a largely exploitative econornic relationship exist[ed] between the region and its ''>Barrett, "Perspectives on Dependency and Underdevelopment," p. 774. Ernest R. Forbes, "Misguided Syrnmetry: the Destruction of Regional Transportation Policy for the Maritimes," in E.R. Forbes, Challenging the Regiond Stereotype: hqvson the 20th Century Maritimes (Fredericton: Acadiensis Press, I989), p. 114. '' Forbes, "Misguided Symrnetry," pp. 1 15, 126. See also E.R. Forbes, The Maritime Rights Movement. 19 19- 1 92 7: a Study in Canadian Regionalkm (Montreal: McGilI-Queen's University Press, 1979). Forbes' treatment of C.D. Howe's wartime policies is another instance where the historian explored how metropolitan concerns have disadvantaged the Maritimes. See E.R. Forôes, "Consolidating Disparity: the Maritimes and the Industrialization of Canada during the Second World War," in E.R. Forbes, Chdenging the Regional Stereotype, pp. 172- 199. '' Sacouman, ''The 'Peripheral' Maritimes," p. 137. Central Canadian metrop~lis.'~For Forbes, the solution to regional disparity lay in formal political reform toward a "fairer deal" for the ~aritimes." This "Maritimes vs. Central Canada" perspective grew out of the metropolis- periphery mode1 that these scholars empl~yed.~~Forbes' work suffered fiom the comrnon "good guys" versus "bad guys" type of analysis and critics have pointed to this deficiency in his work." More fbndamental, however, was the criticism that transportation policy was at best "just one of many variables in a complex historical pr~blern."~' Transportation problems were likely an aspect, not a cause, of underdevelopment." Several Marxian scholars took issue with the "fairer deal" stance. Neither the approach of Forbes nor that of Acheson produced a substantially b'critical penetration of the dynarnics of capitalist devel~prnent."~~Clow held that This fairer-deal-within-Confederationschool ( .. . ) somehow hopes for the "fùlfilment" of the "promises" of Confederation by the people who have inherited the benefits of that pattern of national development which lies at the root of the plight of the Maritimes; it is an exhortation to justice that expresses thinking more wishful than critical." '' Acheson, "The Maritimes and 'Empire Canada'," p. 109. " Acheson, "The Maritimes and 'Empire Canada'," p. 109. Bickerton, Nova ScotÏu, Ottuwu, alid the Politics of Regional Development, p. 23. Kealey, McKay, and Reilly, "Canada's "Eastern Question"," p. 39. " Clow, "Politics and Uneven Capitalist Development," p. 120. ""mett, "Perspectives on Dependency and UnderdeveIopment," p. 275. J9 Bruce Archibald, "Atlantic Regional Underdevelopment and Socialisrn," in L. Lapierre, ed., Essuys on the Le$ (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 197 l), p. 105. 'O Clow, "Politics and Uneven Capitalkt Development," p. 120. 51 Clow, "Potitics and Uneven Capitalist Development," p. 120. R. James Sacouman remarked that Maritimers have tried for a "fairer deal" on nurnerous historical occasions and they have always failed.'* Bruce Archibald proposed a more radical solution; namely, that the end to regional disparity in the Maritimes must occur by "breaking the exploitative metropolis-satellite nexus."" The subversion and reversa1 of metropolitan control would necessitate "socialist planning and judicious use of public ownership as a tool of regional development."'" Archibald was the first scholar to frame the Maritimes' economic history in a metropolis-periphery mode1 that saw the region's underdevelopment in ternis of structural dependencies generated through the dynarnics of metropolitan capitalist exploitati~n.~~ Following Archibald, a group of regional academics advanced, in the form of dependency theory, a radical revisionism of the orthodox and reformist perspectives. Arguing that regional underdevelopment was an aspect of the capitalist world system, dependency theorists rejected the "regional self-balance" perspective of scholars like Acheson and Forbes, whose approach assumed that underdevelopment derived frorn some malfunction in a system that was essentially correct." Dependency sternmed fiom "deeply rooted structural forces, and not out of fleeting fluctuations in world trade or 5"acouman, "The 'Peripheral' Maritimes," p. 137. The Nova Scotian secessionist movement of the 1880s and the events surrounding its rise and faIl during the 1886 and 1887 elections was one instance where Maritimers tried, but failed, to improve their condition through political protest. See Colin D. HowelI. "W.S. Fielding and the Repeal Elections of 1886 and 1887 in Nova Scotiq" Acadiensis, vol. 8, no. 2 (I979), pp. 28-46. 5' Archibald. "Atlantic Regional Underdevelopment and Socialism," p. 1 17. '' Archibald, "Atlantic Regional Underdevelopment and Socialism," p. 1 17. '' David Frank, "The Cape Breton Coal lndustry and the Rise and Fall of the British Empire Steel Corporation," in Acheson, Frank, and Frost. industriolkation and Underdeveiopment in the Maritimes, p. 56. Archibald made this application of dependency theory in his thesis, "The Development of Underdeveloprnent in the Atlantic Provinces" (M.A. thesis, Daihousie University, 197 1). govemrnent prograrns."" Dependency theory explicitly stmck out against the assurnption embedded in modemization theory that regional disparity ensued fiom the region's failure, for whatever reason, to keep up with the trajectory of industrial development that typically characterized the evolution of the so-called developed nations." Dependency theorists saw development and underdevelopment as "reciprocal conditions of a global system of capital ac~umulation."'~A region's place in the international division of labour to a large extent detemined its economic success, depending on whether that region remained on the marginalized periphery or enjoyed membership in the metropolitan capitalist community." Metropolitan capital active1y obstnicted independent capitalist development in the periphery and, following A.G. Frank's concept of the "development of underdeveloprnent," dynarnically underdeveloped peripheral industry." The metropolis achieved and maintained subordination of its periphery through a complex system of "intemal colonialism," a hegemonic order that promoted metropolitan interests and bolstered metropolitan control through violence, political power, economic coercion. and "cultural and ideo logical symbols and stereotypes" that authorized the rnetropolis' dominant p~sition.~' B ic kenon. Nova Scotia. Ottawa, and the Politics of Regional Development, p. 14. '' Gary Bumll and Ian McKay, eds., People. Resources. and Power (Fredericton: Acadiensis Press, 1987), p. 7. 58 B ickerton, Nova Scotia, Ottawa, and the Politics of Regional Development, p. 20. "> Henry C. Veltmeyer, "A Central Issue in Dependency Theory," Cunadian Review of Sofioiugy and Social Anthropology, vol. 17, no. 3 ( 1MO), p. 198. * Bickenon, Nova Scotia. Ottawa, and the Politics of Regional Development, p. 20. " Veltmeyer, "ACentral Issue," p. 200; Andre Gunder Frank, "The Development ofUnderdevelopment," Monthiy Rwiew, no. 1 8 (Sep 1 966), pp. 1 7-3 1. B ic kenon, Nova Scotïa, Oitawa, and the Politics of Regional Devdopment, p. 20. Examining ihis process of intemal colonialism, L.D.McCann followed up on T.W. Acheson's work with a short study of the spatial and temporal patterns of central Canadian branch business expansion in the Maritimes. Branch businesses were metropolitan interests' "emissaries" and a concrete mechanism by which the metropolis shored up its empire in the peri~hery.~"or McCann, îracing the infiltration of branch business into the region was a "rneasure not only of urban dominance and control over different economic sectors, but also the actual process of integrating metropolis and periphery.''M One important study of metropolitan capital's attempt to control regional industry was David Frank's article on "the Rise and the Fa11 of the British Empire Steel Corporation." Frank espoused dependency theory as an interpretive tool, calling his approach a "Mmist analysis of regional inequalities under industrial capitalism" which saw "uneven development between regions as a natwal feature of capitaiistic economic growth.'"5 Also emphasizing the role of outside capital in integrating the periphery into the metropolis, Frank viewed Canadian domination as achieving the "national economic integration" so vital to the capitalist exploitation of Cape Breton's coalfields. He argued that the growth of the coal industry demonstrated several aspects of the uneven development between regions which characterized the emergence and consolidation of indusuial capitalism in Canada. The growing concentration and b3 L.D. McCann, "Metropolitanism and Branch Businesses in the Maritimes, 188 1- 193 1 ," in Graeme Wynn, cd., People, Places, Pattern Processes :Geographical Perspectives on the Canadian Part (Mississauga: Copp Clark Pitman, 1990), p. 233. "J McCann, "Metropolitanism and Branch Businesses in the Maritimes," p. 234. 65 Frank, "The Cape Breton Cool Industry," p. 56. centralization of capital in the Canadian economy created a national economic structure based on inter-regional linkages and dependencies. National economic policies encouraged the expansion of the cod industry, but did not promote stability or prosperity for the hinterland resource ares? Capitalism centralized industry and wealth in a marner that promoted the "vicious" uneven development that gave rise to Canadian regional disparity. Sacouman observed three main structural features of this regional underdevelopment. These were (i) a dependence of the region on pnmary production; (ii) the maintenance in the penphery of a "reserve army" of cheap labour: and (iii) the export of surplus values from the periphery to the metropolitan centre? Through monopoly control, metropolitan capital overdeveloped the metropolis and underdeveloped the periphery by expropnating the regional economic rent and then transfenng surplus value back to the rnetr~poiis.~'The pool of cheap labour was a buffer against nsing labour costs at the metropolitan centre. In times of expansion and labour scarcity, capital imported cheap labour from the periphery in order to depress the labour market at the centre.69 The export of labour represented a hidden form of surplus extraction since it was not the metropolis but the periphery that bore the reproductive and formative costs of producing the migrant labour force." The region's reliance on primary production reflected the distorting effects of dependent capitalist development. Metropolitan capital made investments that promoted Frank, "The Cape Breton Coal Industry," p. 6 1. " Sacouman, "The 'Peripheral' Maritimes," pp. 138, 142. b8 Archibald, "Atlantic Regionai Underdevelopment and Socialism," p. 106. 69 Bickerton, Nova Scoria, Ottuwa. und the Politics of Regional Developrnent, p. 25. 'O Veltrneyer, "ACentral Issue," p. 201. certain industries while impeding or tnincating others." The metropolis met its own needs by utilizing only those secton of the regional economy fiom which metropolitan capital stood to gain, a situation that David Fr& adeptly illustrated through his work on the Cape Breton coal industry. Criticism naturally emerged to challenge the dependency theorists' work. Here we could not do justice to the debate, but the matter has certainly been taken up elsewhere." Of most relevance for the present discussion is the criticism that dependency theorists often lost sight of iwhat goes on inside countnes and regions - the struggles between classes, the effects of different national traditions, and the crucial realm of production in which not only commodities but social relations between people are made."" Dependency theory, with its mechanistic and structuralist preoccupations, frequently reduced whole societies to the articulations of structural conditions. Theotists passed over the study of "people" in their everyday lives and of the concrete manifestations of popular struggle. When they did set out to study popular struggle, they sornetimes produced stilted analyses that reified structuralist categonzation and that did little to highlight the agency of the people about whom they wrote. The complaint that the dependency theorists' work was "too narrowly focussed on the economy at the '' Bickerton, Nova Scotia, Ottawa. and the Poiitics ufRegional Ddoprnenr, p. 25. r- See, for exarnple, James Bickerton, "Underdevelopment and Social Movements in Atlantic Canada: a Critique," Studies in Political Econotny, no. 9 (Fall 1 982), p. 19 1 -202, and Nova Scotia, Ottawa, and the Politics of Regional Devefoprnent,pp. 26-34. Burrill and McKay, People, Resources, and Power, p. 9. expense of a host of other historical forces" also apply to any of the underdevelopment s~hools.'~ In the 1st decade of the twentieth century, the underdevelopment scholarship lost momentum and in some quarters "fizzled out" entirely. Many scholars shified their research interests to other areas - a fact to which the holding of a recent conference entitled "Life After Development" testifies. This trend may follow from scholars' Feelings of failure, even derseveral generations of scholarship, to produce a genuinely influential remedy for the problem of regional disparity. Many scholars may well believe that the underdevelopment question is a "dead horse" that deserves a rest. However, the single-mindedness of the aetiological approach to the study of regional economic issues has meant that we have yet to produce a lot of important work on economic development. The macro-level purview of the aetiological perspective leaves much to be desired in tems of our knowledge of specific communities and the concrete instances of economic marginality within these communities." There is scant literature on Maritime communities in general, and even fewer studies that examine the experience of capitalist hegemony beyond centres such as Halifax and industrial Cape Breton. This failure is rather stuming given the centrality of the process to the history of most Maritime communities. One cannot truly study a Maritime community without somehow considering how relative deprivation has affected the culture, politics, and structure of '"Burrill and McKay, People, Resources, and Power, p. 9 75 Raymond FooteTsbook on the industrial rise of Port Hawkesbury stands out as one notable example of a study that is sensitive to the interconnection of underdevelopment, culture, and ideology. See Raymond L. that cornmunity. While the recent Atlantic Canadian historiography offers many rich interpretations of the popular history of the region, locaiized popular studies have been too few. Certainly, regional historians have attended to a wide variety of niovements, writing histories of labour unions and popular politics. Yet, despite the new scholarship's cornmitment to a populist historiography, studies have invariably concemed institutions or leaders? Scholars of the current literature, in their cultural, economic, political- economic, or stnicturalist orientations, have objectified the people that they purponed to aid. People becarne the data that social scientists manipulated in order to bolster their hypotheses and their respective schools' legitimacy. In so doing, the students of economic development retumed little that is of social value to these communities. Atlantic Canadian historians now need to cornplement the aetiological Iiterature with scholarship describing individual and collective material and social expetiences of economic struggle in rural Maritime communities. As Gary Bumll and Ian McKay point out. the region needs ''critical perspectives and radical research" since "without research which goes to the roots of economic and social power in the region, we can only be powerless to effect long-terni, structural change."" A radical historiography on underdevelopment shouid also study how communities cope with the economic marginality that structural conditions engender. Foote, The Case of Port H~wkesbury:Rapid fnd~rialïzationund Social Unrest in a Nova Scotia Cornmunity (Toronto: PMA Books, 1 979). '' Constance P. deRoche and John E. deRoche, eds., "Rock in a Stream ":Living with the Political Economy of Underdevelopment in Cape Breton, ISER Research and Policy Papers, No. 7 (St. John's: Institute of SociaI and Economic Research, Mernorial University of Newfoundland, 1987), p. 16. 77 Burrill and McKay, eds., People, Resources, und Power, p. 7. This observation was the fiindamental motivation for the current study. My choice of oral history as my primary research method followed fiom the deRoches' observation that scholars' continued bias toward written records has limited the historiography on popular struggle within the context of economic rnarginality and dynamic underdevelopment in Atlantic Ca~~ada.'~Oral history is particularly suited to studying rural economy. In many rural industries, especially agriculture. individual producers rarely keep documents cataloguing their production or work patterns. much Iess their attitudes about, or responses to, economic conditions which face them. In the written record. producers' concerns about their economic positions and the strategies they employ to better their situations usually manifest thernselves at the aggregate level through newspaper reporting on the activities of organizations such as those of fmers' federations or woodlot owners' associations. Historians wishing to constnict an accurate portrayal of economic change in rural societies must also look for concrete information on individual producers or particular groups of producers within specific communities. Without community studies and research involving individuals who have experienced history first-hand, historical accounts "will always risk being misdescriptions. projections of the historian's own experience and imagination: a scholarly form of fi~tion."'~The use " deRoche and deRoche, eds., "Rock in a Stream ", p. 16. 79 Paul Thompson, The Voice ofthe Part: Oral History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978). pp. 68, 79-8 1.90. Other literature on oral historical methodology that inforrned my research inchdes, but is not limited to, the following works: David K. Dunaway and Willa K. Baun, eds., Orai Hisrory: an Interdisciplinury Anthology (Nashville: Oral History Association, 1984); Shema Gluck and Daphne Patai, Women S Wordr: the Feminist Practice of Oral History (New York: Routledge, 199 1); Russell G. Ham, "Oral History," in Teny Crowley, ed., CIio S C'raft: a Primer of Historical Methods (Toronto: Copp Clark Pitman, 1988), pp. 42-64; David Henige, Oral Historiography (London: Longman, 1 982); James Hoopes, Oral History: an Introduction for Students (Chape1 HilI: University of North Carolina Press, 1979); Eva M. of oral evidence is particularly important in situations where histotical processes have worked to marginalize econornically and politically producers in communities like Margaree. My research on Margaree began in Jme of 1999 when 1 conducted an informal experimcntal pilot study in the Margaree Valley with the view of eventually carrying out a more substantive case study. I knew that economic marginality had been a persistent part of life in rural Inverness County and that a study of economic conditions in a community such as Margaree would be a suitable topic for rny Master's thesis. At that time I already had persona1 connections with a Few residents and these contacts provided me with an initial foothold in the community. These individuals referred me to potential participants situated within their irnrnediate social network. The pilot study was short, involving eight interviews with ten individuals in five days. and featured infotmed consent forms. The question schedule that 1 applied dealt with general economic conditions, work patterns, and agnculmal techniques. During these discussions, informants dwelt to a great extent on the restmcturing of the community's traditional economy in the period afler the Second World War. The pilot phase helped orient my thinking in regard to the issues which faced Margaree inhabitants in the post-WWII penod. in the eleven months following this session, 1 acquired Merknowledge on economic and social conditions in this period through secondary reading and through McMahan and Kim Lacy Rogers, eds., Interactive Orui History interviewing (Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum Associates, 1994); Raphael Samuel and Paul Thompson, eds., The MjhWe Live By (London: Routledge, 1990); Elizabeth Tonkin, Narraring Our Pasts' the Social Construction of Oral Hisros) (Cambridge: Cambridge University press, 1992). archival research at the Public Archives of Nova Scotia and the University College of Cape Breton's Beaton Institute. The formal stage of the oral research began when 1 submitted a research proposal, question schedule, and release form to one of Dalhousie University's Human Ethics Review cornmittees. As with the form employed during the pilot study, the informed consent form for the thesis research made clear to the informant that she or he had the right (i) to non-participation, (ii) to terminate the interview at any time, (iii) to refuse to respond to any particular question, and (iv) to stipulate conditions goveming use of and access to the interview material. The form also guaranteed that informants' real names would not appear in the final report. Throughout the thesis. al1 narnes that derive from an oral source are pseudonyms that 1 have chosen. The second step in the research process was participant selection. In an attempt to increase the project's inclusiveness, 1 sent a dozen notices to Margaree businesses and organizations a rnonth in advance of my trip with a request for posting on local bulletin boards. These notices informed the general public about my research and provided contact information for anyone wishing to participate in the study. Only one person replied. but this individual proved very helpful in suggesting potential infomants. Pior to entering the field, 1 chose to combine quota sampling with so-cailed "snowball" sarnpling as the method for selecting participants. Pragmatic issues involving limitations to my time in the field encouraged the adoption of the "snowball" method, which began with six contacts who referred me to informants and this process "snowballed" as informants further referred me to their own acquaintances. 1 favoured this method as a means of avoiding the intrusive nature of other sampling methods, such as random sampling. When informants referred me to acquaintances who might offer Mer information, these community rnembers were rnaking a choice to aliow me access to their social network. The prerogative for participant selection retumed to the participants and, in a sense, to the community at large. The loose quota that I earlier established aimed at ensuring representiveness in terms of informants' gender and occupational background. Once in the field, I discovered that sampling by occupation was more difficult than anticipated because of the high rate of occupational pluralism that historically has characterized Margaree's economy. However. 1 made certain that 1 interviewed at lest several people who had for a number of years worked in fundamental industries such as faming, fishing, forestry, and tourism. An undesireable result of the chosen sampling method was the over-representation of male inhabitants. Although my intentions were to interview as many women as men, women accounted, in the end, for only twenty-eight percent of al1 informants. The potential informants to which contacts and informants referred me were almost always male, a situation no doubt resulting fiom the fact that the researcher himself is male. One contact, for example, provided me with a list of two dozen men. When 1 suggested that I thought ir was important to speak with women as well, the individual then gave me the names of three or four female residents. This bias was apparent in the suggestions of female and male contacts alike. Several women whom 1 telephoned to ask for an interview were non-committal, stating that a male acquaintance or relative would "know more" than them. Some wornen insisted that 1 speak with their husbands or that their husbands be present during the interview. This situation, combined with the fact that 1 needed to interview a substantial number of informants who had worked in certain male- dominated occupations, accounted for the regrettable under-representation of female participants. This outcome reinforces Shema Gluck's observation that male researchers face considerable obstacles in applying oral historical method to studies involving In the course of the pilot study and the thesis fieldwork, I interviewed thirty-nine informants, rnost of them currently reçiding in the Margarees. in thirty eight sessions." Six testimonies of the original eight pilot study informants appear in the present report. D On my second trip to Margaree 1 revisited five of these six individuals, one having passed away. 1 provided the informants with copies of interview notes for their review and, in accordance with ethics review guidelines, I secured their written approval to use this matenal in the thesis. These visits also provided me with an opportunity to ask follow-up questions regarding issues raised by their initial testimonies. The interview format generally consisted of one-on-one dialogues, although not uncomrnonly did 1 interview a couple. First 1 showed the informant(s) a copy of the 'O Shema Gluck, "What's So Special about Women? Women's Oral History," in Dunaway and Baun, eds., Oral Hisrory: An Interdisciplinas, Anthology, p. 228. " My fieldwork also included examining the human and natural geography of the Margaree-Lake Ainslie watershed, observing gaspereawc fishing on the Southwest Margaree, and surveying an extensive section of the Highlands corresponding to the areas clearcut for pulpwood and those subject to the stunning geographical modifications effected for the Wreck Cove hydro-elecîric project. informed consent form and 1 asked them to read it. AAer the infonnant(s) agreed to the interview. 1 asked them if they wouid be cornfortable if 1 set up an audio recorder. In a few cases informants did not wish to be taped but allowed me to take notes by hand. 1 did not apply a tigid questionnaire but rather posed questions from a set prepared in advance and revised throughout the fieldwork process. 1 also framed new questions during interviews in response to infomants' testirnonies. I did not intemipt participants when they digressed into areas not immediately pertinent to the study. Once they had completed their thoughts, 1 simply asked a question that would remthe discussion to a more relevant issue. Mer the interview 1 once again called their attention to the informed consent form and 1 reminded them that the fonn contained a section in which they could speciQ whatever terms they wished to apply to the use or deposition of the collected material. The overarching objective guiding this oral research was to determine how Margaree inhabitants responded to the phase of economic restnicturing and erosion of the traditional economy, which occurred in its most severity between 1945 and 1970, the penod under review. The Atlantic Canadian dependency theorists have speculated, in an application of neo-Marxism, that the capitalist underdevelopment of the domestic mode should give rise to class struggle between petty producers and the agents of capitalism. This perspective understates capitalism's powerfui hold on the rurai economy and elides the hegemonic forces that validate and consolidate the supremacy of the capitalist system. Antonio Gramsci conceives of the capitalist state as the means by which society adapts "the civiiization and the morality of the broadest masses to the necessities of the continuous development of the economic apparatus of produ~tion."~~The state is not a rnere administrative institution but. rather, the site where society exercises hegemony and where "the bloc of social forces" authorizes and rnaintains domination both through coercion and with the active consent of society's rnembers.8) The dependency theorists set up a rigid dichotorny between capitalists and producers, but each group participates in the production of capitaiist hegemony . Margaree producen' invol vement in the inter-war market economy (Chapter One) provided the structurai mechanism which integrated them into a capitalist hegemony that undermined the local economy following the Second World War. The decline of the agrarian economy and the rise of a pulp industry controlled by foreign capitalists produced hegemonic conditions that promoted a transfer of hurnan and natural resources fiom agriculture to forestry (Chapter Two). Far from assuming an oppositional stance with respect to the penetration of foreign capital into the sub-region. Margaree farmea actively engaged the dominant pattern of restmcturing by attempting a number of different strategies for survival within the market economy. Producers' condition of economic rnarginality necessitated complicity with the capitalist system, which rewarded producers who conformed to capitalist demands by allowing them to maintain their operations, albeit in tnincated fonn (Chapter Three). Adaptation of production to the capitalist mode, out-migration, employment in the pulp industry, and the economic potential of the tourkm economy (Chapter Four) provided outlets for Stuart Hall, "Gramsci's relevance for the study of race and ethnicity," in David Morley and Kuan-Hsing Chen, eds., Stuart HaIf: Critical Dialogues in Cultural Studies (London: RoutIedge, 1996), p. 428. economic and social adjustment, thus dissipating tensions resulting from the capitalist penetration. The overail response in Margaree to the dynarnic underdevelopment of the rural economy was not class struggle, but adjustment. Adjustment strategies represented the exercise of popular agency within the constraints imposed by the capitalist system. - - - 83 Hall, "Gramsci's relevance," pp. 428-429. CHAPTER ONE The Domestic Economy: Margaree Prior to the Second Workl War Dominant stereotypes of rural Cape Breton have portrayed comunities like Margaree as "backward" and "inward looking," vestiges of an archaic pioneer society. Pierre-Yves Pépin. in his 1968 study Lifè and Povcrty in the Murifimes, says of the original Scots who sealed in Margaree: "Marked by isolation and their conservative natures. they followed the valleys into the interior, where they settled down again to a subsistence economy."' Both Acadians and Scots maintained strong ethnic characteristics that tied them to outmoded ways of life, especially subsistence production. Margaree Scots, for example, suffered from "small patch mentalities" and continued to "prefer difficult, austere and isolated areas."' According to Pépin's account, Margaree inhabitants in the 1960s had hardly changed in well over a century since the settlement period. Such an atavistic approach is not helpful in understanding the historical nature of Margaree's economy. Margaree's material and social structures prior to the penod under review suggest that Margaree residents were integrated into a wider market economy long before the Second World War. This argument runs contrary to Pépin's claim that producers in the 1960s tried "the impossible," that is, "to make a success of their farms Pierre-Yves Pépin, Lfe and Poverry in the Maririmes (Ottawa: Department of Forestry and Rural Deve topment, 1968), pp. 78-79. ' Pépin, p. 1 I 1. 29 without being integrated with the market economy."' One cannot confiate subsistence production with lack of market involvement; rather, primary producers at the subsistence level depended upon market ties that linked Margaree with extemal economies as far away as Europe, New England, and the West Indies. The local economy was quite complex and comprised more activities than simply those of "isolated" subsistence farms. Various groups settled in the Margaree area in the late-eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century. Retuming &er the forced exile that resulted fiom the Expulsion. Acadians senled in 1785 and 1786 in the Margaree Valley and dong the Coast between Chéticarnp and Margaree ~arbour.' Waves of Scottish settlers. fleeing post- Napoleonic economic depression and the related Highland Clearances, joined the Acadians in the first half of the nineteenth century.' Agrarian reform, depression, and famine in Ireland similarly drove many Irish to Cape Breton, some of whom settled in Margaree? By 1830 a great proportion of Margaree's better lands had been granted. Many newcomers in subsequent decades, especially the Scots arriving in the 1840s, had little option but to establish themselves on the less productive backlands of places such as Gil lisdale and Upper ~argaree.' Pépin, p. 209. Anselme Chiasson, Histow and Acadian Traditiom of Chéticamp, 3d edition (St. John's: Breakwater Books, 1986), p. 24. For background on Scottish migration to Cape Breton. 1 refer to Stephen J. Homsby, Nineteenth-Century Cape Breton: ri Historical Geogmphy (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, l992), especiaIly pp. 4 1-45. John Mannion's book, Irish Settlements in Eastern Canada: A Shdy ofCuiturai Transfer und Adaptation (Toronto: University of Toronto, 1974), informs my knowledge of Irish migration. Homsby, Nineteenth-Cenw Cape Breton, pp. 48-49; Peggie M. Hobson, "Population and Settlement in Nova Scotia," Scottish Geographical Magazine, vol. 70, no. 2 (Sep 1954), p. 58. Margaree was linked to a greater economy even in the initial phase of the settlement period. Miles McDaniel, the earliest Irish settler in the Margarees, arrived in the early-nineteenth century. McDaniel established a mercantile business supplying hundreds of settlers dong the West Coast of Inverness County fiom Port Hood to Cheticamp, as well as a few fishers on mainland Nova Scotia. McDaniel's account book, which coven the period from 18 11 to 18 19, documents the merchant's considerable and widespread trade. McDaniel received settlers' fmproduce, including lurnber, in exchange for goods. These settlements evidently yielded significant surpluses, because McDaniel appears to have marketed this produce through an agent in Pictou County. As folklorist Richard MacKimon remarks, McDaniel's account book gives evidence of market relations between Margaree and cornmunities in western Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island. MacKimon points out that this book demonstrates that McDaniel did business beyond local transactions, thereby proving that "the people of this region were not as isolated as we are led to belie~e."~Indeed, by the mid-nineteenth century, Margaree Forks, and likely other parts of Margaree, had severai merchants engaged in an export and import b~siness.~ Perhaps the most important export from Margaree was fish. The farmer-fishers of the Belle Côte and Margaree Harbour area engaged, since settlement, in the commercial Richard MacKinnon, "The Regional Architectural Forms of the Margaree Valley, Cape Breton Island," Society for the Study of .4rchitecture in Canada: Selected Papers, vo t. 5 ( 1 982), p. 13. Moses H. Doyle, The Irish Pioneers ofMargaree, Cape Breton Island Nova Scotio (Self-published, 19941, p. 80; PANS MG 4, vol. 1 10, "North East Margaree (A detailed history by Rev. C. H. Johnson, formerly United Church minister at North East Margaree and now of Guysboro, N.S.)"; BI, PAM 3859, "History of Margaree by Alice LeBlanc," p. 59; PANS MG 1, vol. 559, no. 272, "An Old Margaree fisheries that West Country and Channel Island merchants controlled. These inhabitants also produced seal oil for industrial markets, likely those of Europe.'' While the fisheries were of most economic significance to the families living around Margaree Harbour, such trade did involve many households that fished for gaspereaux along the southwest branch of the Margaree ~iver."In the spring gaspereaux fish travel up the Margaree River, turning at Margaree Forks into the southwest branch, and thence to Lake Ainslie where they spawn. A good number of Southwest residents depended upon the gaspereaux market. In 1854 district inhabitants submitted a petition complaining that the River of Margaree which is in our neighbourhood and which at former times supplied this seulement as well as the neighbouring settlements from the Middle River to Mabou with abundance of [gaspereaux] are now of little benefit to many owing to a few individuals who impassed the River across with nets and weirs which prevents the fish fiom taking its natural course to or fiom Lake Ainsiie at the time of Spawning. The offending individuals were selling "large quantities" of gaspereaux for export by merchants. thereby leaving "the poor back settlers destitute of any throughout the ~ear."'~ Even the Southwest Margaree Sconish backianders, whom Pépin portrays as the most isolated and remote social group in the district, pursued a commercial industry. These Account Book." 'O Two petitions of 1844 and 1845 indicate the seal indusfry's economic importance to the residents of Belle Côte and Margaree Harbour: PANS RG 5, Series P, vol. 53, no. 9, "Feb 27, 1844. Petition from Margaree and Cheticamp, lnverness County for changes to the "Act for the Encouragement of the Seal Fishery"" and PANS RG 5, Series P, vol. 124, no. 84, "Jan 29, 1845. Petition ti-om Margaree and Cheticamp, Inverness County regarding the bounty on the seal fishery." Gaspereaux, a srnaIl fish of the hemng family, are also known as alewives. l2 PANS RG 5, Series P, vol. 54, no. 2 1, Petition of 4 Feb 1854, with ernphasis. farmers salted their catches in barrels of brine, which they sold to local merchants who shipped the fish to Halifax for trade with the West Indies.I3 Throughout the nineteenth century, schooners bearing fish, farm produce, and other goods plyed between Margaree Harbour and other shipping points such as Halifax and Mulgrave. Two petitions submitted by local residents to the province testiQ to this trade's historical importance to Margaree's domestic economy. A petition of 1890 commented: "For a great many years a large amount of trafic and freight was shipped by schooners and small vessels to and fiom Halifax fiom and to [Bmad Cove, Cheticamp, Mabou, Margaree Harbour, and Port Hood] which represented nearly al1 the trade of the County of Inverness." The petitioners objected to changes in transportation patterns causing shipping problems for the area's merchmts and producers. Dominion subsidies for a local coastal steamer, the S.S. Beaver, had encouraged the diversion of the area's "traffic and fieight by way of Pictou and the Intercolonial Railway to Halifàx." Because this route channelled some of the fieight away from the area, an insuficient amount of freight remained to warrant a regular, direct steamer voyage between Halifax and the West Coast of Inverness County. The petitioners complained that "[a] large quantity of fieight fiom these ports especially fish caxmot be sent by S.S. Beaver and Intercolonial Railway to Halifax as the dificult and fiequent handling of dry fish would injure it." The irregularity iri the timing of direct shipment meant that fish and farm produce fiequently deteriorated in quality, "thereby causing a geai loss and inconvenience to the people of " "Fishing Gaspereaux on the S W Margaree," Cape Breton S Magazine, no. 14 (Aug 1976), p. 4. these and adjoining districts." The petitioners requested a provincial subsidy for the establishment of a regular packet route between Halifax and coastal Inverness County." The province evidently conceded to the petitioners' demand because, in 1906, "rnerchants, traders, fishermen, farrners and others, residents of Cheticamp, Grand Etang and Margaree" submitted another petition in which they stated: "your petitioners duly appreciate with gratitude the bounties of the Govemrnent of Nova Scotia in subsidizing stem packets to their shores, arriving the surnmer season." The petitioners expressed satisfaction with the service rendered, but "in consequence of the increased volume of traffic from the west via Port Mulgrave and the requirements of trade to supply the market abroad more expeditiously with their products," the people required an increase from one to two weckly voyages in the summer months. The petitioners couched theii request in terms of market involvement, pointing out that more frequent steamer communication would "enable them to keep Pace with others, in the march of progress."" While Margaree's nineteenth-century economy was indeed oriented to a large extent toward subsistence activities, the notion that local producers operated in total market isolation is erroneous. Market incentives had in fact pmduced a commercial livestock industry in the Margaree Valley at least as early as the midonineteenth century. Margaree fmenwere producing livestock and daky for market purposes, with quantities of butter for expon to '" PANS RG 5, Series P, vol. 63, no. 39, "March 10, 1890: Petition fiom Cheticamp, Margaree Harbour, Broad Cove, Mabou and Port Hood, Inverness County for a subsidy for a packet to travei to Halifax" l5 PANS RG 5, Series P, vol. 64, no. 10, "March 28, 1906. Petition fiom Cheticamp, Grand Etang, Margaree, Inverness County for increased steamer communication to Mulgrave." Newfo~ndland.'~These market-oriented activities closely resemble production trends in the nearby community of Middle River. Rusty Bittennann's article on nineteenth-century Middle River points to the economic value of beef and dairy exports. Finding considerable specialization in butter, cattle, and sheep, Bittermann States that "[bly mid- century. the importance of cattle to Middle River's agricultural economy was as great, or greater, than that of wheat to the economy of the agricultural districts of Ontario."" A retired Margaree Harbour fmer who participated in this study gave an oral traditional account that described large quantities of livestock in the Valley. The account refers to local farmers herding cattle in the thousands along French Mountain and into a gated enclosure in the vicinity of Belle CÔte.l8 In 1839 a first-hand witness wrote in the Nova Scorian that from Margaree Harbour ''a considerable quantity of cattle and other produce are shipped for Newfoundland." The observer continued to describe livestock farming along the Margaree River: Retumed to Margaree, and proceeded up a River ofthat name, with extensive farms on both sides of it. To instance some, Mr. Miles McDonald, formerly of Fems, County of Wexford, has 1 10 head of homed cattle, 8 horses, with a proportion of other stock, the miit of his own industry, and will in season drive four ploughs. Many more famiers, though not as extensive, were equally aspirant, as seemed to me by their impro~ements.'~ l6 Hornsby, Nineteenth-Centwy Cape Breton, pp. 63-67. l7 Rusty Binermann, "The Hierarchy of the Soil: Land and Labour in a 19th Century Cape Breton Community," Acadiemis, vol. XVIII, no. 1 (Autumn 1988), p. 36. la Interview # 16, Elisha M.,Margaree Harbour, 05 May 2000. l9 Nova Scotian, 1 1 July 1839, p. 220. This scale of livestock farming did not continue into the twentieth century. Economic depression in the latter part of the nineteenth century in fact militated against agricultural production in Invemess County. As well, Confederation introduced structural forces that hindered agriculture in the Maritimes generally. These changes nieant that, for the great number of families, fming activities could not by themselves provide the means of subsistence. In the first half of the twentieth century. therefore, occupational pluralism was the dominant mode of production. Subsistence farming combined with logging, fishing, and other off-farm work formed the economic basis of many Inverness County communities like Margaree." The fact that dynamic change, rooted in the nineteenth cenrury. partly brought about this situation discredits the notion that Margaree's inter-war economy was entirely the product of innate and unchanging matenal and social conditions. Popular views of subsistent communities in the Maritimes have tended to characterize their activities as homogeneous. As Table 1- 1 illustrates, however, fmsin Margaree Harbour East were much smaller than throughout the rest of the Margarees. Peter J. deVries and Georgina MacNab-deVries, "'Taking Charge': Women in a Cape Breton Island Community," in Constance P. deRoche and John E. deRoche, eds., "Rock in a Stream ":Living with the Polirical Ecanomy of UnderdeveIopment in Cape Breton, ISER Research and Policy Papers, no. 7 (St. John's: Institute of Social and Economic Research, Memonal University ofNewfoundland, 1987), p. 3 1. Table 1-1: Average Acreage per Land Occupanr" 1 Total Acres Imoroved1 Acres Margaree Harbour E. 59.0 7.7 Margaree Harbour W. 128.9 19.4 Margaree N.E. 129.3 22.4 Margaree S. W. 136.6 21.7 Total 116.5 18.7 Moreover, distribution of resources such as improved land and woodlands was not even. Table 1-2 shows that Margaree Harbour West possessed a greater amount of woodlands than Margaree Harbour East while Northeast Margaree ranked highest in improved agricultural land. Table 1-2: lmproved Land and Woodland in Proportion to Total ~creage~ Improved Land (%) Woodland (%) Margaree Harbour E. 13.1 61.7 Margaree Harbour W. Margaree N. E. Margaree S.W. Total Given this variegated resource allocation, it is hardly surprising that different parts of Margaree pursued animal husbandry to varying degrees. From Table 1-3, Southwest Margaree clearly led in cattle production. The Southwest had double the arnount of cows in milk or calf than Margaree Harbour East. " Calculations based on Canada, Census of Agricuiture, 193 1. Table 1-3: Average Liveatock per Land Occupanp 1 Horses Cows in Milk Other Cattle (#) or Cap.(#) (#) Margaree Harbour E. 1.O 1.5 1.6 Margaree Harbour W. 1.4 2.6 2.5 Margaree N.E. 1.7 2.2 2.9 Margaree S. W. 1.6 3 .O 4.1 Total 1.S 2.4 3.0 The extent to which Margaree producers engaged in certain economic activities differed iiom one part of the district to the next, as the remainder of our discussion highlights. Diversity as well as similarity c haracterized the economic experiences of Margaree inhabitants. Farnily fmoperations were in fact quite similar in terms of domestic production and work patterns. Crop production generally occurred on a scale sufficient enough to provide for household needs with modest surpluses in some cases. A typical fami had 30 to 40 acres of cultivated land and a woodlot of 150 acres or more. Every family had a vegetable garden to produce foodstuffs to meet household needs. Gardens yielded beans, carrots, peas, potatoes, pumpkins, and squash. The family consurned most of the vegetables that its members grew, but occasionally the family might sel1 small surpluses to a local merchant. Families also raised their own beef, pork, and poultry. One household might keep 8 to 10 young cattle, a half dozen beef cattle, a half dozen milk '' Calculations based on Canada, Cemirs of Agriculture, 193 1. Calculations based on Canada, Census of Agriculhrre, 193 1. cows, 12 to 15 hens, a rooster, and a few pigs. A few farnilies raised geese for the local market. In the 1930s, and probably earlier, a number of fmsproduced for the lucrative silver fox fur market abroad? Most homesteads had some sheep, perhaps a dozen or so. in order to produce wool necessary for clothing. Milk cows yielded liquid milk br direct consumption and cream for making butter. A little arnount of surplus butter might go to the local merchant. In the surnmer parents, especially the mother, and children occasionally spent a half or full day picking berries at a barren. The women would then make preserves of blackbemes, blueberries, raspbemes, and strawbemes. In the fa11 the fmily would again go out to the barrens to gather cranbemes for preserving. Harnessing every natural resource. including bemes. was crucial to Margaree farnilies' prosperity." These subsistence imperatives forced Margaree residents to live and work closely with the seasons. The seasonal rhythm of fmwork meant that Margaree lamilies did share a common lifestyle. Before the Second World War, as one Margaree faner commented, "everybody was a fmer, even the minister and the priest" since "if you didn't farm, you starved." A local history reports that into the inter-war penod the church property of St. Michael's Parish featured "a large barn, a stable, a pig pen and chicken COO~."'~ The growing season extended from June to the end of September. Harrowing, '' Silver-fox hingwas especially prevalent in Prince Edward Island during the inter-war years. E.R. Forbes and D.A. Muise, The Af[anficProvinces in Confederation (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993). p. 240; Norman H. Morse, "Agriculture in the Maritime Provinces," Dalhousie Review, vol. 39 (1959- 1960)-p. 478. 25 Interview #O 1, AIice D., Belle Côte, 20 he1999; Interview #02, Elisha M., Margaree Harbour, 21 June 1999; Interview #03, Hugh T., Margaree Harbour, 22 June t 999; Interview #06, Caleb & Ephrath I., Margaree Valley, 23 June 1999. l6BI, PAM 2859, "History of Margaree by Alice LeBlanc," p. 8. cultivating, and sowing took place in May after the land had thawed. Families would be doing well if they finished those tasks by the end of May. They planted barley, hay, and oats in the same month or, if the weather was wet, in June. By the middle of July the hay was ready for cutting. Haymaking was a labour-intensive task that usually lasted until the first of August. The casual chore of beny gathenng and preserving began in July and continued into the fall. Strawbemes appeared in July, followed by raspberries a few weeks later and then by blueberries. People picked cranbemes any time between October and Christmas. Families harvested oats when the fields became a golden, ripe colour in September. By the end of the month, the vegetables were ready to corne out of the ground. Harvesting canots, potatoes, pumpkins. and turnips was the main work for October. Afier that, families ploughed their land for the next year, although ploughing occurred not uncommonly in the spring. This annual round of tasks was the bais of Margaree inhabitants' shared work patterns. The seasons were not, however, the only determinants of lifestyle." Both age and gender were significani factors in the distribution of work responsibilities. Naturally, some variation in work distribution existed in accordance with a family's matenal circumstance and position in the family lifecycle. As a rule, though, men and boys planted and harvested the crops. Children fkequently removed "potato bugs," fed livestock, and milked cows. Women did work in the garden hoeing, '' Interview #O 1. AIice D., Belle Côte, 20 June 1999; Interview #Oz, Elisha M., Margaree Harbour, 2 1 June 1999; Interview #03, Hugh T., Margaree Harbour, 22 June 1999; Interview #04, Joah S., Margaree Harbour, 22 June 1999; Interview #06, Caleb & Ephrath I., Margaree Valley, 23 June 1999; Interview #25, Hannah W., Belte Côte, 13 May 2000. weeding, and doing general yardwork. Yet, overall, domestic work kept rnothers occupied witliin the home." Women and girls cleaned and washed, made clothing, prepared food, and cared for dependent family members. This work, as several Margaree residents pointed out, were "quite enough" for mothers to handle. When they had a spare moment after completing these numerous tasks, women might venture outside to tend the farnily garden or even to assist in gathering hay. In this system of work distribution, co- operation between family members was cr~cial.'~ Co-operative effort on the community level as well as the family level was the cornerstone of Margaree's subsistence econorny. Production of crops and livestock required close CO-operationboth within the household and between households. Farmers grew oats and hay, and to a lesser degree barley, strictly as a means of feeding their livestock. Fmswere small and at any one time farmen might devote about half their cultivated acreage to feed grain production. Yet even production at this rnodest scale required the combined assistance of family members, neighbours, and cheap Labour hiring was closely linked to a farnily's lifecycle as well as the magnitude of its farming activities. Young families and families whose younger members had emigrated were in greater need of neighbours' help and hired hands. Other families " The bulk of oral evidence leads to the conclusion that Margaree women generally did not participate in heavy agricultural work. An exceptional testimony is that of Hannah W., who stated: "Your mom would go out on the mowing machine, as it was called. They'd mow al1 the hay. Oh, they'd work right along with the men - just as hard as the men." '9 Interview #O 1, Alice D., Belle Côte, 20 June 1999; Interview #02, EIisha M., Margaree Harbour, 2 1 lune 1999; Interview #06, Caleb & Ephrath I., Margaree Valley, 23 June 1999; Interview #25, Hannah W., Belle Côte, 13 May 2000. Interview #Oz, EIisha M., Margaree Harbour, 2 1 June 1999; Interview #04, JO& S., Margaree Harbour, 22 June 1999. possessing greater resources and larger fmsboth required and could afford hiring help. Some families in Northeast Margaree, for exarnple, would hire a "French boy" from the East Margaree-Belle Côte area in the summer. A woman in Belle Côte rernembers her brother going to work as a fmhand in Northeast Margaree: "My older brother, his first job was at Northeast Margaree. At Northeast, and he went up and he stayed all, what they would Say, a whole season. Make hay and then lumber. He bought us our first bicycle. Five boys and they had one bicycle." While some families' need for extra help provided cash incorne for young men, clearly the financial reward for such work was marginal." Aside from employing labour, neighbours and relatives from different households frequently banded together for "working bees," in which they compieted large tasks such as barn raising and haymaking. Casual work swapping, in which neighbours assisted one another in reciprocity, was a common mode of production. The process by which people threshed their grains was founded upon such relationships of social obligation and mutual aid. In the fdl, someone in the comrnunity who owned a threshing mil1 would rnake the round of surrounding farms. In an operation which generally ody took one day, the miller set up the threshing machine in a family's barn and people pitched the gathered oats into the machine. Farmers paid the miller in cash or toll, and provided him with room and board. Generally, seven or eight fmers would organize the threshing round together. Each fmer would contribute one hand to assist the miller on a voluntary basis. 3' Interview #22, Caleb & Ephrath I., Margaree Valley, 10 May 2000; Interview #25, Hannah W., Belle The miller, although paid, probably only made enough to cover his capital and labour costs. Co-operative threshing was oriented toward providing much-needed machinery to a community with difise capital ~apabilities.'~ Fuel preparation followed a similar pattern of CO-operationbetween neighbouring households. In the fa11 and the winter, Margaree men went into the woods to cut firewood. They used axes and saws to harvest trees and they hauled the logs out of the woods by horse. When a group of neighbours had supplies of logs that needed processing, volunteers would follow a cornrnunity rnember with a portable gasol ine- powered sawmill from household to household, helping chunk and split firewood for each family's domestic use. The portable sawmill owner received a small payment for the use of his equipment, as in the case of the threshing rna~hine.'~ The prevalence of these capital-sharing practices suggests a potrntial in Margaree's pre-WWI economy for petty capital accumulation. Some cornmunity members did engage in cash transactions toward the end of acquiring fixed capital. However, the ultimate purpose of this capital acquisition was convenience, not exploitation. Social values emphasizing mutual aid regulated the adoption and employment of capital. What the evidence dispels is the notion that the Margaree community comprised only autonomous producers operating in isolation. Indeed, Pipin's idea that the alieged "excessive individualism" that characterîzed Margaree Côte, 13 May 2000. '' Interview #Ol, Alice D., Belle Côte, 20 June 1999; Interview #02, Etisha M., Margaree Harbour, 21 June 1999; Interview #03, Hugh T., Margaree Harbour, 22 June 1999; Interview #04, Joah S., Margaree Harbour, 22 June 1999; Interview #06, Caleb & Ephrath I., Margaree Valley, 23 June 1999. Scots' mode of production does not hold up to scr~tiny.~"If anythmg, subsistence irnperatives enforced the need for CO-operationbetween pnmary producea. Co-operation rendered many fonns of production into social, as well as economic, affairs. Often washing and spiming wool was a social highlight of the spnng season. In the spring local men sheared their sheep or paid a skilled shearer to do so. A few farnilies had shearing machines and they shared these with the comrnunity as people did wi~5the threshing machine. People brought wool to a nearby brook where they built a fire to heat water for washing the wool. After washing the wool, they spread the wool out on the ground to dry. Wool might go to a carding miIl at Northeast Margaree and sometimes the people sold wool to buyers who travelled around the countryside. Elder Margaree women remember washing wool as an enjoyable social time. Knitting frolics and "shelling parties," where neighboun would get together to shell beans to dry for winter use, were also memorable social events. For the men, especially, a big meal afler getting together to cut ice in the winter offered an opportunity for socializing. Near the beginning of the winter, once water had fiozen suficiently, men got together to cut ice blocks from ponds. They hauled these blocks to their families' ice sheds, which were insulated with sawdust to chi11 food ihroughout the year, including most of summer. Ice sheds were capable of presewing meat whkh families produced and butchered for home c~nsumption.'~ 33 Interview $0 1, Alice D., Belle Côte, 20 June 1999. IJPepin, Life and Poverty in the Maritimes, p. 1 10. l5 Interview #O 1, Alice D., Belle Côte, 20 June 1999; Interview #02, Elisha M., Margaree Harbour, 11 Iune 1999; Interview #06, Caleb & Ephrath I., Margaree Valley, 23 June 1999; Interview # 15, Francis & Although the average Margaree farm was not large enough in cultivated acres to allow farmers to subsist on livestock production alone, for many farnilies livestock production was a primary means of producinp cash income fiom the farm itself. Cattle husbanciry required considerable amounts of pasture lands and the growing and harvesting of feed, usually hay and oats, and sometimes barley. In the Margaree Valley itself, residents pastured their livestock on the lush intervale lands along the river as well as on a "community pasture" located behind Belle Côte. on the "French Side" of the Margaree Valley. The natural geography of this area made it suitable for letting animals wax~der,~~ The most signi ficant sub-regional market for Margaree livestock was Sydney. Many animals were shipped by train from Inverness. Buyers would also travel through the countryside, purchasing cattle and sheep, and transporting these anirnals along valleys, through Middle River, to Nyanza and thence to Sydney by boat and truck. In the winter, buyers might herd livestock to the nearest train station. This livestock business did not yield large returns for either buyers or farmen. As one Sydney butcher-buyer, Johnny MacDonald, put it: "Maybe they made a little, maybe 1 made a linle. It was no gold mine, by any rnean~."~'MacDonald bought livestock throughout the Cape Breton countryside, including the Margaree area." The livestock business demonstrates that subsistent farmers in Margaree were directly involved in a cash economy. Kath leen L., Margaree Forks, 04 May 2000. l6 Interview #02, Elisha M., Margaree Harbour, 21 June 1999; Interview #04, Joah S., Margaree Harbour, 22 June 1999. '' "Travels wifh Johnny "Butch" MacDonald," Cape Breton's Magazine, no. 36 (Sun 1984), p. 1. Although cash transactions characterized the livestock business, some type of moral economy did govern the social relations between buyer and farmer. The buyer had to maintain among the farmers a good reputation for doing business in a consistent and fair marner. Mutual trust between both parties was an important aspect of these transactions and fmea frequently lodged a buyer like MacDonald: "There was no paying. Everything was free. 1 had more free meals than any man in Canada. They seemed to like to put you up for the night. And taik, kind of tdking, ~ee."'~This aspect of the pre-WWII livestock trade in rural Cape Breton reflected domestic relations of production rooted in a moral as well as a semi-market economy. The business was one component of a mercantile system that operated in Margaree. The merchant supply system was the structural basis of Margaree producers' market participation. The system formed a conduit for trade both within the community and without. Large quantities of manufactured and exotic goods found their way into Margaree through the merchant supply system while significant surpluses lefi the local economy by the same route. In the 1920s and 1930s, al1 supplies for the Margaree Valley, fiom Margaree Harbour up to Lake Ainslie, came in through the merchant houses at Margaree Harbour. 'mat each week several coastal steamers transported goods to and fro m Margaree, whereas in the late-nineteenth and early -twentieth centuries there was one weekly voyage, probably means that Margaree's trade increased during or after the First World War. This business was considerable. At least four merchant houses, run by the 38 "Travels with Johnny "Butch" MacDonald," pp. 12- 13. DUM, Laurence, MacAdam, and Munro families, handled these shipments, not to mention the numerous "co~11trymerchants" scattered tkoughout the Margarees. Merchants throughout the area facilitated the livestock trade between extemal buyers and local fmers. The buyer "would contact this storekeeper, and Say, "Make a day. Could you get 70 or 80 larnbs for next week, a certain day?' Well, the storekeeper notifies al1 the farmers to bring their larnbs in on this certain day. And you have a car there. Well, you weigh them and pay them for them."" Merchants did not get paid for making this arrangement. "But it was also a benefit to him. It was bringing money into the country. And that money was needed. Lots of the times, these farmers would owe the merchant money. And the merchant would be there with his hand out, I suppose, when I'd pay the fumer.'"' Transactions of this nature were important both for the fmer's survival and for the merchant, as business records for one Margaree Harbour merchant demonstrate." The day book of the merchant MacAdam is a valuable document because it details the types and quantities of goods that locals bought and sold at this merchant's store." A cursory examination of the document offers some knowledge of the transactions which '' "Travels with Johnny "Butch" MacDonald," pp. 4.8. "'"Travels with Johnny "Butch" MacDonald," p. 3. " ''Tmvels with Johnny "Butch" MacDonald," p. 3. "'Interview #O 1. Alice D., Belle Côte, 20 June 1999; Interview #02, Elisha M., Margaree Harbour, 2 1 June 1999; Interview #03, Hugh T., Margaree Harbour, 22 June 1999; Interview #04, Joah S., Margaree Harbour. 22 June 1999; Interview #04, foah S., Margaree Harbour, 22 June 1999. '3 PANS Micro: Biography: MacAdam, Colin F., "Colin F. MacAdam, merchant, day book for 1923- 1926." Another set of documents produced by a Margaree merchant are the diaries of D.D. McFarlane of Southwest Margaree, which span fiom 1893 to 1949, at the St. Francis Xavier University Archives (MG 75/1, Series G,File 38). The Beaton Institute (MG 14, vol- 198) holds a large volume of business records for Laurence's General Store, Margaree Harbour, that spans a period fiom the late-nineteenth century to the 1970s. The great size of the collection made intelligent analysis prohibitive given this project's the consrraints. The author hopes that a gant might be made available for hiture researchers willing to merchants like MacAdam typically made. Here we indiscriminately select four days in a one year period in a manner that would garner some sense of seasonal variations. The inspection yields a picture of a rnerchant supply system that was finely attuned to Margaree inhabitants' supply needs and production ~apabilities.'~ Petty sales of livestock enabled local producers to make important purchases. On 6 November 1923, Colin MacAdam received 85 lambs From 20 different people. The largest single purchase was 12 lambs from J.J. MacNeil of Scotch Hill. Ben A. LeBlanc of East Margaree received $23.24 for his four lambs and then purchased 1 gallon of molasses at $1.00, 1 gallon of oil at 35c., 1 1b. of tea at 70c., 3 "soap" at 25c., and 1 pair of "rubbers" at $1.25. This left LeBlanc 5 19.69 as credit to his account. Margaree inhabitants generally sold their larnbs in the fali since over the summer the animals rnatured, thus increasing in value. These sales generated important incorne for purchasing winter supplies and ridding oneself of lambs at this time reduced the amount of feed required to maintain one's livestock during the dificult winter months. Many people logged and lumbered in the winter in order to sustain their families. On 24 January 1923, Judson Tingley of Northeast Margaree sold MacAdam 100 feet of boards and a quantity of shingles. Using some of this revenue, Tingley then purchased an compile and analyse the data. Such an effort might provide much insight into the historica1 rote of Cape Breton coastal merchants. SJ Indiscriminate selection is a way of side-stepping methodological difficulties associated with establishing what constitutes a "typical" exchange from a record that contains too many entries to permit a coherent anaIysis without resorting to extensive computerUattion of data. This approach foilows that of Ommer in her articIe on Charles Robin and Company. Ommer chose "the alternative of using illustrative (rather than 'significani') case studies (...) using only fishermen's accounts since they can safely be taken to be generally representative of the buk of C.R.C.'s clientefe." See Rosemary E. Ommer, "nie Truck System in Gaspé, 1822-77," in Rosemary E. Ommer, ed., Merchant Credit and Labour Straîegies in Hisrorical "algebra" at $1.00, a dictionary at 35c., 3 "slates" at 70c., a violin string at 20c., 10 Ibs. of onions at 60c., 10 lbs. of beans at $1.00, and 1 pair of shoes at $2.00. The purchases of onions and beans suggest that the Tingley family did not produce enough foodstuffs to last al1 winter, and lumbering was one of the means of purchasing additional supplies. Supply needs of this sort indicate that Margaree famis were not the autonomous productive units that retrospective observers, including current-day Margaree residents, frequently label them. Such entries remind us that an intemal market existed for local produce. As with Béatrice Craig's findings in her work on New Brunswick agriculture in the early-nineteenth century, the local market in Margaree may have been more economically important than has been previously believed." While residents ofien purchased goods deriving fiom local production, MacAdam sold an even greater arnount of "exotic" goods. On two selected dates, 14 May and 22 August 1924, MacAdam sold a wide variety of goods - anything fiom arithmetic books to shirts to a bed to tobacco. In May, people continued to sel1 MacAdarn quantities of lumber in exchange for cash, credit, and supplies. Many purchases involved "timothy" and "clover," used no doubt for the spring planting. Some people must also have found income-eaming employment with MacAdam, since one entry credits M.J. Chiasson of Belle Côte with $1.50 for "work." An entry for the following day hints at cornplex relationships between producers -- Perspecfive [Merchant Credit] (Fredericton: Acadiensis Press, 1990), pp. 6042. 45 Béatrice Craig, "Agriculture in a Pioneer Region: The Upper St. John River VaIley in the first half of the 19* century," in Kris Inwood, ed., Farm, Factory and Forrune: New Studies in the Economic History of the Maritime Provinces (Frederiction: Acadiensis Press, t993), pp. 17-36. and between the producers and the merchant. MacAdam paid Mark Ingraham of N.E. Margaree for 3424 feet of spruce lurnber and 1019 feet of hardwood. Following this entry, MacAdam wrote: "also 775' for Wm. (illegible), 775' 113 share of McDonald lot, 90 1 ' lot C.H. Ingraham." One might surmise that Ingraham received some shares for performing a service, perhaps logging or milling, for the three other men. The entry suggests productive relationships between these men. At the same time, the record demonstrates merchants' important organizationai role in the subsistence economy. MacAdam's business was integral to these men's ability to realize income from their interdependent efforts. The merchant supply system played a crucial role in mediating relationships between local producers and in fostering a local market. Although mercantile arrangements benefited Margaree people in many ways, the role of the local merchant was not entirely benign. The nature of the mercantile system of production and supply, especially in the case of the Newfoundland fisheries, has long interested Atlantic Canadian scholars. Following New World settlement, the credit or "tmck" system emerged as the result of fishers' needs and demands for supplies, as Patricia Thomton's article on the nineteenth-century Strait of Belle Isle fishery discusses." Credit was fishers' only means of support in an economy that was both marginal and highly vulnerable to extemal market fluctuations. The truck system was a "trade-Off between fisherman and merchant.'"' The merchant assurned the risk of .''Patricia A. Thornton, "The Transition From the Migratory to the Resident Fishery in the Strait of Belle Isle," in Merchant Credit, p. 158. '' Rosemary E. Ommer, "'Al1 the Fish of the Post': Resource Property Rights and Development in a Nineteenth-Century tnshore Fishery," Acadienris, no. 10 (1981), p. 1 1 1. See also, Thomton, "The prosecuting the fishery and he protected fishers fiom ''the built-in instabilities of the fishery.'"' For supporting fishers with supplies on credit, merchants received control over the productive process and this control allowed for "efficient and viable" resource exploitation of the resource while giving the merchant "maximum control" over production with "minimum capital ~utflow."~~ Within this context of mercantile hegemony, the truck system meant that many, if not most, fishers Iived in constant debt. Indebtedness was "an essential feature for the viability of the commercial fisheries exploitation ~ystern"'~and a "mechanisrn for protection against merchant cornpetition."" Debt hnctioned to maintain fishers' loyalties to a particular merchant in situations of cornpetition; to force fishers to increase production in order to rid themselves of their debt; and to place control over the production process in the hands of merchants. Yet, according to Ommer, truck was not designed to oppress fishers. Merchants would have preferred "cash in good years and no business in bad."s2 She argued that These strategies were not conceived as a weapon of economic power designed to dominate a colony; they were perceived as necessary steps which had to be taken by a merchant enterprise if it was to secure its earnings fiom a common property res~urce.~~ Transition From the Migratory to the Resident Fishery," p. 158. " Ommer, "'AII the Fish of the Post'," p. 1 1 1. '"mmer, "'AII the Fish of the Post'," pp. 1 11, 121. 'O Roc h Samson, Fishermen and Merchants in 19th Ce- Guspé (Ottawa: Environment Canada, l984), p. 8. " Ommer,'"Al1 the Fish of the Post'," p. 1 12. '' Ommer, "'AI1 the Fish of the Post'," p. 1 1 1. '' Ornmer, '"All the Fish of the Post'," p. 12 1. David Macdonald's case study of Newfoundland's Newman and Company offered a concentrated assault on the notion that merchants used the truck system to exploit and oppress defenceless fishen. Macdonald detailed the Newman Company's dificulties maintaining their operations under the truck system. His evidence convincingly demonstrated that the truck system was "weaker and less enduring" than historians have previously a~surned.~'In the Cape Breton case, Homsby found that cornpetition between merchants in the late-nineteenth century allowed fishers considerable room to manoeuvre in their relationship with merchants. Fishers sometimes engaged in direct protest over unfair prices, Ieading Hornsby to conclude that fishers "were not passive pawns exploited by the merchants but could, and did, strengthen their position when circurnstances perrnitted."55 Ommer's point, and that of many other historians, was that a isocial ethic," as Samson called it, of mutual obligation was fundamentai to the relationship between merchant and pr~ducer.'~Like Ommer and Samson, Macdonald distinguished between iobligation" and ""debt"in order to highlight the mutuality that was part of the mck system." Macdonald's study also validated Ornmer's assertion that merchants would have preferred monetary exchange instead of credit transactions, but that fishers' '' David A. Macdonald, "They Cannot Pay Us in Money: Newman and Company and the Supplying System in the Newfoundland Fishery, 1850-1 884," in Merchant Credil, p. 1 16. 55 Homsby, Nineteenth-Cenfury Cape Breton, pp. 165-168. 56 Samson, Fishermen and Merchanrs in 19th Century Gaspé, pp. 72-76. '' Macdonald, "They Cannot Pay Us in Money," p. 1 15. demands for supply continued the use of truck and, hence, fishers' indebtedne~s.'~ Omrner observed that fishers' debt tied them to merchants, but remarks that "fishermen chose to live with that."" For Samson, however, fishers found themselves inescapably tied to the merchants by debt and monopoly. The fisher-merchant relationship was an unequal one, since "fishermen were not Free to trade their catch as they saw fit" given their situations of isolation and econornic rnarginality." Samson agreed that the merchant took on risk. but his conclusion that "most of the risk was borne by fishermen who, sooner or later, had to pay their debts to their creditor" does not accord with 0mmer.6' That severe indebtedness was so widespread arnong fishers makes it difficult for us to ignore the possibility that mercantile strategies for resource exploitation did, ultimately. oppress fisherfolk. The extent to which merchants used the truck system to exploit or take advantage of Margaree families is difficult to gauge. This dificulty arises first because of scholars' Iack of consensus on the issue of exploitation in the system of merchant capital and second because there is a paucity of information for the case of Margaree. Certainly, local merchants were by far Margaree's wedthiest inhabitants. Some evidence suggests that certain merchants took advantage of producers. A Belle Côte resident related an oral traditional account of Margaree fishers being at one point so infûriated over Robin Jones Macdonald, "They Cannot Pay Us in Money," p. 126. Rosemary E. Ommer,"The Truck System in Gaspé, 1822-77," in Merchant Credit, p. 70. Samson, Fishermen and Merchants in 19th Cenncrry Gaspé, pp. 68,83,95. Thornton fmds that the shift in the early-nineteenth century to a resident fishery at the Strait of Belle Isle "ultimately entrapped the fishermen in a cashless truck system." Thornton, "The Transition From the Migratory to the Resident Fishery," p. 165. and Whitman of Cheticamp's unreasonable pnces that the fishea dumped their catches into Margaree Harbour as a sign of pr~test.~'About the truck system, one Margaree local commented: In North Inverness, one merchant dealing with fisherman and would have to buy on credit and he would love to have them ... around December, buying on credit because that forced them to fish brthem in the spring. He'd show them their debt ... 90% of them were illiterate. They couldn't add or read or write and they didn't know if the debt was correct or not. And merchant would Say they'd senle the bill with the catch in the fa11 and in the fa11 they might have a couple of dollars or not at Another Margaree resident pointed out that while there were "good merchants" in Margaree, there were also merchants who were "real tyrants." He said: "They'd get you and your bucks. Anywhere's from fi@ to two-hundred dollars. Then you were right under their use. You jurnped to the crack of their whip. They - you had something they wanted and simply take it. Nothing you could do about it." The man told a "tme story8' about a Margaree businessrnan (assigned the alias "John") who dealt with the local fishers: [John] had them al1 in debt. In the meantime one of the fellows who was in bad debt, wanted to get out of debt, down too far, feeling miserable. He came into this particular house. And here was the man of the house sitting down, reading ... and this old man looked at him and he said "What book are you reading?" And this fella said Tmreading Les Misérables by Victor Hugo." "Oh yes," he said. "Oh '' Samson, Fishermen and Merchants in 19th Cenhrry Gaspé, p. 4 1. 62 Interview #25, Hannah W., Belle Côte, 1 3 May 2000. b3 Beaton Institute, Tape 2035, CBI Radio, "Archie Neil and Roddy's Rarnblings," 14 Nov 1981. yes. I read it, another book - les Misérables - today," he said. "And it was bhn's book on the fishemen." Because every one of them were dom to him? "Country merchants," who dedt primarily with fmer-loggers, may not have been so different. Oral evidence provides examples in the early-twentieth century of Margaree merchants expropriating cattle or even land fiom debtors. Margaree inhabitants probably felt some resentment toward merchants who exercised their economic power. One local history relates a story about a man who was under some obligation to the priest at East Margaree and also to the rnerchant at Margaree Harbour. As he passed the glebe house with goods which would satisfy either daim the [priest] challenged him but was met with the bitter jibe. "1 might as well pay one darnned rogue as another.'*' While the merchant supply system was an invaluable support to Margaree's subsistence economy, the merchant's structural position in the economy enabled him in some cases to dominate the people.66 However, as the Newfoundland scholarship reminds us, one should be wary of exaggerating mercantile hegemony and eliding social pressures that Margaree residents might have employed to mediate unequal power relations between merchants and Beaton Institute, Tape 2035, CBI Radio, "Archie Neil and Roddy's Ramblings," 14 Nov 198 1. 65 PANS MG 4, vol. 1 10, ''North East Margaree." Beaton Institute, Tape 2035, CBI Radio, "Archie Neil and Roddy's Ramblings," 14 Nov 1981; Interview # 17, Solomon F., Margaree Centre, 07 May 2000; Interview #22, Caleb & Ephrath I., Margaree Valley, 10 May 2000; Interview #23, Sarah-Anne & Walter F., Margaree Forks, 1 1 May 2000. prod~cers.~'Firstly, Margaree's prominent farming sector provided a means of import substitution which lessened producers' dependence on merchant credit. This arrangement was not possible in the Newfoundland case for reasons pertaining to the colony's natural deficit in agricultural resources. Also, there were numerous merchants at Margaree Harbour and throughout the countryside and farmen as far away as Northeast Margaree occasionally would travel by horse and wagon to Margaree Harbour to purchase supplies or to sel1 livestock, lumber, or produce. The possibility for competition of this sort frequently was not the case in outport Newfoundland where some merchants maintained both monopolistic and monopsonistic control over local economies. Yet despite a situation that could produce stiff competition, Margaree merchants generally did not compete with each other in the sense of modifying pnces in order to attract customers. Certainly, merchants farther back in the country, in comrnunities such as Frizzleton, for example, charged for goods at a rate nominally higher than one could purchase them at Margaree Harbour, but this price difference reflected handling fees at Margaree Harbour and transportation costs incuned by the landward merchant. Oral testimony suggests that, at least in the twentieth century, Margaree inhabitants viewed merchant families as members of the community .6' Margaree famil ies generally patronized particular rnerchants out of habit or personal choice. This fact points to an historical "social ethic," in Samson's term, between Margaree inhabitants and rnerchants, but it does not entirely '' AS a case example of fishers opposing mercantile hegemony, see Sean Cadigan, "Battie Harbour in Transition: Merchants, Fishermen, and the State in the Stniggle for Relief in a Labrador Community During the 1930s," Labour/Le TruvaiI, vol. 26 (1990), pp. 125- 150. 68 Interview #06, Caleb & Ephrath I., Margaree Valley, 23 June 1999; Interview #26, Joah S., Margaree preclude instances of mercantile domination." One fundamental difference between Margaree and Newfoundland that downgraded, in the case of Margaree, the structural dominance of the mercantile system was the presence of a commercial forestry industry. Whereas most Newfoundland fishers relied wholly on fishing and gardening, waged work in the woods eased many Margaree residents' dependence on rnerchant credit, especially in the winter rnonths. In the years before the Great Depression, Margaree men earned cash income fiom cutting pulpwood on the St. Am's Highlands for the Oxford Paper Company. L. Anders Sandberg's essay on the Big Lease covers the politico-economic arrangements surrounding the Oxford Paper Company's operations in Cape Breton. For our purposes, what is important to note is that Cape Bretoners quickly took advantage of this economic opportunity to work as independent contractors as well as waged empl~yees.'~ The Oxford Paper Company paid pulp cutters by piecework while blacksmiths. cooks, drivers, and foremen received fixed salaries. An Acadian man from Margaree, who went to work for the Company at the age of fourteen, earned a wage of $1.35 a day as a driver. He related this experience as follows: In 1923 t worked at St. Am's dnving a yard horse, what they cd1 a yard horse. Two fellows in the woods cutting pulp with the saw and the axe and two fellows Harbour, 14 May 2000. 69 Nineteenth-century Gaspd fishers similarly considered merchants as community members. See Samson, Fishermen and Merchants in 19th Century Gaspé, p. 75. 'O L. Anders Sandberg, "Forest PoIicy in Nova Scotia: The Big Lease, Cape Breton Island, 1899- 1960," in L. Anders Sandberg, ed., Trouble in the Woods: Forest Policy and Social Conficf in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick (Fredericton: Acadiensis Press, 1992), p. 75. on the yard chopping it up four-feet long. And you had to haul the wood to them, you know. And that was ten hours a day. Breakfast at six o'clock and supper at six. Dinner in the woods (...) You had to look after your horse. You had to get up early enough in the moming. You had to water your horse, brush km, put the harness, ready to leave &er breakfast at six o'clock.. Then when you come home for supper - supper was at six - you'd be on time for supper. You'd put your horse in the barn and you'd take the hamess off him. Then you'd go to supper. Then after supper you had to look after your horse. But you were only paid for ten hours of work." Workers cut pulp in the summer and piled it on bbyards"close to the cutting site. In the winter. when snow on the ground facilitated hauling, men took the pulpwood from the yards to "landings." located next to brooks, where they piled the pulp in stacks between 20 and 25 feet high. They built splash dams in the spnng by filling the brooks up with wood. Once enough water had accumulated behind the dam, they opened the dam and released the pulpwood. This splash propelled the wood down the smaller brook, into the North River, and thence dom this main river to the Oxford Paper Company's mil1 at Murray. The Company processed the pulpwood at Murray and then shipped it to the United States for manufacture into paper. Working for the Oxford Paper Company was hard and low-paying, one former cutter terming it "awfil slavery," but this work was an important means of securing cash for men in communities like Margaree." The ktthat so many men readily engaged in this work suggests not only that they participated in a cash economy, but also that the nature of Cape Breton's rural economy necessitated ''Interview #09,Joseph & Marie D., East Margaree, O 1 May 2000. P- "In the North River Lumber Woods," Cape Breton 5 Magazine, no. 7 (Mar 1974), pp. 1-7; interview #09, Joseph & Marie D., East Margaree, O 1 May 2000. involvement in marketsriented prod~ction.'~ Exploitation of forest resources also occurred at the household level. Most Margaree fmshad mixed woodlots, which supplied families with firewood for domestic use as well as wood for sale. Ptior to the late 1940s, a nurnber of Margaree families operated small water-powered mills throughout the area, especially in Northeast Margaree. These were families who were fortunate to have brooks on their property appropriate for setting up a mill. They were also families who had enough sons to assist in the millwork, since these operations relied pnmdy on farnily labour. Local men harvested logs off their woodlots and brought them to a nearby mill for milling into shingles or boards. A rnill might cut 1000 or 2000 feet of iumber per day if there was sufficient water in the brook to supply the necessary power. In a year of good weather, a mill might put out 100 000 feet of board annually." Milling operations were closely integrated into the family's round of seasonal production. In the spring fathea and sons prepared and planted their land. They then worked at the mill until haymaking time in the middle of July. If there was rain. they went back to work in the mill. Through the surnmer they altemated cutting logs and tending to the crops. They harvested farm produce in the fall. Throughout the winter they cut logs from their own woodlot until March. This would give them a month or so " Indeed, Anthony Winson remarks that a salient feature of regional agriculture "is the dependence of rural petty commodity producers in the Maritimes on a non-traditional farm activity, forestry." See Winson, "The uneven devefopment of Canadian agriculture: fming in the Maritimes and Ontario," Canadiun Jorrrnal of Sociology, vol, 10, no. 4 ( l985), p. 422. " Interview #06,Caleb & Ephrath I., Margaree Valley, 23 Iune 1999; interview #22, Caleb & Ephrath I., Margaree Valley, 10 May 2000. at millwork until they began the yearly cycle again by preparing the ground for planting." Families involved in this type of production might have taken a share of the lurnber for services rendered. A good deal of local lurnber went to the Magdalen Islands, by way of Margaree Harbour, and to buyea in Inverness and in Chéticamp, particularly the merchant house of Robin, Jones and 'Whitman. Income produced from operating a mill was by no means great. The cash went toward paying taxes and buying clothes and other supplies not produced on-fm. Some of these families were better-off than the average Margaree farnily having no mill. One Marsh Brook farnily involved in a mill operation could afford, for example, a car as early as 1939.'~Al1 in all, woodlot production was a valuable enterprise for a great number of Margaree residents. Some families clearly benetited more than others fiom woodlot production and this outcome contributed to the limited, but real, socio-economic stratification that existed in the Margaree Valley ptior to the Second World War. The conclusion that Margaree society was stratified to some extent should corne as no surprise given Bittemann's similar findings for nineteenth-century Middle River. In an argument that would apply to Margaree as well as Middle River, Bittermann states: Unequal access to resources, particularly land, meant that some households were in a position to produce substantial amounts of goods for export, while others were unable to meet household needs fiom their farm holdings." l5 Interview #06,Caleb & Ephrath I., Margaree Valley, 23 June 1999. 76 Interview #06, Caleb & Ephrath I., Margaree Valley, 23 June 1999. Bittermann, "The Hierarchy of the Soil," p. 34. Diflerences in resource allocation from one part of the Margarees to another, as mirrored in the data presented in Tables 1- 1 and 1-2, produced a degree of economic differentiation between inhabitants fiom one area to another, thus creating a local market, as well as the basis for social stratification. For example, the Noriheast district's abundance of quality timber allowed for an accumulation of wealth unknown arnong the fishers around Margaree Harbour: My father always said - 1 asked him one time why the Northeast had some beautifhl big homes. Whenever we'd go up there it seemed that the Northeast had bigger homes to us. And he said 'Well, they live in the heart of the lurnber country.' So, you know, probably that was it. We always thought their homes were so much bigger than ours - and he said, well that was prime lumber country, then." That Margaree society was sornewhat stratified, cornprising wealthy merchants, a few prosperous fmfamilies, and a core subsistent population, again forces us to reject the image of a monolithic block of subsistent producers. Perhaps the most exceptional class of producers in Margaree were the fmer- fishers of Belle Côte and Margaree Harbour. These families were well situated to take advantage of the ncarby ocean resources and their fishing activities represent a clear-cut exarnple of commercial involvement in pre-WWII Margaree. Most fishers were fiom Belle Côte and Margaree Harbour while some travelled fkom homes as fa away as three miles fiom shore. Those not having homes within wdking distance lived in fishing Interview #25, Hannah W.,Belle Côte, 13 May 2000. shanties located at Belle Côte on the side of the Margaree River's mouth, between the Margaree Harbour bridge and the Margaree Harbour break~ater.'~The fishing shanties consisted of shacks and wharves used for processing catches, storing equipment, and docking boats. Fishing was mostly a farnily enterprise, with fathers and sons, or brothers, often forming a duo. Each partner was entitled to an equal share of the catch, and the boat always took its own share. Prior to the 1930s, the men fished with boats called "double-enders." Three canvas sails and oars propelled these boats, which were manufactured on mainiand Nova Scotia. Many boats were also outfitted with the Acadia Gas Engine Company's famous "make and break engine. With these boats, and with convenient access to a common property cesource, Belle Côte and Margaree Harbour fishers were in a good position to harvest lobster, mackerel, salmon, and groundfish such as codS8O Cod fishing began in early spring and went through the summer until the fall. The fishers jigged with hand-lines in the sumn-er and deployed trawl-lines in the fall. Fishermen would go out in the evening to catch squid for bait. There were two or three fish buyers at Margaree Harbour, Laurence's and Munro's, who purchased the catches, generally with credit for goods. Fishers themselves dressed their catches and sold the fish by weight, ungraded, to these buyers. The buyers hired three or four men to work at curing the fish." The hired men pickied the cod, washed it, and then dried it on flakes." 79 Annie Jane LeLievre, The Belle Cote Story, 1892-1992 (Self-published, [1992]), p. t .8; Interview #OIT AIice D.,Belle Côte, 20 June 1999; Interview #04, Joah S., Margaree Harbour, 22 Sune 1999. Interview #04, Joah S., Margaree Harbour, 22 June 1999. In early-twentieth-century Margaree, women very rareiy, if ever, cleaned fish or worked on the flakes. For this purpose, flakes extended a couple hundred of yards dong Belle Côte beach and on the shore at Margaree Harbour. The dned and pickled cod went to Halifax and to the West Indies. Another important market for local fish, especially rnackerel, was Boston. In the fall, crews of four to six men, sometimes with three men fishing from each side of the boat, scattered hemng as bait and then jigged the mackerel. Mackerel stood in barrels of salt pickle until a boat arrived fiom Boston to transport the fish. The Margaree Harbour merchants were the local intermediaries in the marketing of both cod and rnacl~erel.'~ Salmon was the only fishery for which fishers marketed their catches themselves. In 19 14 a group of fishers established a union, the Margaree Harbour and Belle Côte Fishermen's union? Exactly what happened to this union is uncertain. Perhaps it became the local Salmon Fishermen's Union which operated in Margaree Harbour in the inter-war period. The Union possessed a freezer and in the winter the salmon fishers got together to cut, fiom a pond in Margaree Harbour, blocks of ice used to preserve the salmon before shipping to market, notably Halifax. The Union employed several men in ------.-. This situation is a striking contrast to the case of the Newfoundland fisheries, which often featured female labour in the curing process. See Marilyn Porter, ""She Was Skipper of the Shore-Crew": Notes on the History of the Sexual Division of Labour in Newfoundland," LaboudLe Travail, vol. 15 (1985), pp. 105- 123. For whatever reason, Margaree fish buyers directly assumed the task of processing the fish. The small number af men involved in this work suggests labour suppIy was not as critical in Margaree as it was in Newfoundland. 't With the exception of the adoption of the trawl-line, the productive and technologica1 arrangements for prosecuting the fishery had hardly changed since the early-nineteenth century. See Hornsby, Nineteenth- Century Cape Breton, pp. 89-90. Samson provides a summary of the curing process for cod. See Samson. Fishermen and Merchants in 19th Century Gaspé, pp. 33-36. Interview #03, Hugh T., Margaree Harbour, 22 June 1999; Interview #04, Joah S., Margaree Harbour, 22 lune 1999. Lelievre, The Belle Côte Story, p. 5.1 . the packing of salmon into ice boxes. Why fishers did not extend union activity to include fisheries other than salmon is also unclear, but possibly their need for credit kept them bound to selling to the Margaree Harbour fish merchants. Another exceptional feature of the salmon fishery was the fact that proprietary nghts governed who could fish for salmon. Ownership of coastal property gave a fisher a "berth," irnmediately off the Coast and adjacent to the property, within which he could set his salmon nets. The salmon fishery, combined with groundfish, lobster, and mackerel, kept Belle Côte- Margaree Harbour fishers occupied from spring to fall. Yet, despite this substantial trade, very few fonvard economic linkages resulted from local fisheries e~ploitation.~' The Margaree fish buyers and Salmon Fishermen's Union exported the product in a relatively unprocessed form. As Ommer notes: Since the technology for processing fish in this region in the nineteenth century [and for Margaree, the early-twentieth century] did not go beyond curing and drying, the forward linkage effecis of the staple were minimal, the value added to the raw product at source was minimal, and little additional income accrued to the domestic economy." Only the lobster fishery gave rise to a forward linkage, in the form of processing and canning of lobster. Two lobster factories, one in Belle Côte and the other in Margaree Harbour, operated from the early 1900s until the 1940s, producing canned lobster for trade with Boston, Halifax, and Maine. Between thirty and forty individuals at each " Interview #03, Hugh T., Margaree Harbour, 22 June 1999; Interview #04, Joah S., Margaree Harbour, 22 June 1999; interview #32, Kenan E., Margaree Harbour, 19 May 2000; Interview #35, Patrick N., Margaree Harbour, 22 May 2000. factory, including men, women, and children, worked at these factories during the months of May and June, the lobster season. Men hauled, cooked, and cracked the lobsters while children and women shucked hem, canned the meat, and packed the cans in boxes. Sometimes men would help can if the factory was especially busy. Canners worked From 8 A.M. io 4 P.M., six days a week, and received weekly wages. As the division of labour and waged remuneration suggest, some elements of capitalist relationships existed in the operation of the lobster factones. Asked how much canners earned at the factories, one Belle Côte woman replied "there wasn't a big lot." This statement in fact reflects the overall condition of Margaree fishers in the pre-WWII period. The marginal economic position of fishers with respect to world markets meant that families in Belle Côte and Margaree Harbour were operating pnmarily at a subsistent level, yet they were nevertheless tied into extemal econ~mies.~' Margaree's overdl domestic mode of production did not preclude market participation. The idea that Margaree producers belonged to an "archaic" pioneer era even in the post-WWII period justified programs airned at liquidating and rationalizing the population, as we shall see in subsequent chapters. Yet, this sketch of pre-WWII Margaree suggests that such a standpoint is dubious, at best. The red distinction is between post-WWiI commercial famiers' capitalist relations of production and the Ommer,"'Al1 the Fish of the Post'," p. 117. " Lelievre, p. 1.7; Interview #01, Alice D., Belle Côte, 20 June 1999; Interview #02, Elisha M., Margaree Harbour, 2 1 June t 999; Interview #03, Hugh T., Margaree Harbour, 22 June 1999; Interview #03, Hugh T., Margaree Harbour, 22 June 1999; interview #25, Hannah W., Belle Côte, 13 May 2000. An article on Cape Breton lobster factories provides usehl details on daily operations. See "Lobster Factories around Cape Breton," Cape Breton S Magaine, no. 20 (Aug 78), pp. 1 - 15. productive relations of subsistent producers such as those of pre-WWII Margaree. What distinguished Margaree production from capitalist modes was not market isolation, but productive relations that emphasized community over capital accumulation. These relations, which sternrned fkom Margaree' s condition of economic marginali ty and related subsistence imperatives, gave rise to a dominant egalitarian ethos. Occupational pluralism, consisting of combinations of fming, fishing, and logging, within a semi- market subsistence economy, regulated by the merchant supply system, characterized Margaree's domestic economy at mid-century. Market involvement became the vehicle for the underdevelopment of the nual economy in following decades. As Peter Sinclair remarked, petty producers who relied on commodity production were "committing themselves, probably without any clear awareness, to a much tighter integration with agrarian capitalisrn and to a very insecure fùt~re."~~In the period after the Second World Wu,capitalist modes penetrated this domestic mode and consequently altered productive and social relations. These developments precipitated a phase of crisis that wrought considerable change in the economy and society of Margaree. Peter R. Sinclair, "From Peasants to Corporations: The Development of Capitalist Agriculture in the Maritime Provinces," in John A. Fry, ed., Contradictions in Canadian Sociew: Readings in Introductory Sociology (Toronto: John Wiiey & Sons, t 984), p. 28 1. Dynamic Underdevelopment and Capitalist Hegemony in Inverness County, 1945-1970 Following the Second World War, large-scde structural forces radically altered economic and social conditions in eastem Nova Scotian communities. At mid-twentieth century, petty primary production based on the family unit of production fomed the backbone of Inverness County's economy. A formidable occupational pluralism and ownership of the means of production were salient features of this society. However, after the Second World War, outside capital penetrated the domestic mode of production and brought on a period of social crisis marked by economic re-organization and severe out-migration. At the political level, strategies for coping with structural change occurred within a cornplex ideological field. Governmental and popular approaches toward rectifiing unfavourable economic conditions in eastem Nova Scotia sometimes accorded, but oflen different motives stimufated the various social groups involved in the development discourse. Economic imperatives stemming from the popular experience of economic marginality, and the progressive dynamic underdevelopment of the rural economy in the post-WWII penod, prompted political pressures which the provincial government, in order to maintain power, addressed through an industriai development scheme. Popular and govemmental interests in achieving development goals formed the consensual bais 67 for the formulation and exercise of a capitaiist hegemony in eastem Nova Scotia. This convergence of social forces gave rise to the implantation of a foreign-owned pulpand- paper mil1 into the sub-region and sanctioned foreign capitalists' subsequent underdevelopment of the rural economy. Margaree residents did not, however, perceive this process as deleterious to the domestic economy. To the contrary, the pulp industry's limited, but tangible economic rewards conditioned the populace's approval of the pulp industry, ultimately consolidating capitalist hegemony within the sub-region. The post- WWII crisis in rural Cape Breton proceeded to a great degree from the rapid decline of agriculture, the mainstay of the rural economy. This marginalization of agriculture represented a dynamic capitalist underdevelopment of the overall rural economy. By mid-twentieth century, Nova Scotian agriculture had entered the twilight stages of a drawn-out decline that had begun as early as the late-nineteenth century and that was integrally linked to the concomitant de-industrialization of the region by central Canadian capitalists. Rural outmigration and farm abandonment progressed throughout the first half of the twentieth century as Nova Scotia became increasingly integrated into a continental economy in which technologicai advancements made it difficult for Nova Scotian famers to compete with the massive scale of production in extemal zones. The structural weakness of the region's agriculture pnor to the Second Worid War laid the foundation for a profound deterioration of the agrarian economy with the pst-WWII acceleration of agriculturai mechanization. ' The most rapid phase in the economic restmchiring of the agricultural sector began in the early 1950s and accelerated after the late 1950s. Farmers found themselves caught in a fatal and irreversible 'kost-pnze squeeze" that systematically drove farmers out of production and sometimes caused the loss of the means of production, the family fm. Chart A 16 illustrates index trends in agricuitural prices and fminput costs. The data clearly show that farrn input costs rose dramatically and, after 1952, exceeded the relatively stagnant values of agiculturai goods. Fannen were no longer receiving the retums that their economic activities merited. A statement from the Inverness County Federation of Agriculture expressed the "cost-price squeeze" as follows: "When the farmer goes to buy a plow, for exarnple, he inquires about the pke of that article. But on the other hand if he is selling a steer he must ask what the buyer will pay for his product. This seems to be ridiculously unfair."' The "cost-prize squeeze" was a symptom of far- reaching structural changes in the capitalist world system. Modemization in the post-WWII period brought technological change that revolutionized ag~culhiralproduction. Improved fmmachinery and a range of new biochemical products gave nse to more efficient, but more capital-intensive, production methods. Technologicd innovation increased production, decreased labour requirements, ' Robert MacKimon, "Agriculture and Rural Change in Nova Scotia, 185 1 - 195 1," in Donald Akenson, ed., Canadian Papers in Rural Hisfory, vol. 10 (Gananoque: Langdaie Press, 1W6), pp. 260-262; Anthony Winson, "The Uneven Development of Canadian Agriculture: Fanning in the Maritimes and Ontario," Canadian Journal of Sociology, vol. 10, no. 4 (1 98S), pp. 4 12-4 13,422. and consequently allowed for the mas marketing of cheap agricultural produce. The capital intensity of the new agriculture encouraged a trend toward land consolidation, greater output per fm,and specialized production. Farmers had to increase production in order to compensate for their higher capital investments. This threw into relief the problems facing producers on small, "marginal" fms- once ubiquitous in the Maritimes - that could not support the type of capital investment that fanners required in order to remain cornpetitive at market. The utilization of superior agricultural technology by fmers outside the region pushed small fmers out of production, thus precipitating rural underdeveloprnent in many parts of the periphery. These post-WWi1 trends in agricultural production caused in Inverness County, as scholar Brno Jean found in Québec's lower St. Lawrence Valley, "la disparition d'une majorité d'exploitations qui ne peuvent devenir rentables dans la nouvelle économie agricole."' In regards to the social effects stemming fiom this phenornenon, Jean observed that "la rentabilisation de l'agriculture engendrant ses propres contradictions, notamment, par son incapacité à assurer une gestion socialement rentable du temtoire agraire, comme composante fondamentale du patrimoine rural.'" Indeed, the relative deterioration of farmers' condition had profound demographic effects in rural Inverness County. Chart ' Victoria-ImernessBulletin, 15 May 57, p. 7. ' Bruno Jean, "La ruralitd bas-laurentienne: developpement agricole et sous-developpement rural," Recherches Sociogruphiques, vol. 29, no. 2-3 (1988), pp. 240,246; Norman H. Morse, "Agriculture in the Maritimes Provinces," Dalhousie Review, vol. 39 (1959-1960), p. 482; Tom Murphy, "From Family Fanning to Capitalkt Agriculture: Food Production, Ag.r?business, and the State," in Fairley, Leys, and Sacouman, eds., Restrz1chcring and Resistancefiom Atlantic Canada (Toronto: Garamond Press, 1990), pp. 3 12-2 1 8; Anthony Winson, "The Uneven DeveIoprnent of Canadian Agriculture," pp. 427-430. ' Jean, "La ruralité," p. 240, with emphasis. P 1 shows relative demographic equilibriurn in Inverness County during the pst-war period. By 196 1, the population of the county was only about 79% the size of the 192 1 population. The population increased by a mere 1.12% between 195 1 and 1971, indicating that out-migration generally offset natural population increase.' A household at one time benefited fiom a larger farnily because the family was the unit of production and more fmily labour translated into greater inputs into the household economy. However, by the late 1950s and early 1960s, nual folk in Invemess County no longer needed to, nor couid they, support these large farnilies since fewer rural families were involved in agicultural production. The number of farms in Inverness County fell tremendously, by 7 1.4%, between 196 1 and 1 97 1.6 Also, the composition of the rural population changed. Chart P3 describes the proportions of rurai fmand nirai ngn-fm populations in Inverness County. The clear trend fiom 195 1 to 197 1 was toward a predominantly non-farrn rural population. By 1966 the rural non-farm population was about double the rural fami population whereas in 195 1 the rural farm population had been about three times the rural non-fm population. These demographic trends reflected the progressive proletarianization of the nual populace.' ' AI1 calculations of agicultural data are based on Canada, Census of Agricuiture. 1951. 1956, 1961, 1966. 1971 (as applicable); al1 other data fiom Canada, Census ofCanudu, 195 1, 1 96 1, 197 t (as applicable) unless otherwise specified. Nova Scotia Department of Developrnent, Couniy Profde: Inverness, (Halifax: Nova Scotia Department of Developrnent, 1974), p. 23. ' Peter R. Sinclair, "From Peasants to Corporations: nie Development of Capitaiist Agriculture in the Maritime Provinces," in John A. Fry, ed., Contradictions in Canadian Society: Readings in Introductoty Sociology (Toronto: John Wiley & Sons, 1984), p. 284. proletarianization was one facet of a systemic capitalist underdevelopment of the rural economy. Capital underdeveloped rural economies in the Maritimes "through the truncation, yet maintenance, of the domestic mode of production.'" As primary producers converted subsistence goods into marketable cornrnodities in order to secure cash, they became drawn into "an increasingly tiyht indirect capitalist underdevelopment" characterized by unequal exchange between capitalist and prod~cer.~The aforementioned "cost-price squeeze" was a manifestation of this system of unequal exchange, which to a great extent imcated the domestic mode of production through the expropriation of the economic rent. The appropriation of surplus values underdeveloped the rural economy while the exchange system simultaneously maintained subsistence activities as the basis for the super-exploitation of the rural population. The agents of capitalism could pay petty primary producers less than the value of their labour because these producers subsidized their operations through subsistence production.I0 R. James Sacouman termed this process isemi-proletarianization" and argued that "semi-proletarianization provides the link between the dominant capitalist mode and the subordinated domestic mode of production."" This system of proletarianization pre-dated the Second World War, but following the war the capitalist penetration of the domestic mode of production accelerated. The 1960s saw an unprecedented shift toward fewer, larger farms that were more mechanized, a R. James Sacouman, "Semi-prolethanhtion and rural underdevetoprnent in the Maritimes," Canadion Review of Sociology and Social Anthropology, vol. 17, no. 3 (t980), p. 236. ' Sacouman, "Semi-proletananization," p. 236. 'O Sacouman, "Semi-proletarianization," pp. 236-237. employed much less labour, and speciaiized in production. The average farm size increased dramatically during the period under review. Average acreage per farm in Inverness County doubled fiom approximately 120 acres to approximately 240 acres in 195 1 and 1971, respectively (Chart Al). Furthemore, the average of improved acreage per farm more than doubled (Chart A2). However, the total amount of occupied fmland for 1971 plumrneted to less than 30% of the 1951 value (Chart AS). There was a correlation between the decline of the fmpopulation and the technological change in agriculture under way at this time. Inverness County fannea increased capital investrnents in fam machinery throughout the period under review. Charts A6 and A7 demonstrate the fact that fmers were rnechanizing their fmswith implements like tractors and hay balers, although the rate of mechanization was much less for Inverness County than for the province as a whole. The "cost-price squeeze" forced farmers to mechanize in order to remain cornpetitive within the market economy, but the capital imperatives of mechanization in tum meant that farmers had to have more improved acreage under production. This translated into a fmconsolidation movement that saw rnany fann families abandon agriculture. At a cross-Canada Farm Forum meeting in the late 1950s, fmers from across Canada agreed that the trend for the fie would be toward "large, fewer fms." The small fmwas simply "on the way out." The shift toward "a small nurnber of larger units" would "happen unless present conditions change, because of the more economicai use of machinery and capital which - - ' ' Sacouman, "Semi-proletarimization,"p. 24 1. can be made by a larger fam."'2The process whereby fmcapitalization and expansion &ove smaller. uncornpetitive operations out of business was a leading cause of rural poverty in Nova Scotia." Agncultural "development" through this process of rationalization must be seen as actually embodying an underdevelopment of the rural economy. As aiready mentioned, the rationalization of agriculture had a profound demographic impact. Moreover, rationalization engendered the sub-utilizaiion of hvemess County's agricultural resources through the contraction of production. Modemization and farm consolidation apparently led to a more intensive, "efficient" agriculture. Yet, the abandonment of fmland and the waning fmpopulation represented a great loss to the domestic economy. Invemess County was no longer hmessing the economic value of a socially important natural resource. " Rationalization underdeveloped the overall economy by promoting an absolute drop in farm produce. Charts A8b through A14b show, for the period under review, production quantities of various commodities as percentages of 195 1 values. Inverness County was generating rnuch less milk produce, as indicated by the numbers of dairy cattle kept. A comparable development occurred in sheep production (Chart A9b), pig production (Chart Al I b), potato crops (Chart A12b), and beef production (Chart A 13b). Egg and poultry production fared better for Inverness County, remaining below 195 1 " Victoria-Inverness Bulletin, 25 Nov 59, p. 1. l3 Dalhousie University, Institute of Public A ffairs, Poverty in Nova Scotia: Brieffir Speciol Cornmittee on Paverty, Senate of Canada (Halifax: Dalhousie University, Institute of Public Affairs, 197 l), p. 28. IJ Jean, "La mlité," pp. 248-249. levels but keeping relatively stable and even recovering somewhat throughout the period (Chart A lob and A14b). Al1 in dl, though, Inverness County famiers were producing fewer comrnodities in lesser amounts despite their employment of the "more efficient" machinery that could have, in theory, increased absolute yields. Yet often mechanization was a way for small farmers to stay in production by avoiding the rising labour costs of the period. Given that small farm size prohibited expansion significant enough to face outside cornpetition, mechanization couid not in itself provide a means for sustained agricultural development among marginal producers. Accompanying the mechanization process was a ruthless specialization of production which tended to marginalize fiirther certain segments of the Nova Scotian farm population. The transition from mixed to specialized fming proceeded as the result of farmers' increasingly Milnerable position with respect to the market. Mixed farming. in which farmee produced a bit of everythng, at one time provided the bais of the domestic economy and represented a subsistence strategy given a context of econornic marginality. Yet as producers becarne pulled into the "increasingly tight indirect capitalist underdevelopment" through unequd exchange and inefficient capital investment, market constraints played a greater and greater role in deterrnining what fmers would produce. Farmers invested in tixed capital in order to survive, but the production imperatives that followed fiom these investments made them more susceptible to market demands. Mixed fming could no longer provide security when an adaptive fming strategy was mechanization and specialization as a means of maintainhg competitiveness at market." The problem for a place like Inverness County was the highly spatial character of agricultural specialization within Nova Scotia. Brno Jean has commented upon how the regionalization of agncultural production in Québec marginalized fmers in the lower St. Lawrence Valley. At the heart of this process of regionalization was the reality that certain zones in Québec were more favourably disposed toward the production of certain cornmodities. Tom Murphy has observed the occurrence of a similar agricultural specialization within New Brunswick. A centralization of capital in sub-regional areas was the dominant pattern of capitalist restnicturing in agriculture during the 1950s and the 1960s.I6 The idea that certain regions had more favourable conditions, such as soi1 type and climate, has been a fiequently cited explanation for sub-regional specialization." For Invemess County, distance fiom markets, poor climate, and infenor soils were al1 factors that worked to fmers' disadvantage. A great disparity in the allocation of agricultural resources existed within the county itself: The northem area of Inverness is mostly rough mountain land having very steep dopes and excessive stoniness, shallowness, and wetness. The southem area is for the most part undulating and hilly. This factor conditions the efficient use of modem fami machinery in rnany localitie~.'~ '' Jean, "La ruralitd," pp. 250-25 1. Id Jean, "La ruralite," pp. 254-266; Murphy, "From Family Farming," pp. 208-209. " Murphy, "From Family Farming," pp. 2 1 1-2 12. I8 Nova Scotia Department of Deveiopment, Counry Profile: Inverness, p. 23. Charts A8a through AlSa give averages per fmof certain livestock (in nurnbers) or commodities (in acreage). The overall picture given by these charts is one of sub- regional speciaiization, with Invemess County production marginal with respect to Nova Scotia, Many commodities became the specialized reserve of agricultural zones outside Invemess County. As Chatt AlOa indicates, Inverness County lagged behind the province in terms of the average number of hens per farm. The high values for Nova Sçotia hint at an agribusiness consolidation of egg production into a few, very large farrns. Egg production was marginal in cornparison to other parts of the province (Chart A 10) and the same was true for porlc (Chart Al 1), potato (Chart A12), and poultry (Chart A14) production. Invemess County fmers began to specialize in raising sheep (Chart A9a) and cattle (Chart A13a). Such specialization suggests that Inverness County farmers were being increasingly drawn into the capitalist mode of production. The development programmes that various social groups promoted to cope with unfavourable structural trends evinced the complex ideologicai field in which regional development took place. On the one hand, Invemess County residents, through associationai, denominational, and governrnental channels, sought to revitalize or stabilize their declining communities. In contrast, many government officiais and social leaders "supported" some popular initiatives while dladhering to a dominant project of rationalizing Inverness County society, which entailed "balancing" the relationship between people and resources, as well as establishing a more urban, industrial s~ciety.'~ Rapidly changing market and technological conditions in the field of agriculture also elicited educational strategies to cope with the structural underdevelopment of the rural economy. A commentator, writing in the Victoria-Inverness Bul[etin, urged young fmers to enroll at the Nova Scotia Agriculnital College in order to acquire the education and training that structural and technological changes demanded: The idea was once prevalent that al1 a famer needs is a strong back and du11 wits. That was never tme, but it is even farther from the tmth in the modem age (. ..) The fmer must plan his soil, crop and livestock program; use and maintain power machinery, hire and supervise labor, and obtain and manage captial [sic]. 1s this a task for an untrained man in our modem, highly competitive ~orld?'~ In the late 1950s community leaders set up experirnental fmmanagement courses in six Cape Breton high schools, including Judique-Creignish and St. Joseph's-Mabou in Invemess County. The goal of these pilot courses was to direct students toward a life in fming and to develop their appreciation of rural living. The coune content sought to demonstrate to young students that the application of "modem management methods" could yield a standard of living comparable to that available in urban centres." This perspective coincided with that of Moses Coady, a founder of the Antigonish Movement l9 An articulation of the ideologies sunounding govermental attempts to rationalize "Surplus" population in the periphery is A.A. MacDonald, South Inverness Resowce Survey (Antigonish: Extension Department, St. Francis Xavier University, 1966). 'O Victoria-hernss Bulletin, 29 Sep 54, p. 1. '' Victoria-lmternessBulletin, 14 May 58, p. 3. and a Margaree native. During a 1950 speech in which he called for greater economic organization as a means for combating curai poverty, Coady noted that there was "no use dodging the fact that the people in the country are not getting enough cash."'' As a result, "people - men and women, boys and girls - have developed an inferiority complex about rural life. They are ashamed of their calling. They want to get away fiom it. They want to get to the cities where they will get clean jobs and clean money - as they think."l.' For Coady, the application of "scientific knowledge" to agriculture would benefit the welfare of rural people and "show them that the money they can make in farming and fishing communities is just as clean and their job just as respectable as any in the city."" Both popular and governmental leaders subscribed to the notion that an educated farmer could successfully conform to the "modem" or "scientific" requirements of the capitalist mode. E.D.Haliburton, Minister of Agriculture, commented: In the light of the tremendous and far-reaching technological changes which have taken place in the field of agncdtw ever the past few years, the time has arrived when every possible educationd oppomuiity must be provided the youth of Nova Scotia who wish to secure training in the science and practice of agriculture, both at the professional and vocational le~el.'~ The difference between govemmentai and popular approaches was that Inverness County inhabitants perceived their educational program as a means to greater independence " Alexander F. Laidlaw, ed., The Manfiom Margaree: Writings undspeeches of M. M. Coady (Toronto: McCleiland and Stewart Limited, 1971), p. 134. '1 Laidiaw, ed., The ,Wunfiom Murguree, p. 135. '' Laidlaw, ed., The Manfiom Margaree, p. 135. whereas govemment fkquently sought to rationalize producers in view of the restmcturing process. Voicing the popular perspective and addressing the fmers of Inverness County, Rev. J.A. Gillis of Mabou argued that education "can help solve the basic problems of your area and become in a sense masters of your own destinies. By working together and utiliring the resources of the experts you can realize the full potential of a good economic life in the county of Inverne~s."'~ The province and the farmers' federations CO-operateddong these lines in the late 1950s to mount a program of livestock expansion toward the goal of remedying the economic problems facing eastem Nova Scotian fmers. Even though in this instance the state program accorded with popular efforts, many political leaders were committed, in fact, to liquidating the marginal population of eastem Nova Scotia. In a late 1950s session of the provincial legislature, J. Clyde Nunn, MLA for lnvemess County, argued against the province's livestock expansion program, pointing out that establishing a fm in livestock production required "much money." Nunn recommended less capital- intensive crops such as small hits and vegetables. At that session, the Minister of Agriculture, E.D.Haliburton, disagreed with Nunn and put on record his lack of optirnism in "the small farms of eastem Nova Scotia."" Six yealater Haliburton " Victoria-lmerness Bullelin, 4 Sep 63, p. 1. 2b ktoria-herness Bulletin, 28 Nov 62, p. 1. This perspective follows Crom the ideology ofthe Antigonish Movement. For a brief overview of the movement within the context of structural underdevelopment, see R James Sacouman, "Underdevelopment and the Structural Origins of Antigonish Movernent Co-Operatives in Eastern Nova Scotia," in Bryrn and Sacouman, eds., UnderdeveIopment and Social Movements in Atlantic Canada (Toronto: New Hogtown Press, 1979), pp. 107- 126. '' Victoria-fmerness Bulletin, 3 Apr 57, p. 7. expressed the urgency of greatly expanding Nova Scotia's livestock p~pulation.~'This expansion would not, ostensibly, encompass the marginal fmsin Inverness ~ounty? The Minister, believing that large-scale production was necessary for a fming venture, predicated his livestock program on the rationalization of Nova Scotian agriculture. This prograrn featured the consolidation of production into fewer, larger fms. A contemporary critic, writing about these changes, noted that since livestock expansion entailed "a change fiom srnaIl fms, so characteristic of the Maritimes, to much larger farms. it will have fat-reaching conseq~ences."'~The choice appeared to be "between a large agricultural industry - in terms of fami population and labour force - and a prosperous industry."" The so-called Gordon report of the federal Royal Commission on Canada's Economic Prospects provided the justification for govemmental involvement in liquidating problematic "surplus" population in rural areas of the Maritimes. The report called for government implementation of a prograrn of farm consolidation with resettlernent aid for marginal farmer~.)~This shift in official opinion meant that, for a time, government would champion small producers while nonetheless recommending their withdrawal hmindustry. Only shortly hefore the release of the Gordon report, Agriculture Minister Chisholm vowed that massive corporate fmswould "never be Vicroria-InvernessBuiletin, 4 Sep 63, p. 1. " Vicroria-lmerness Bulletin, 3 A pr 57, p. 7. 'O Morse, "Agriculture," p. 473. '' Morse, "Agriculture," p. 483. " Victoria-inverness Bul!etin, 23 Jan 57, p. 8. welcome in this pr~vince."'~A decade later, Invemess County MLA N.J. MacLean deterministically declared that the "small family farm would appear no longer economical." MacLean stated: 1 think at the sarne time, we should have the courage to advise the farmer on a small income with no hope of improving his lot no matter what assistance he may get, that he should not be expected to continue in this line of work or on this particular fmonly to eke out a bare or substandard existence." The problem with such an approach, as a Canadian Welfare Council study of poverty in Inverness County indicated, was that the poorest, most marginal inhabitants had the least ability to change occupations or relocate in search of ernpl~yrnent.~' Rural underemployrnent and poverty encouraged the province to look to industrial development as a means of solving the sub-region's economic problems. When Nova Scotia built the Canso Causeway in 1955, the province inadvertently created one of the largest all-year, ice-fiee harbours in Atlantic North Arnerica. The Causeway planners' "mistake" opened the way for the possibility of heavy industrial development in the Strait of Canso area. The first major development was a pulp-and-paper mil1 at Point Tupper completed in 1962 and owned by the multinational forestry giant, Stora Kopparberg of ~weden.'~By the early 1970s Stora's pulp industry employed several hundred workers 'j Victoria-Inverness Bulletin, 28 Mar 56, p. 6. " Vicloria-InvernessBulletin, 16 Mar 66, p. 6. 35 See, for examples, Canadian Welfare Council, A preliminary report of ruralpoverty in four selecred areas (Ottawa: Canada Department of Forestry, 1965), pp. 56-57,93. 36 Stora Kopparberg has operated its POR Hawkesbury miIl under the names Nova Scotia Pulp, Nova Scolia Fores1 Industries, and Stora. 1 will refer to this corporation simply as Stora. and created roughly 1200 full-time jobs in woods operations, with a great nurnber of these woods jobs in Inverness County. Within a decade, an oil refmery and a heavy water plant joined the pulp mil1 at the Point Tupper industrial complex. These three installations formed the core of Strait industry until the early 1980s." Industrial development at the Strait was the result of a concerted effort on the part of many different social groups. Leonard O'Neil, a prominent Strait of Canso area leader having had political connections with the Liberal Party, directed a pressure group known as the AntigonishGuysborough-Inverness-Richmond (Four Counties) Development Association. The Four Counties Development Association was vociferous and instrumental in the push for the establishment of the pulp mill. As early as 1955, O'Neil engaged the public in a discourse on the merits of industrial dcvelopment at the Strait. O'Neil argued that a pulp mil1 could provide employment for 1500 men in forestry and 300 men in mining coal to supply the mill's energy requirements. In all, the leader expected a "[hloped-for annual remto the area of approximately %14,000,000.'"8 O'Neil incited the small woodlot owners of the four counties to organize themselves rapidly in order to harness their collective holdings, representing 50% of the sub-region's estimated 60 million cords of marketable w~od.'~He also suggested that these 6000 " David Newton, "What is happening in Cape Breton?," Canadian GeogrriphicaiJournai,vol. 87, no. 5 (Nov 1973). pp. 24-25; Peter J. deVries and Georgina MacNabdeVries, '"Taking Charge': Women in a Cape Breton Island Community," in Constance P. deRoche and John E. deRoche, eds., "Rock in a Stream": Living with the Po fificalEconomy of Underdwefopment in Cape Breton, ISE R Researc h and Policy Papers, No. 7 (St. John's: Institute of Social and Economic Research, Memonal University of Newfoundland, 1 W),p. 37. 38 Victoria-InvernessBuffetin, 7 Sep 55, p. 1 . 39 Victoria-herness Buffetin,6 Apr 55, p. 1. small woodlot owners would consume more coal from the ailing Cape Breton coal industry if they had a market for the wood that they othenvise bumed. O'Neil rallied the residents of the four counties to support his project: "Our need is great. The oppomuiity is present. Let us al1 join in a final push that will not be denied short of this goal - a major pulp and paper mill for this ares?" Political conflict surrounding the project implicitly found articulation in the adversarial forcefulness of O'Neil's statement. In the initial years of the Four Counties Development Association's activity, the Henry Hicks government was recalcitrant over the notion of establishing the pulp mill. O'Neil retrospectively attributed the govemment's oppositional stance to a desire on the part of politicians to conserve their alleged practice of leasing Crown lands to their supporters as a form of patronage. Other antagonists were concems from other parts of the country who used eastem Nova Scotian pulp, which local people harvested and sold at comparatively cheap pnces, as an occasional reserve. O'Neil further testified that "there were interests that didn't want the Stora Koppaberg [sic] to corne in here because (. ..) they knew they couldn't compete with them.'"' Seemingly, the possibility that Stora Kopparberg might operate a mil1 in eastern Nova Scotia geaerated substantid political conflict that played out in an arena far larger in scope than the immediate sub-region and Uivolved social groups beyond those represented by a local organizations like the Four Counties Development Association." " "The Pulp Mill Comes to the Strait," Cape Breton f Mugaine, no. 25 (Jun 1979), pp. 3 1,3 3; Victoria- Inverness Bulletin, 9 Mar 55, p. 5. " "The Pulp Mill Comes to the Strait," p. 3. " "The Pulp Mil1 Comes to the Strait," pp. 2-3. While the Association seemingly represented the efforts of an organized elite, labour and farm groups added their voices to the discourse to solicit govemmental action toward major industrial development." Even an urban-based union like the Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers, Local 1 (Halifax), resolved that the Nova Scotia government should support the establishment of the pulp mill "even to the extent of cancelling existing woodlot permits to supply such a plant.'" Cape Bretoner Ralph MacKichan of the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture perceived this project as of potential benefit to the region's fmers. In a bief to the provincial legislature, MacKichan recommended a pulp-and-paper mill to create a market for farmers' produce. Possible demands for famiers' goods ostensibly compnsed pulpwood for the mill and food for an industrial population. MacKichan legitimized the fmers' cal1 for state support for a pulp mill in the following tenns: [Wlith industry subsidized to the extent that it is today, it is dificult for fmers to compete on the world markets. Our famis have been mechanized in order to produce more efficiently, but in doing so it brings about greater overhead per unit. In order to overcorne this situation we are forced to create greater surpluses. It would appear to us that the management of out surplus fami products is one of our most urgent problems, which we feel is the joint responsibility of fmers and govermnents.lS " The work of Raymond Foote suggests that it was a petty bourgeoisie of entrepreneurs, professionals, and shopkeepers who enjoyed the real economic benefits of industrial expansion at the Strait. For examples, see Raymond L. Foote, The Case of Port Hawkesbury :Rapid Industrialkatition and Social Unrest in a Nova Scofia Cornrnunity (Toronto: PMA Books, 1979), pp. 148- 1 52, 160-162. " Victoria-Inverness Bulletin, 30 Mar 55, p. 1. Victoria-ImernessBulletin, 3 1 Mar 54, p. 1 . Farmers' fight against structural underdevelopment produced a concerted pressure for industrial development that found articulation through the farmers' federation and through the medium of the state. The notion that a pulp mill would have a positive economic effect was prevalent. The construction of a pulp mill would create jobs, resolving unemployment problems in the Strait of Canso area while simultaneously stabilizing the deteriorating agricultural base of the adjacent counties? In 1959 the MLA for Antigonish, W.F. MacKinnon, anticipated the "profound" impact that the opening of the pulp mi11 would have for Antigonish residents. This politician thought that the mill would "give a psychological uplift to a people who have ofien considered that they were forgotten in the expansion of 20thCentury canada.'"' At the sarnc: time that Leonard O'Neil and the Four Counties Development Association were trying to have the government recognize their aspirations for a pulp mill, Clyde Nunn, MLA for Inverness, championed the Strait of Canso people and urged the government to embark upon the project. Nunn's cal1 for government intervention, clearly fnuned within the context of political stniggle, made it clear that his constituents expected the province to take steps to solve their economic problems. Nunn believed that "the people of this province cherish the kind of Govenunent that offers understanding, leadership, and sound policy - that when they are harassed by economic ills they do not cal1 for political surgery but for consultation and simple sound policie~.'~~ jb Victoria-InvernessBulletin, 3 1 Mar 54, p. 1. " Vicforia-InvernessBulletin, 25 Feb 59, p. 1. " Victoria-Inverness Bulletin, 9 Mar 55, p. 7. During that period, a "sound" development policy generally consisted of the provincial government offenng attractive subsidies and tax incentives to a foreign-owned corporation that was willing to locate its operations in Nova Scotia. A critical huning point in the stmggle for the mil1 was the 1956 provincial election in which Conservative leader Robert Stanfield defeated Angus L. Macdonald's successor, Premier Henry Hicks. The new government proved considerably more receptive to the plan, an indication that attitudes toward development were changing within the state. As political scientist James Bickerton has remarked: "By the 1950s the notion of development as intemally spawned (. . .) was giving way to a concept of development as something that 'cornes fiom away,' a condition of modemity acquired by the region via the importation of industrie^.'"'^ Political imperatives prompted by the need for job creation to spruce up the sub-region's detenorating economy, which was in a clear downward spiral by the time that Stanfield came to power. meant that the governrnent was willing to put publicly-subsidized resources up for grabs to multinational c~mpanies.'~W.J. Woodfine of St. Francis Xavier University expressed the conventional wisdom of the period when, in a report on the possibility of establishing a pulp mil1 in eastem Nova Scotia, the professor urged the province to "undertake any capital expenditures which a private firm would find extremely costly" in order to elicit the settlement of a pulp-and-paper Company in the area." These types of industrial incentives accorded perfectly with the technocratie spirit J9 James P. Bickenon, Nova Scotia, Ottawa, and the Politics ofRegiona1 Ddopment (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, t WO), p. 138. 'O Julie McMahon, "The New Forest in Nova Scotia," Round One, no. 6 (Oct. 1975), p. 3. " Vicroria-inverness Bulletin, 26 May 54, p. 6. bat was emerging in Nova Scotia's bureaucracy at that tirne. Few would question the desirability of relying on foreign-controlled capital. In a discussion on forestry development, Clyde Nunn observed that "technological advances are often accompanied by social hardships," but concluded that "when you can point to such imperishable wealth in the hands of people of spirit and intelligence there is little cause for pe~sirnisrn!"~~ Unfominately, the implantation of foreign capital into the domestic economy of eastem Nova Scotia rneant that Nunn's "people of spirit and intelligence" would lose control over their forest resources, which in the end proved considerably more penshable than contemporary optimists had imagined. One observer recognized early on that the strategy of luring foreign capital into the area could prove disastrous for local people. Alex J. MacIsaac of St. Francis Xavier University must have stood out as a radical at a 1956 Four Counties Development Association meeting when he suggested "the possi bility of building the mil1 by co-operative a~tion."'~MacIsaac discussed successful instances in Europe of co-operative production in the pulp industry. According to MacIsaac, co-operative pulp development was merely a maner of leadership: "Ali we need is the right leadership in Nova Scotia to [implement such a program] so we can have a pulp mil1 free of the oppression of a monopolistic [sic] system."" Such a view confiicted with the dominant philosophy that the role of govemment was to facilitate capitalist exploitation. Clyde Nunn, in an address during a Throne Speech debate, opined tbat govemment had "a particular role to play in a programme of '="The PuIp Mill Cornes to the Strait," p. 37; Victoria-InvernessBuiietin, 9 Mar 55, p. 7. industrial expansion."55 Nunn rejected the type of popular approach to economic development that MacIsaac put forward. The political representative stated that public ownership of industry was neither the "economic philosophy" of the govemment nor of the politician himself. Nunn believed that "[ilt is the entrepreneur, the enterpriser, who will establish our new industries, and his decision to locate in any specific area will be based on an analysis of the prospects for suc ces^."^^ Only when conditions "indicate that a profit may accrue" to a corporation would a new industry become "a reality."" The political leadership of the province supported a prograrn which would re-organize Nova Scotian society according to the demands of outside capital. Alex MacIsaac's words were in many ways prophetic, however, for the decade following Stora Kopparberg's appearance saw the control of this corporation increase tremendously. Soon after the establishment of the Port Hawkesbury mill, Stora adopted a policy of rnechanization that intensified exploitation, minimized woods employment, and subsurned the independent producer into the capitalist mode of production. As one contractor would admit, "there were tough times during the stamip years of the mill due to the introduction of modem equiprnent and it was no easy matter to He claimed that his Company mechanized its operations because he could not find people who would work in the woods. This justification greatly simplified a histoncal 53 Victoria-inverness Buffetin, 1 Aug 56, p. 1. '' Victoria-Inverness BuIIetin, 1 Aug 56, p. 1. 55 Victoria-InvernessBullerin, 27 Mar 57, p. 6, with emphasis. 5b Victoria-herness BuIIetin, 27 Mar 57, p. 6. 57 Victoria-InvernessBulletin, 27 Mar 57, p. 6. movement toward capitalist consolidation and mechanization in forest industries. The contractor's statement also elided Stora's more insidious practices." Stora's industrial policies gradually pushed Inverness County inhabitants out of the woods, alienating the people from the resource and leaving them without work. Industrial forestry practice treated forest resources as "a crop to be harvested as cheaply and as intensely as Clear-cutting was imperative for maximum exploitation of eastern Nova Scotia's forest. This mode of resource extraction in turn called for heavy machinery with minimal labour requirements. Mechanization of the pulp industry contributed to unemployment and out-migration by extirpating woods ernpl~yment.~'As Duncan R. Campbell and Edward B. Power observed in their report on mechanization in the eastern Canadian pulp industry: Tec hnological change has its own dynarnism; it tends both to create the need for new and expanding occupations and cause a decline or disappearance of established occupations. Since nearly al1 technological change is labour saving, the decreases tend to outweigh the increases." Campbell and Power noted that such occupational displacement had a tendency to intensify regional unemployment problems. The social consequence of the loss of PANS RG 44, vot. 158A, no. 7, "Transcript of Baddeck Hearing of the Royal Commission on Forestty," pp. 126, 135. 59 Mc Mahon, ''The New Forest," p. 2; PANS RG 44, vol. 158A, no. 7, "Transcript of Baddeck Hearing of the Royal Commission on Forestry," pp. 126, 135. * PANS RG 44, vol. 158A, no. 7, "Transcript of Baddeck Hearing of the Royal Commission on Forestry," pp. 126, 135. '' McMahon, "The New Forest," pp. 2-4. 62 Duncan R. Campbel! and Edward R. Power, Manpower Implications of Prospective Technological Chmges in the Eastern Canadian Pulpwood togging hdustry (Ottawa: Queen's Prînter, l966), p. 106. forestry jobs was particularly severe for loggers, who had the lowest degree of education of any major occupationai group? The rationalization of the pulp industry would ultimately "reduce real fami income and speed the exit from marginal fams in Eastern Canada."6J As early as 1963 MLAs for Guysborough and Inverness cornplaineci that marginal small woodlot owners faced dificulties marketing pulpwood for lack of machinery. A member remarked that people who previously had found valuable employment cutting pulpwood for several months per year no longer participated in woods work because large operators with heavy machinery dominated the cutting of pulp. E.D.Haliburton, then Minister of Lands and Forests, suggested that marginal residents form a collective in order to negotiate with Stora. The Minister made it clear that the provincial govenunent would not interfere in the relationship between pulp cutters and the ~ornpany.~' Haliburton's handling of popular concem over forestry mechanization highlighted the govemrnent's role in boistering capitalist exploitation. Shortly afier the legislature discussed the issue of rnechanization, in an address to the Maritime Provincial Technical Branch of the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association, which represented pulp companies' interests, Haliburton warned Nova Scotian woods operaton that they would have to mechanize to maintain a competitive position. The Minister said that "the increasing need for mechanization on the part of the operator, if he is to remain competitive, will 63 Campbell and Power, Manpower Implications, p. 108; Richard Wilbur, "Maritimes: Planned Underdevelopment," Canadian Dimension, vol. 7,no. 7 (Jan-Feb 197 1), p. 15. bJ Campbell and Power, Manpower Implications, p. 11 1. 65 Victoria-InvernessBulletin, 27 Mar 63, p. i . create special problems for the smail operator where an uneven forest stand covers rough terrain.'*6 Halibiburton predicted that the forestry labour force would decrease by 66% within ten years as the result of mechanization. Yet, paradoxically, this politician associated mechanization with the "realization of the full potential thsit is available for growth and development" in Nova Scotia? The company's mechanization policy maintained high productivity and low unit prices, forcing "a rapid and unremittant squeeze" on woodlot owners? The company pressured contractors to invest in heavy machinery and guaranteed loans for these purchases. Heavy indebtedness incited contracton to over-produce, thereby keeping pulpwood pices down as well as generating rapid resource depletion. Large capital investment also fixed financial resources that might othenvise have contributed to the domestic economy. G.O.Lohnes, MLA for Lunenburg Centre, pointed out that woodlots could be better exploited with drafl animais. Not only did modem machinery destroy wood, but it also tied up capital resources in equipment that could only be used for part of the ~ear.~~But the older mode of production, tied to the inter-war economy, did not comply with the industrial orientation of the governrnent's contemporary development policies. Govemmental policy helped maintain Stora's hegemony in eastern Nova Scotia by providing the company cheap access to extensive forest leaseholdings. Eager to attract bb Victoria-lmterness Bulletin, 1 5 May 63, p. 1. "'Victoria-lnver~ess Bulletin, 15 May 63, p. 1. McMahon, "The New Forest," p. 2. 69 Victoria-lmerness Buller in, 1 7 Mar 65, p. 4. excess of half Nova Scotia's forest whereas in the 1950s small holders had owned upwards of three-quarters of the resource.'* Increased control over the resource enabled Stora to fix pnces that were excessively low compared to the actual costs of producing pulpwood. This meant that the company siphoned off the real economic value of the region's Forest resources, leaving Inverness County residents to enjoy relatively linle benefits. The province also subsidized the construction of the Port Hawkesbury mill. Govenunent assistance, through Crown leases, direct and indirect subsidization, tax exemptions, and publicly- Funded silviculture programs, permitted the low pulpwood pice that Stora dictated to small woodlot owners. The owners consequently received rems fiom their wood that did not represent the actual production costs. Stora's monopsonistic control over the pulp industry in Cape Breton in reality inhibited the "growth and development" of the rural e~onomy.'~ Direct underdevelopment through resource alienation and depletion resulted from Stora's monopsonistic squeeze, which encouraged "liquidation cutting followed by the sale of the property or its reversion to the ~rown."'" The phenornenon of liquidation cutting signified the alienation of many small producers from the resource. It also demonstrated that company policy made the small producer absorb the costs of - - " McMahon, "The New Forest," p. 4. Glyn Bissk and L. Anders Sandberg, "The Political Economy of Nova Scotia's Forest Irnprovement Act, 1962- 1986," in Sandberg, ed., Trouble in the Woods, p. 172; McMahon, "The New Forest," pp. 5-6. 73 Wilbur, "Maritimes," p. 16. maintaining the resource "for the Company benefit."" Through occupational pluralism and subsistence fming, many Inverness County inhabitants undoubtedly met subsidized Stora' s super-exploitative activities. This semi-proletianization of small woodlot owners forced workers to use their household econornies to absorb many productive and reproductive costs of the pulp industry. According to Sacouman's work, this type of exploitation represented one aspect of the capitalist underdevelopment of the rural econ~rny.'~ Some woodlot owners undentood the govemment's role in promoting the capitalist program. For example, in 1966 the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture threatened "revolt action" to get recognition both of farmers' problems and of the deteriorating position of woodlot ownen. The Federation demanded "a better break for small woodlot owners, who were underpaid for their pulpwood. Owners complained that the governrnent subsidized the pulp companies through the extremely cheap sale of Crown-land wood. The Federation expressed resentment and articulated its own view of what constituted a mord economy in eastem Nova Scotia. In regards to government subsidization, Federation members felt that it was "unfair to expect that the woodlot owner should do like~ise."'~W.N. MacLean, Liberal MLA for invemess, explicitly linked poverty with the pulp industry when, in a Throne Speech address, he conunented that the Canadian Welfare Council had found the poor of Inverness County living off practically the lowest incomes in Canada. Later in his address, W.N. MacLean went on '' McMahon, "The New Forest," pp. 3-6. to criticize the govenunent for the condition of the pulp industry: "1 would imagine by this time that the Honourable Minister of Lands and Forests is fully informed as to the plight of the small woodlot owner and his meager retms for wood sold to the pulp mills, which we consider to be a great inju~tice.'"~Between 1960 and 1965 producers in Invemess County had harvested a third of the cordage that the mil1 consumed. Yet the price of pulpwood was static over that period while commodity prices and the cost of living rose. This arrangement, if left untended, meant that "in 12 or 15 years time the small wood lot will be a thing of the past."" W.N. MacLean beseeched the Province to assist Invemess County's small woodlot owners by taking an authoritative stance with respect to a pulpwood price increase.%' The Nova Scotia govemment proved unresponsive to the concerns of the small woodlot owner and some politicians were insensitive to the plight of the smafl producer." A Conservative MLA for Invemess County, N.J. MacLean, comrnented merely that the pulpwood price was "a complicated problem" and that the solution was "a manysided one."" MacLean recornmended the following remedy: "Increased productivity, better conservation, education and training of the small wood lot owner in more efficient rnethods of production, al1 have their part to play in getting a better harvest fiom the '' Sacouman, "Semi-proletarianization," p. 237. 77 Victoria-lmerness Bulletin, 9 Feb 66, p. 1. '' Victoria-ee Bulletin, 2 Mar 66, p. 6. 79 Victoria-InvernessBulletin, 2 Mar 66, p. 6. Victoria-lnverness Bulletin, 2 Mar 66, p. 6. See Bissix and Sandberg, "The Political Econorny," pp. 168- 197. Victoria-InvernessBulletin, 16 Mar 66, p. 6. wood lot."" Such a recornmendation reflected govemment's interest in conforming the eastem Nova Scotian workforce to the production demands of the pulp Company and in imposing the formative costs of the labour force upon the woodlot owner. Although E.D. Haliburton prornoted economic "growth and development" through mechanization, the Minister did not see that strategy as appropriate for the small producer." The government envisioned a smaller and smaller role for the petty producer as the corporate consolidation of eastem Nova Scotia's forest progressed. One cntic aptly surnmed up the govemrnent's program for this industry: The experience of the woodlot owners underlines the process of underdevelopment that passes under the oficial title of development. The policy demands that development be equivalent to industriaiization and that industrialization take place by catering to private corporations. The older patterns of landholdings. work and resource use, and the communities which were based on those patterns, become obstacles to a development process which demands industrialization and con~olidation.~~ Stora Kopparberg grew and developed as the result of the sub-region's forest resources while Inverness County inhabitants continued to see their cornmunities deteriorate fiom unemployment and out-migration. Yet Margaree inhabitants did not perceive in negaiive tems the processes of mechanization and resource depletion that accompanied Stora's consolidation of its hegemony in the sub-region. The company7soperations furnished Victoria-Inverness BuIIetin, 16 Mar 66, p. 6. Victoria-1mernes.s Bulletin, 17 Mar 65, p. 4. 85 McMahon, "The New Forest," p. 8. Margaree producers with a steady market for their pulpwood and supplied many residents with secure waged employrnent. Opportunities in the forestry industrj did exist for Margaree residents prior to Stora's coming. In the late 1940s and throughout the 1 %Os, the "Smith brothers," a farnil y-based lumbering operation from New Brunswick, harvested hardwood, rnosti y birch, in various locations around the Margarees. The Smiths processed the logs into veneer at a sawrnill at Margaree Forks and shipped the lumber out by irain fiom Inverness. A man who worked for the Srniths recalled that local people, receiving a daily wage for their services, selectively cut birch hm"every mountain in Margaree." Another resident remembered that this work created "a great boom to them because there was a fair amount of good quality birch (. ..) and every farm had a woodlot." While the Smiths directly employed cutters, they also purchased logs from woodlot ownen. As for so ftwood lurnber, more than a dozen gasoline-powered, farnily-run sawmills were operating in the area in the 1950s. Softwood lumber went to markets through local merchants or directly to Sydney by truck or by rail fiom Inverness. Margaree woodlot owners also produced four-foot pulpwood which they sold to Robin, Jones and Whitman of Chéticamp, the Bowater Mersey Paper Company of Liverpool, and other buyers in Baddeck, Inverness, and Nyanza. Various outlets were in place for Margaree's forest resources in the 1950s. However, purchasing demand and market availability were variable and economic returns fiom these sales were meagre in relation to labour input." With the pulp-and-paper mil1 development at Point Tupper, local woodlot owners had access to a massive nearby market. A Margaree woodlot owner stated in regards to Stora's activities in the sub-region: "1 think it was a good thing. It gave us a sure market." As a meradvantage, selling to the pulpmill allowed local producers to realize profit from crooked, knotty, or undersized logs that would nonnally make poor quality lumber. The low prices that Stora dictated to small woodlot owners may have stimulated some hstration initially, but quickly Margaree producers learned that their economic well-being depended on submitting to Company policy: I remember hearing farmers saying 'Well, they'll never get my wood for six dollars a cord.' And they '11 never do this and they '11 never do that ( .. . ) 1 don' t know why it changed, 1 guess it just became another market for a product that existed. Like the wood was here (. ..) so yoii could go to the woods and get four or five or six cords a day. Weil, that was thirty-six dollars, which was a lot more than you'd get if you lefi it standing. And it soon becarne very important." Indeed, Margaree residents' condition of economic marginality made local producers more than eager to sel1 their pulpwood even at unreasonable prices: Victoria-Inverness Bulleiin, 30 Mar 45, p. 4 and 28 Mar 47, p. 7; Interview #IO, Hezekiah T., Margaree Valley, 02 May 2000; Interview # 1 1, Angus G., Upper Margaree, 03 May 2000; Interview # 14, Michael P.. Southwest Margaree, 04 May 2000; Interview #20, Hazael N., Margaree Valley, 09 May 2000; interview #2 1, Oman N., Margaree Valley, 09 May 2000; Interview #30, Hasrah T., Margaree Valley, 16 May 2000; Interview #33, Ishmael H., Margaree Harbour, 20 May 2000. '' Interview #20, Hazael N., Margaree Valley, 09 May 2000. 1 think everybody wanted to sel1 the pulp al1 at once, including myself maybe. But it worked out good in the end. 1 know it put a lot of meat on the table that wouldn't have been there other than that. We used to cut pulp before that for the Mersey and for shipping overseas, but it wasn't a steady market like this mill. This mill here was a steady market for pulp. As for the price for pulp, well, sometimes we thought we weren't getting too much. 1 think that's human nature to always want a littîe more."' Producers' disadvantaged position in the capitalist economy made resistance to Stora's hegemony difftcult, not to mention unprofitable." Employment conditions and opportunities in the new pulp industry were substantially better than those of the logging activities conducted in the era pior to Stora. Quite a few Margaree men worked on the construction and operation of the mil1 as highly-paid, unionized labourers. Other local people were employed at hauling pulp to the mi11 or at building access roads on the Highlands. As an additionai "bonus," these activities often qualified workers to receive unemployment insurance assistance during the winter months. In the 1950s, and earlier, lumberers lived in spartan camps, sleeping on hay bunks in cabins without electncity or running water. By contrast, pulp cutters on the Highlands in the 1960s lived in modem trailers equipped with washrooms and radios or televisions supplied with electricity by generatoa. "lt was a good living?" cornmented a Margaree man. "It wasn't bad living at dl, you know, in those years." The work was not necessarily easier, however, despite the widespread use of powersaws: "It was hard work, that's for sure. Anything that cornes out of the woods was hard work. But as far as Interview # 16, Elisha M., Margaree Harbour, 05 May 2000. " Interview # 16, Elisha M., Margaree Harbour, 05 May 2000: Interview #20, Hanel N., Margaree Valley, 09 May 2000; Interview #21, Oman N., Margaree Valley, 09 May 2000. [working conditions] goes, 1 was satisfied." The creation of work and the material improvements in workea' living conditions certainly helped generate popular acceptance for the new industryw The injection of pulp money into the local economy brought about a relative prosperity, in general terms, that went far in bolstering popular consent for the new order. A man who was a lumberjack in the 1950s recollected that, although "al1 you got was three dollars a day," "it was better than nothing." Very little work was available at this tirne for Margaree residents: "Well it was no good, eh. 1 mean there was nothing. It was just hard going here in the country." Stora's low prices were nevertheless substantially higher than those which Margaree producers received during the 1950s. The pulp mil1 "changed everything here" and "was probably the life saver around this area for a nurnber of years." Before Stora's amival, few Margaree residents were accustomed to receiving a regular paycheque. The generation coming of working age during the 1960s were out- migrating in search of waged employment. The pulp industry helped satisQ many younger people's material aspirations, encouraging them to stay in the cornmunity, and provided work for the older generation as well. Indeed, while youth out-migration continued throughout the 1960s, the demographic disparity between younger and older generations slackened, as Charts P5a-c illustrate using age-sex pyrarnid graphs. However, the dominance of male labour in the pulp industry reinforced gender inequality Interview #I 1, Angus G., Upper Margaree, 03 May 2000; Interview # 14, Michael P., Southwest Margaree, 04 May 2000; Interview #16, Elisha M., Margaree Harbour, 05 May 2000; Interview #2 1, Oman N., Margaree Valley, 09 May 2000; Interview #30, Hasrah T., Margaree ValIey, 16 May 2000; Interview #33, Ishmael H., Margaree Harbour, 20 May 2000. within the community. In 1971 the number of Margaree women between the ages of 20 and 24 was substantiaily lower than the nurnber of their male counterparts (Chart P5c). Despite the gender bias apparent in pulp-related employment, the overall econornic condition of residents did improve? Income earned through employment in the industry ailowed many workers to urbanize their lifestyles. In the esteem of one contemporary, Margaree had "a very affluent society," although the measure of affluence was relative to the community's economic history: "A nice rise in the income. Very comfortable, you know, you were making money. You had money to buy a car to travel to Sydney. You could drink a few heer. There was no really wondering about that next meal. And you got your paycheque evrry week." Many worken in the pulp industry chose to discontinue farming, instead purchasing their groceries, and they enjoyed the luxury of a five-day work week. They acquired automobiles and modernized their homes with wages and credit. A man who worked on the Highlands admitted, in retrospect, "[the pay] wasn't very big at the time, and we thought we were doing pretty well." Another man stated: "it wasn't good money then but it was better money than what we were getting, you see. So more people wanted to get in cutting pulp." The pervasive econornic marginality that characterized " Interview # 12, Kadmie! M., Northeast Margaree, 03 May 2000; Interview #16, Elisha M., Margaree Harbour, 05 May 2000; Interview #17, Solomon F., Margaree Centre, 07 May 2000; Interview #20, Hazael N., Margaree Valley, 09 May 2000; Interview #30, Hasrah T., Margaree Valley, 16 May 2000; Interview #33, Ishmael H., Margaree Harbour, 20 May 2000. communities like Margaree created the precursor for a monopsonistic corporation's seizure of the sub-region's human and natural reso~rces.~' The limited, but tangible rewards for involvement in the industry conditioned consensus about the vimies of Stora's hegemony: "the pulp Company, as far as Stora, was one of the best things that ever came to this part of the country.'' This is not to Say, however, that local people were unaware of the company's detrimental practices. Initially. local woodlot owners may not have recognized the implications of this hegernony for their own position in the industry. The issue of corporate control over the Crown lands and Stora's use of these lands to push down pulp pices did not generate much controversy in the Margarees during the 1960s because the extent of Stora's power was stil1 unclear. A Margaree Valley woodlot owner remarked: 1 think probably we were a little nafve. For the most part we didn't know how much wood was on the Highlands here at one point. There was no road systems or very, very poor road system what was there. So people didn't understand that roads could be built and put in to the degree that they have been to get that wood off. So 1 think it was ignorance on the small fmers' and woodlot owners' part to a certain degreeO9' Political forces underrnined the province's woodlot owners' attempts to mobilize collectively to obtain an equitable arrangement. Premier Stanfield's plan to hand control 92 Interview # t 1, Angus G., Upper Margaree, 03 May 2000; Interview #12, Kadmiel M., Northeast Margaree, 03 May 2000; Interview # 16, Elisha M., Margaree Harbour, 05 May 2000; Interview # 17, Solomon F., Margaree Centre, 07 May 2000; Interview #20, Hazaei N., Margaree Valley, 09 May 2000; Interview #30, Hasrah T., Margaree Valley, 16 May 2000; Interview #33, Ishmael H., Margaree Harbour, 20 May 2000; Interview #36, Sad M., East Margaree, 23 May 2000. 93 Interview #S 1, Oman N., Margaree Valley, 09 May 2000. of the sub-region's forest resources over to foreign capital had succeeded. Margaree producers were, in the words of a resident, "in a dificult situation because so much of the wood [was] coming fiom the Crown lands .. . so [the company] can get a fair amount of wood off of Crown land so they're not in a situation where they're forced to really negotiate." Margaree woodlot owners appear to have recognized their weak position with respect to the company, but their membership in organizations like the Inverness County Federation of Agriculture and the Nova Scotia Woodlot Owners' Association did not substantively ameliorate their situation. The prices they were receiving were too low, but in cornparison to the 1950s, "it was still a big improvement," enough so to satiate local producers." Although an analysis dong the lines of a "the people vs. hegemonic corporation" perspective may have a certain appeal, a closer examination yields a more complex picture. Among those Margaree residents who were involved in the pulp industry, relationships to the resource and to the means of production were variegated, as the following statement fiom a Margaree Harbour small woodlot owner suggests: "1 cut pulp. I got pulp from some of the neighbours. Bought stumpage. And 1 cut some that way and I worked for the pulp company on the Crown land." The cutters working under contractors on the Highlands were remunerated in proportion to their productivity whereas other employees, such as haulers and truckers, received wages. These different groups did not necessarily share common interests as far as industrial arrangements were -- UJ Peter Ciancy, "The Politics of hlpwood Marketing in Nova Scotia, 1960-1985," in Sandberg, ed., concemed. On the other hand, there is no reason to suggest that local small woodlot owners would identifi with owners in other parts of the province more than they would with members of their own cornmunity who depended on employment as haulers or truckers. In other words, Margaree residents' collective relationship to the Company and the resource was nebulous, a situation inhibiting popular stniggle." The haIca-dozen or so pulp contractors operating on the Highlands adjacent to the Margaree Valley were the most conspicuous instance of socio-economic differentiation among Margaree residents resulting fiom the pulp industry. These contracton were native to the North Inverness area, with the exception of a contractor from Invemess and another fiom New Brunswick. At least two Margaree contractors had been entrepreneurs engaged in a forestry business during the 1950s and had made the transition to pulp contractors with the advent of the Stora rnill. These contractors employed men with chainsaws in the first years of operations on the Highlands, hiring and firing labour in accordance with demand and supply. Yet, as early as the mid to late 1960s, some Margaree contractoa began to eliminate this manual labour by adopting heavy machinery that could rapidly chop and limb trees. Not only did mechanization lower labour costs and increase ouput, but the contractors Merreduced their operational costs by phasing out the Highland camps in which the cutters lived while they worked. The contractoa Trouble in the Woodr, pp. 142-167; Interview #2 1, Oman N., Margaree Valley, 09 May 2000; Interview #33, Ishmael H., Margaree Harbour, 20 May 2000; Interview #36, Saul M., East Margaree, 23 May 2000. 95 Interview # 16, Elisha M., Margaree Harbour, 05 May 2000; Interview #21, Oman N., Margaree Valley, 09 May 2000; Interview #22, Caleb & Ephrath I., Margaree Valley, 10 May 2000. thus shifted some productive costs ont0 the workers themselves. The contractors' move to mechanize their operations sparked concem arnong local workea: They didn't like it. They didn't like it, you know. It started to cut back on the amount of men that you'd need. And if the pulp mil1 was getting an oversupply of wood, well, then you'd have to lay off a few men. It wouldn't be these machines that'd be shut down? Technical problems with the first harvesters forced the contractors to continue employing manual cutters for a few more years, but by the mid 1970s, and perhaps earlier, the contractors had completely eliminated manual cutting. Although "there'd be a little opinion" about mechanization at the time, the cutters "didn't force it too much." Contractors' initial need for manual cutters had prompted them to import labour, particularly from Newfoundland. In a 1982 bnef during the Nova Scotia Royal Commission on Forestry hearings, a prominent Margaree contractor justified going the mechanization route as follows: "times were pretty good outside of the woods and you just couldn't get [men] to work in the woods and that's why we switched io mechanical equipment.'"7 The consequentid reductions in labour appear to have affecied outside labour first, leaving the bulk of remaining employment for local people. The end result, - - -- % Interview #30, Hasrah T., Margaree Valley, 16 May 2000. q7 PANS RG 44, vol. ISSA, no. 7, "Transcript of Baddeck Hearing of the Royal Commission on Forestry," p. 135. Oral evidence, including a testimony by a man who had worked for this contractor, confms the argument that the contractor was having trouble fuiding manual cutters. however, was a massive accumulation of capital and wealth into the hands of a few contractors with a concomitant acceleration of resource depleti~n.~' Many Margaree residents witnessed the intensity, even during the days of manual cutting, of pulp harvesting on the Highlands, but little in the way of popular concem emerged until the spruce budworm crisis which began in the mid 1970s. Widespread economic marginality within the community priontized eaming a decent living through work in the pulp industry. Local people left the issue of resource management largely ignored until the budworm threatened the community's important livelihood. For exarnple, asked whether local people were concemed about conserving the resource during the 1960s, a Margaree resident responded: "In the 1960s they were just worrying about making a dollar then." Another person reflected: i don't think we understood how fast that wood cm be cut off of land. And a lot of people were really shocked when they started seeing the clearcuts that were being done on the Highlands. But it was too late then to do anything about it. There certainly was some concem at that point. 1 know even myself, when I worked back there in the early sixties when Stora first started harvesting the wood on the Highlands and after a couple of years 1 said '1'11 never live long enough to see this green again.' It was such desolation. It's just indescribable. As fm as you could see it was nothing but slash and very linle green.99 Yet local people could not refuse involvement in this mode of production upon which their families' well-being hinged. In an economy with scarce agricultural and fisheries BI, PAM 2859, "History of Margaree by Alice LeBlanc," pp. 48-49; PANS RG 44, vol. 158A, no. 7, "Transcript of Baddeck Hearing."; Interview #30, Hasrah T., Margaree Valley, 16 May 2000; Interview #33, [shmael H., Margaree Harbour, 20 May 2000; Interview #36, Saul M., East Margaree, 23 May 2000. 99 Interview #2 1, Oman N., Margaree Valley, 09 May 2000. resources, local people in communities like Margaree quickly came to rely upon the industry, thus laying the foundation for the hegemonic order which govemment and Stora conspired to implant into the sub-region. A Margaree Harbour man succinctly identified local dependence on the Company when he remarked: "The mill was good to this end of the world ( .. . ) It was the best thing ever happened. If the mill ever pulled out of there, you know, it's back to square one, eh. Nothing." Ironicaily, however, the limited prosperity brought about by the pulp industry heightened the cornrnunity's structural dependence by discouraging popular initiatives in community economic development during the 1 960s. '" Through the 1950s and the 1960s, Invemess County's domestic economy suffered considerable reversals as structural forces stemming fiorn beyond the sub-region increasingly marginalized small-scale farmers within the market economy. The "cost- pnze squeeze" associated with the processes of mechanization and specialization brought about a drastic downtum in comrnodity production as Invemess County's small famien abandoned their vocation. Agricultural decline precipitated rapid demographic change, notably population loss through out-migration and a shie to a predominantly non-fm population. The latter outcome was a symptom of the widespread proletarianization of the mal populace. Political and popular leaders railied to %id" beleagured famiers by pushing education as a means by which fmers could better themselves through conformity to the capitalist mode of production. Having little confidence in Invemess lm Interview # 17, Solomon F., Margaree Centre, 07 May 2000; Interview #21. Oman N., Margaree Valley, County's farmers' ability to survive in the new market economy, key politicai figures in the provincial government subscribed to a dominant agenda for the rationalization of the "surplus" farm population. In view of the sub-region's problerns, various social groups, comprising govermental actors, farm and labour organizations, and business elites, mounted a carnpaign for indusaial development in the form of a pulp-and-paper mil1 in the Strait of Canso area. This scheme pemitted foreign capital to penetrate the sub- region and implement a hegemonic prograrn for the super-exploitation of human and natural resources. The complicity of govemment in aiding and abetting the foreign capitalists' project was integral in the formulation and maintenance of this novel hegernony. As Antonio Gramsci wrote: Between the economic structure and the State with its legislation and its coercion stands civil society, and the latter must be radically transformed, in a concrete sense and not simply on the statute-book or in scientific books. The State is the instrument for conforming civil society to the economic structure .. .'O1 The re-organization of eastern Nova Scotian society was essential for the realization of the state's industrial development scheme. Despite the processes of proletananization and super-exploitation accompanying Stora's ascension to power, popular expenence of the related structural changes was relatively positive, at least among the residents of the Margaree Valley. The community's history of difficult economic conditions and the 09 May 2000; Interview #22, Caleb & Ephth I., Margaree Valley, 10 May 2000; Interview #30, Hasrah T., Margaree Valley, 16 May 2000. 'O' Quintin Hoare and Geofüey NoweIl Smith, eds., Selectionsfiom the Prisan Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci (New York: International Publishers, 197 I), p. 208. Merunderdevelopment of the domestic economy following the Second World War had placed local producers in such a marginal position that the pulp industry's limited rewards went along way toward consolidating popular support for the regime. The incentives offered by work in the new pulp industry intensified agricultural decline within the community by drawing labour away from agriculture. Despite the advent of the pulp industry and its role as economic "saviour" of many Margaree Families, some famiers continued in their struggle to maintain their activities with respect to their progressively deteriorating market position. CHAPTER TmE Agriculture and Adjustment in the Margaree Valley, 1945-1970 Margaree residents responded to the deterioration of the agricultural economy in a variety of ways. Social responses to agricultural decline found expression through particular social activities staged in the area during the period under review. Organizers sought to encourage marginal producers in their activities in order to maintain the social fabric of the cornmunity by discouraging out-migration. However, out-migration and fmland abandonment were pervasive and constituted the most drastic solution to an economic climate inhospitable to small-scale farm production. Those who remained in farming approached their problems both at the individual level and at the collective level. Individually, many fmers adapted their land-use patterns, production, and techniques to exploit local opportunities and to suit market constraints and demands. Other famers came to rely on non-agricultural resources and governrnent assistance in order to survive. Farmers also made collective attempts toward bolstering their market position through efforts to organize production and to improve commodity quality, as well as through engagement of government programs aimed at providing new opportunities to fannea. Attempts on the part of some Margaree residents to preserve the fùnctionality of their famis in view of the capitalist reshucturing of the region's agrarian base represented a social force which conditioned the pattern of dynamic underdevelopment at the local 111 level. Dependency theorists' macrostruchiralist orientation has made hem overlook how the agency of producers responding to changing structural conditions has contributed to these histoncal processes. Instead, certain neo-Manrist scholars have put forth the argument that nual producers, by recognizing their marginalization within the capitalist system, should develop a type of class consciousness that would in turn prompt proletarian resistance to the restructuring of rural economies under advanced capitalism. The application of a robust empiricism to a set of case studies for the Maritimes will likely discredit this ahistoncal assumption. In the case of the Margaree Valley, for example, producers' overall response to the underdevelopment of the domestic economy amounted to an adjustment to the demands of metropolitan capital, not the "anti-capitalist working-class stniggle" which sociologist James Sacouman theotized should occur.' Although market forces eroded Margaree agiculture throughout the 1950s and the 1960s. the initial years after the Second World War brought sorne prosperity for local fmers and merchants. More money was circulating in the local economy in cornparison to the Depression years and the demand for agricultural commodities was strong, especially during the years coinciding with the "primary commodities boom" that the Korean War stimulated? Margaree fmers had a decent market for their produce in centres such as Inverness, Chéticarnp, and Sydney. One fmer commented: ' R. James Sacouman, "Semi-proletarianization and rural underdevelopment in the Maritimes," Canadian Review of Sociology and Anrhropology, vol. 17, no. 3 (I980), p. 24 1. Anthony Winson, "The Uneven DeveIopment of Canadian Agriculture: Farming in the Maritimes and Ontario," Canadian Journal ofSociology, vol. 10, no. 4 ( 1 %S), p. 426. Probably after the war and after the long years of depression there was probably a feeling of hope. The prices was getting good for fmproduce, for fish, for lumber, for anything. And some people were breaking in new land, improving their fm. The fishermen were improving their fishing and everythmg. Quite a lot of lumbering going on. And it looked really good for maybe six, seven, eight, maybe ten years.' Farmers' market activities enabled them to consume goods at levels well beyond those of the inter-war period. The trade of local merchants thrived during this time, making them "quite wealthy as compared to other people." A participant noted: "The economy was kind of in a boom and these people gathered in some wealth and they controlled others." The prospects for farmers, and even more so for rnerchants, appeared positive, if not ideal. But these conditions dso fostered the growth of Iarger fmoperations outside the area and, in the words of one retired famier, "the big farms started crushing us out.'" Out-migration was a major response to Margaree's condition of econornic marg inality and the dynamic underdevelopment of domestic agriculture.5 The population for North Inverness dropped by 12% fiom 195 1 to 197 1 and the total arnount of occupied land had plurnmeted by 197 1 io a mere 23% of the 195 1 value (Charts P 1 & AS). Out- migration was most prevalent arnong the youth of Margaree. Charts PS(a)-(c) are age pyramids showing age cohort structures for North Invemess. The dent in the pyramids for age cohorts 15-1 9,20-24, and 25-34 reveals a heavy rate of youth outmigration. This demographic pattern is a tell-tale sign of a population in a state of economic crisis. Interview # 16, Elisha M., Margaree Harbour, 05 May 2000. Interview # t 6. Elisha M., Margaree Harbour, 05 May 2000; Interview # 17, Solomon F., Margaree Centre, 07 May 2000. Farmers' structural marginality made fam abandonment and outmigration a logical solution to their problems, because direct stniggle over the means of production could not occur. Margaree fannea were, in structural terms, "independent" commodity producers. As sociologist Peter Sinclair observed: "The economic weakness of the petty- commodity producer in a developing capitalist society constitutes a serious and, in some cases, a compelling pressure to abandon the enterprise altogethet.'$ This meant an abandonment of %e fields for the factory, as Marx predicted."' Oppominities in other places within the region and in central Canada encouraged many Margaree youth to abandon the community in preference for waged employment in centres such as Toronto. Before the coming of the Stora pulpmill, very few jobs were available locally other than tending the marginal farnily farm or working in the woods for low pay and under hard conditions. The scarcity of quality agriculturd land meant that young people fiequently did not have the option of establishing their own fms, especially because members of the older generation tended to stay on the farnily fmduring retirement. A Margaree Valley man explained why he emigrated from the area in the mid 1960s as follows: My father was still active at that time and the farm wasn't large enough to support two families. 1 was working - although 1 had animals here and was helping out on the fam - 1 was working off the fm(. ..) 1 was doing odd jobs.' A statisticaf study of out-migration is J.R. Winter* Ner Migration Rates by Countyfar the Maritime Provinces ([Wolfville:] Department of Economics, Acadia University, 1970). Peter R. Sinclair, "From Peasants to Corporations: The Development of Capitafist Agriculture in the Maritime Provinces," in John A. Fry, ed., Contradictions in Canadian Socie~Readings in Introductoty Sociology (Toronto: John Wiley & Sons, l984), p. 29 1. ' Peter R. Sinclair, "From Peasants to Corporations," p. 285. Interview #2 1, Oman N., Margaree Valley, 09 May 2000. This predicarnent &ove younger people away because famis could only support one generation and had the added effect of making faming more difficult for the older folk, who often relied on family labour to perform essential tasks such as fencing. In cases where younger people had their own land, the poor market conditions that faced Margaree fmers did little to encourage them to persevere in this occupation. Even as early as the late 1940s, some Margaree people could forsee how mechanization of large fmsin other regions would bring hardship for the srnall ber. One Margaree Forks man, having inherited the farnily fam fiom his deceased parents in the mid 1940s, nevertheless decided to abandon farming and move to Ontario: Yhere was quite a change taking place in the old modern-day type of farming fiom the small way to the big way and it didn't seem like a person would have the money at that particular time to invest in fann machinery and continue on farming on a small scale." A Margaree émigré regretted having had to abandon his farnily's Southwest Margaree fm. "1 really wanted to farm," he recollected. "1 wanted to be a farmer. But there was no such thing as - not ai our place anyway (. ..) there was no water on our farm (. ..) You were too far away frorn market and everybody told you 'Don't be so foolish. Don't be so foolish as to even consider tl~at.'"~Parents and teachers often stressed to the young people the need to leave - - Interview #06, Caleb & Ephrath I., Margaree Valley, 23 June 1999; Interview # 19, Mary-Anne G., East Margaree, O8 May 2000; interview #2 1, Oman N., Margaree Valley, 09 May 2000; interview #23, Sarah- Anne & Walter F., Margaree Fotks, 11 May 2000; Interview #33, lshmael H., Margaree Harbour, 20 May 2000; Interview #38, Nathan M., Port Hawkesbury, 26 May 2000. the Margarees and educate themselves so that they might attain a better standard of living: It was very, very important to get an education, to get a high school diplorna, to get out of Cape Breton, to go to university, and that was it. So, sort of shrug off al! of your cultural ties and patriotic feelings about this part of the world, you know. 'Get the hell out,' in other words, was the idea. Very prevalent (. ..) It was very often said that there's nothing here for you." The lack of local oppomuiities faced young women as it faced young men. A common strategy among young women was to move away and work in factories or enter the nursing or teaching professions. Some of these women returned to the area, but most did not. Women who opted to stay in the Margarees had little choice between domestic work in the home or in local towist establishments. Women in the vicinity of Belle Côte could also work at the fish plant at Grand Étang. Such a lifestyle was not suited to everyone: *'l couldn't see myself like working housework. 1 hate housework - 1 still do today - 1 hate it. With a passion. And 1 wanted to do something with my life. And there was no opportunity here for me. None whatsoevet" The gendered division of labour that characterized Margaree society during the inter-war penod continued to restrict Margaree women's opportunities throughout the period under review and in many cases encouraged young women to emigrate fiom the community." 'O Interview #38, Nathan M., Pon Hawkesbury, 26 May 2000. '' Interview # 19, Mary-Anne G., East Margaree, O8 May 2000. The factors that led to out-migration increased Margaree residents' concem about their families' well-being given the poor economic context and possibly precipitated a decline in fertility rates. Special Dominion Bureau of Statistics publications allow us to calculate the child-woman ratio for the Margaree-Chéticarnp subdivision. Following the Dominion Bureau of Statistics' definition, we define the child-woman ratio as the ratio of children under 5 years of age to women ages 20 to 44. The child-woman ratio gives a fertility rate for the five-year penod before the date of census enurneration. This ratio was 0.9437 in l96l,O.85 10 in 1966, and 0.6928 in 1971, for a decrease in fertility rates of at least 25% for the decadal penod fiom 1956 to 1966. These data do not show causation, but they do suggest a correlation between decreasing fertility rates and popular recognition that the traditional economy offered few material benefits to the younger generation.'' Most parents either encouraged or were resigned to the fact that their children had to leave the cornmunity in order to establish their own families. One man sumrned up a dominant perception arnong Margaree inhabitants on the matter of out-migration when he stated: - -- ''Canada, Dominion Bureau of Statistics, "Fertility Trenends in Canada," Bulletin 7.2-2, 196 1 Census, p. 4; Mortimer Spiegeiman, Introduction to Dcmography, Revised Edition (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968), p. 259; Calculations based upon Canada, Dominion Bureau of Statistics / Statistics Canada, "Population by Specified Age Groups and Sex for Counties and Census Subdivisions," Bulletin SP-1, 1961 Census, pp. 15-16; "Population by Specified Age Groups and Sex for Counties and Census Subdivisions," BuIIetin S-2, 1966 Census, p. 1 1; "Population by Specified Age Groups and Sex for Counties and Census Subdivisions," Special Bulletin SP-2, 1971 Census, p. 14. lf we look at history, it's pretty well out. You know, the ones that for the most part that had a linle ambition would go. 'Course there's other people had the ambition but couldn't go. They were involved with theù family or whatever may be. But for the most part 1 would Say they had to leave." This attitude was probably a cultural legacy of Margaree's position in the labour reserve, the community having had a long history of population migration to and from economic centres such as the Boston States. Out-migration accelerated in the post-WWII period, but the expenence of out-migration was not Fundamentally different than it had been during the inter-war period. That Margaree residents generally accepted out-rnigration as a necessity was nothing unusual, but this does not mean that nobody in the comrnunity opposcd youth out-migration. Margaree residents discussed ways in which they could improve the local economy so that more younger people could remain in the comrnunity. At a 1953 meeting of the Margaree Credit Union, for example, Reverend A. Boudreau "deplored the exodus of young people" from Margaree and opined that, with a better attitude, "means could be devised of making a living in our comrnunity." Father Boudreau recommended that local people form winter study groups in order to look into the niatter. Local leaders fiequently called upon education and training as rnethods of improving conditions, both economic and social, in rural Cape Breton." -- - '-'Interview #12, Kadmiel M., Northeast Margaree, 03 May 2000. '' R. James Sacouman, "The 'Peripheral' Maritimes and Canada-Wide Mamist Political Economy," Studies in Political Economy, no. 6 (Autumn 198 l), p. 142; Henry C. Veltmeyer, "A Centrat Issue in Dependency Theory," Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, vo 1. 1 7, no. 3 ( 1 !MO), p. 20 1 ; Yictoria- Inverness Bulletin, 25 Nov 53, p. 1; Interview # 12, Kadmiel M., Northeast Margaree, 03 May 2000; Interview # 14, Michael P., Southwest Margaree, 04 May 2000. A senes of social events that typified the educationai strategy for coping with economic decline were the annual folkschools which the Inverness County Federation of Agriculture sponsored throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s. The Federation sumrnarized its agenda with the statement: "Our Federation attaches very much importance to these folkschools, because we consider them real workshops for the development and training of d leaders, a cornmodity that is not too plentifil in Rural Cape ~reton."" That the folkschools stemmed from a grassroots movement yet nevertheless had the support of the Department of Agriculture illustrates state involvement in Inverness County residents' struggle for economic development and social survival. The 1965 folkschool, held at Mabou, was the CO-operativeeffort of the people, the Nova Scotia Division of Adult Education and Physical Fitness, and the Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture and Marketing. The folkschool staff comprised govemment personnel who supposedly had "an intimate insight into the problems facing the small nual cornrnunity of t~day."'~ The first Cape Breton folkschool was held at Margaree Forks in 1949 and the annual event remained in the Margaree area at least until 1952. Thereafter the location included other communities, usually Chéticamp, Baddeck, or Mabou. Organizers encouraged local organizations, such as Home and School Associations, cosperatives, and religious societies, to sponsor from their membership men and women willing to participate in the folkschool program. The multifarious subjects taught at a typical l5 Victoria-Inverness Bulleiin, 1 1 Jan 56, p. 1. folkschool might include "public speakuig, conduct of a meeting, dramatics, discussion group techniques, Nova Scotia history and literature, organization of community programs, physical recreation and community singing."17 The educational format was multifaceted, consisting of discussion, participation, reading, drama, and public speaking. The fol10 wing description surnmarizes the grassroots philosophy of the folkschool organizers: The whole program of the Folk school is designed to provide a rich and enjoyable experience in comunity living for those who attend. It offers an opportunity for men and women interested in the problems of the rurai comrnunity to live, think, study and play together under the guidance of a staff group of diverse skills. The total folk school program is aimed at the growih and development of the students in ideas, in reading and speaking ability and in a healthy outlook and attitude towards the possibilities of the small fming and fishing communities of Nova ~cotia.l8 The fo lksc hools focused on fostering solutions to economic and social problems particular to these cornmdties. Leadership training was especially critical because, in the view of one commentator, "[wlithout edightened and tailored leadership no organization cm hope to attain Ml and vigorous realization of its objective^."'^ Folkschools encouraged positive attitudes toward rurai living. Activities like "fundamental singing, social recreation and drama" reflected organizers' emphasis on '' Victoria-Inverness Bulletin, 26 Sep 56, p. 1. l7 Victoria-InvernessBulletin, 26 Sep 56, p. 1. '' Victoria-InvernessBulletin, 26 Sep 56, p. 1. '9 Victoria-InvernessBulletin, 2 1 Sep 49, p. 5. moral ~~lift.*~Econornic development also was a primary objective. The organizers of a bilingual folkschool at Chéticamp in 1958 reported an enthusiastic response to the school's closing panel discussion on the topic "Our Natural Resources - How Can We Exploit ?'hem?"" Folkschools included discussions on "the problems of the farmer" and on the "different phases of ~griculture."'~What concrete benefits the folkschool prograrns afforded to Margaree producers is uncertain. Movements of the folkschool variety followed the questionable assurnption that education could remedy smail producers' dilernrna. Regardless of' the folkschools' impact, the movement's organizers clearly directed their efforts toward economic revival within the context of dynamic ~nderdevelo~ment.~~ Some Margaree inhabitants continued to Fm despite the economic problems facing small producers. Many of these individuals likely had "a frame of reference in which religious values, farnilism and other intangible bisocid" values outweigh economic cons ide ration^."'^ A Margaree Forks farmer stressed his persona1 preference for the farm lifestyle, and the importance to him of working outdoors, while nevertheless ruminating: "Maybe it's a mistake I made in life. 1 stayed on this place too long." Another man who fmed in Margaree Harbour stated: "It was a good life. You worked day and night." -- 'O Victoria-Inverness Buiietin, 23 Oct 57, p. 1. ?' Victoria-Inverness Bulletin, 7 May 58, p. 4. " Victoria-Imerness Bulietin, 28 Nov 5 1, p. 5 and 23 Oct 57, p. 1 . -' Helen C. Abell, "The Social Consequences of the Modemization of Agriculture," in Marc-Adélard Trem b lay and Walton J. Anderson, eds., Rural Canada in Transition: A Multidimensional Study of the Impact of Technology and Urbanization on Traditional Society (Ottawa: Agricultural Economics Research CounciI of Canada, 1966), pp. 199-200; Victoria-InvernessBulletin, 12 Oct 49, p. 3; 2 Nov 49, p. 7; 26 Jul 50, p. 2; 6 Sep 50, p. 5; 8 Nov 50, p. 2; 22 Aug 51, p. 2; 20 Aug 52, p. 1; 11 Jan 56, p. 1; 15 Aug 56, p. 1; 15 Sep 56, p. 1 ; 26 Sep 56, p. 1; 7 May 58, p. 4; 2 Mar 60, p. 6; 29 Dec 65, p. 5. Whatever their reasons for remaining in agriculture, fmers had to supplement their farm activities with waged employment in construction, fishing, landscaping, pulp cutting, or even at the local credit union. In the mid 1960s over 90% of North Inverness fanners depended on off-fm sources of income. In Margaree, occupational pluralism continued to be the adaptive mode of production that it was in the inter- period.25 Margaree fmers faced considerable obstacles to agncultural development as the result of inadequate agriculhual resources. Although more than doubling between 195 1 and 197 1, the average cultivated holdings in North Inverness remained well below 40 acres (Chart A2). The only lands in Margaree of decent quality for the production of crops were the intervale soils dong the Margaree River. One participant claimed that in some spots one "couldn't find a Stone with a fine comb" in this "beautiful loam." The problem was that there simply was not enough of such land. "Let's face it," the man said. "This is not faming country." Cann and MacDougall observed of these farmlands: "One factor limiting their use is the small size of the areas on individual fms. Usually such areas are used for hay and Pasture, but if they were combined they might be useful for commercial production of vegetables."" Even a Margaree Harbow fmer whose farm was well situated on rich intervale lands had kept around 400 hens for egg production because he "could keep a lot of hens in a building that didn't need a lot of acres, you - -- '' Abell, "The Social Consequences of the Modemimion of Agriculture," p. 189. l5 A.A. MacDonald and W.B. Clare, North Inverness Resource Survey (Antigonish: Extension Department, St. Francis Xavier University, 1966), p. 1 16; Interview #02, Elisha M., Margaree Harbour, 2 1 June 1999; Interview # 18, Moses A., Margaree Forks, 07 May 2000. know, like beef." A fmer tried to combine livestock fming with running the Belmont Hotel at Margaree Forks for a number of years in the 1950s and early 1960s. In 196 1 his herd comprised 35 to 40 head of dairy cattle and over 100 hogs. His brother, who was a joint partner in the fm,recalled: Really it didn't work out. We hadn't done enough research, 1 suppose. We really didn't have enough land base to be able to make a living for two. There was hardly a living for one (. ..) he was married with a family so, well, you had to use good common sense. He took the pork home and 1 had practically nothing lefLn Geographical constraints hindered agricultural development in Margaree." A group of fmee in the Northeast Margaree area managed to partially overcome the problem of scale by utilizing clearings on the Highlands behind Egypt to pasture their livestock in the sumrner. Woods operations conducted on the Crown lands prior to the Second World War, probably in the time of the Oxford Paper Company, had left large areas of wild pasture of excellent quality: Wherever they do a bit of cutting, it just grows up in grass. There's grass. Everywheres you look, there's gras back there. Where home you'd be trying to " D.B. Cann and J.I. MacDougall, Soif Survey of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia Soil Suwey, Report No. 12 (Truro: Canada Department of Agriculture and Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture and Marketing, 1963), p. 29. " Interview # 18, Moses A., Margaree Forks, 07 May 2000. MacDonald and C lare, North Inverness Resource Survey, pp. 1 02- 104; Victoria-hverness Bulletin, 1 6 May 5 1, p. 3; 4 Jan 6 1, p. 1 ; Interview #02, Elisha M., Margaree Harbour, 2 1 June 1999; Interview #07, Moses A., Margaree Forks, 23 June 1999; Interview #14, Michael P., Southwest Margaree, 04 May 2000; Interview # 16, Elisha M., Margaree Harbour, 05 May 2000; Interview # 18, Moses A., Margaree Forks, 07 May 2000. lime it and fertilizer and put seed in and then you still couldn't get half as good as out there (. ..) it's just arnazing what's out there for pa~ture.'~ Individual farmers used different sections of the Highland pastures to grue their animals. In the spring farmers brought their cattle up and some pastured them in fenced zones for a few weeks before letting them wander through the area. A number of fmersemployed this stratcgy throughout the period under review. There was some concem about whether pulp cutting would interfere with cattle when contractors first started operating on the Highlands for Stora in the early 1960s. A group of farmers met with representatives fiom Stora Kopparberg and the Department of Lands and Forests and the parties allegediy agreed that the presence of cattle would not pose any problems. This arrangement was fortuitous, for the Highland pashires allowed some Nonheast Margaree fmers to expand their business, without direct farm expansion, by reducing productive costs and by freeing up more land for the production of hay necessary for wintering live~tock.'~ Very few Margaree famers expanded their land holdings during this period, no doubt because cultural values surrounding land ownership discouraged families from selling land that they no longer needed. Even when fams fell out of use, the land remained in the name of a descendent: "The homestead was never considered to be sold. It was always going to remain in that fmily name at that time. That's the way they were looking at it." This arrangement seemingly would obstruct agricultural development. in North Inverness Resource Survey, A.A. MacDonald of the Extension Department put " Interview #37, Ephraim C., Margaree Valley, 24 May 2000. forth the argument that agricultural development in North Inverness demanded an adjustment program which would "facilitate the release of land resources which are not being fully utili~ed."~'Oral testimony suggests that Margaree residents had by thernselves devised a system for making more land available to local fmers. A land-use strategy that was common throughout the entire Margatee area was the practice of makiog hay and grazing livestock on the properties of neighbours who had discontinued fming as a result of old age, out-migration, or employment in another industry. People were quite willing to let farmers harvest the hay fiom their lands just to stave off the otherwise inevitable reversion to forest land, a process quite cornmon in Inverness County during this time. For the older generation, their motivation for granting access to the land was often sentimental. They did noi wish to see the land which they had cultivated al1 their lives become wild. A retired fanner commented: A lot of people used other people's land. I made hay myself on different properties to leave my own for Pasture to keep more cattle that way. And just about anybody that hung on done that - used the neighbour's property. The neighbours were glad to have you use it to take the hay away so the place wouldn't grow up into woods. Same as 1 am now - I'm glad for somebody to corne and put pastue, put animals in my land to keep it fiom growing - -- - .- 'O Interview #07. Moses A., Margaree Forks, 23 June 1999; Interview #I I. Angus G., Upper Margaree, 03 May 2000; Interview #37, Ephraim C., Margaree Valley, 24 May 2000. ' MacDonald and C lare, North lmerness Resource Survey, p. 1 1 7; Interview # 18, Moses A., Margaree Forks, 07 May 2000; Interview #2 1, Oman N., Margaree Valley, 09 May 2000; Interview #23, Sarah-Anne & WaIter F., Margaree Forks, 1 1 May 2000. '' Interview # 16, Elisha M., Margaree Harbour, 05 May 2000. One livestock fmermight harvest hay fiom as rnany as haif a dozen properties, thereby allowing for considerable expansion of the farnily's herd at a low cost since neighbours did not charge the famer for the hay. The prevalence of this practice suggests that Margaree fmers would not have benefited fiom a land adjustrnent scheme. If anything, using neighbours' land was more economical than purchasing the property necessary for consolidation of farmland into larger units. This land-sharing practice represented one response to the underdevelopment of the agricultural economy." A response particular to the inhabitants dong the Southwest branch of the Margaree River was to shift toward a greater reliance on fishing gaspereaux. The farmer who owned the Belmont Hotel, for exarnple, sold the hotel in the mid 1960s and purchased a fmin the Southwest in order to fish gaspereaux, an activity fiom which most of his income derived for a considerable time. During the period under review, perhaps 25 or 30 households exploited gaspereaux as a means of generating cash income. The gaspereaux industry boomed in the initial yean afkr the Second World War. The war had disrupted the gaspereaux trade so fishing in Margaree ceased, causing the fish to multiply in the ecosystem. Consequently, when buyers and producers re-established market ties after the war, there was a great demand for gaspereaux and an abundance of fish in the river. The local industry evened out afler a penod of resource adjustrnent through intensive fishing and remained relatively stable throughout the 1950s and the - l3 Cann and MacDougall, Soil Suney ~/CapeBreton Island, p. 14; Interview # 1 1, Angus Ci., Upper Margaree, 03 May 2000; Interview # 16, Efisha M., Margaree Harbour, 05 May 2000; Interview #2 1, Oman N., Margaree Valley, 09 May 2000; Interview #37, Ephraim C., Margaree Valley, 24 May 2000. What fm consolidation that did occur in Margaree began later, during the 1970s and the 1980s. 1960s. The West Indies, particularly Haiti, was the main market for Margaree gaspereaux. The fish went through the local CO-operativestores, through the fishermen's CO-operativesat Grand Étang and Chéticamp, and through commercial buyers such as the Chéticamp house of Robin, Jones and Whitman. The gaspereaux season was too short to warrant investrnent in processing facilities. Fishers simply cured the fish in the round in brine and then packed them in tiers inside barrels. In the 1960s one farnily who enjoyed an excellent location on the river caught enough fish to continue selling to the salt market while diversifying sornewhat by supplying local deep-sea fishers with fiesh gaspereaux used especially for lobster bait." Gaspereaux production for the bait and salt markets was an economic boon to the communiiies dong the Southwest branch of the Margaree River. The resource, as a marketable commodity in itself, was only one factor leading to local residents' dependence on the gaspereaux trade. Financial assistance fiom the federal government artificially boosted the industry's economic importance to levels well beyond the market value of the resource. Govemment actually had little direct involvement in the gaspereaux industry. Fishing and licensing regulations goveming the gaspereaux fishery were few and relations between the fishers and Department of Fisheries and Oceans officials were good. A group of gaspereaux fishers residing between Margaree Forks and Lake Ainslie lobbied the govement, probably in the 1960s, for financial assistance and secured help in the form of a salt subsidy. A gaspereaw fisher emphasized the marginal position of those who engaged in this Victoria-Inverness Bulletin, 6 Jun 47, p. 7; Interview # 1 1, Angus Ci., Upper Margaree, 03 May 2000; industry: "There was never any great amount of money. This was never to make a living. It was a little bit of a cash crop in the spnng to help get you through. You were always involved in other things. A little bit of scratch farming." The industry was most valuable as a means by which local families could qualify for unemployment insurance assistance. Many families depended on this "quick fix" to cany them through the winter months until they could again fish for gaspereaux in the spring and farrn in the sumrner. Despite injections of federal cash into the local economy, however, living conditions for residents in the Southwest area were sometimes "pretty rough" and subsistence fming remained an important economic strategy." The continued prevalance of subsistence farming in Margaree in the post-WWII period did not preclude mechanization. Margaree farmers gradually switched to modem machinery, beginning in the late 1940s, in order to compensate for the rising productive costs of the period and the labour scarcity that resulted fiorn out-migration. A Dominion Experimental Fmat Northeast Margaree adopted tractor-drawn machinery as early as the mid 1940s. An observer remarked: "Labor scarcity and the difficulty in getting men who will properly take care of horses, also the high price of horses, feed and harness are among the reasons for the ~hange."'~Agricultural mechanization in Margaree was a slow process. In 1956 only 9% of North Inverness farrn operators owned tractors. The rate of farrn mec hanization increased steadily throughout the 1960s so that half of al1 North Interview # 12, Kadmiel M., Northeast Margaree, 03 May 2000; Interview # 14, Michael P., Southwest Margaree, O4 May 2000; Interview #18, Moses A., Margaree Forks, 07 May 2000. 35 Interview #I 1, Angus G., Upper Margaree, 03 May 2000; Interview #12, Kadmiet M., Northeast Margaree, 03 May 2000; Interview #14, Michael P., Southwest Margaree, 04 May 2000. Inverness fmspossessed tractors by 1971, a rate that was well below the county and provincial levels (Chart A6). At the begi~ingof the mechanization process in the iate 1940s, most Margaree fmers were not able to make the capital investments necessary for mechanization. They therefore employed capital-sharing strategies similar to those which were common during the inter-war period. In the mid 1940s, a group of Margaree fmers took advantage of the Department of Agriculture's CO-operativetractor program which made financial provisions for farmers wishing to purchase and collectively operate up-to-date machinery. The Margaree Farmers Association purchased tractor machinery and elected an individual who would operate the machinery "moving from fmto farm as required."" This capital-sharing strategy likely helped Margaree farmers increase their production so that in the long run they might raise suficient hdsto own machinery individually." The mechanization of Margaree agriculture involved forrns of capital accumulation more capitalistic than those of the inter-war economy. Margaree farmers who did not invest in modem machinery frequently ran their fmswith the older horse- drawn machinery while also contracting work out to residents who possessed tractors. This contract work supplemented the lower productive ability of the older techniques, thereby allowing marginal farmers to survive in situations where they were too old to perform al1 the fmwork themselves or where they were unwilling to make considerable - 36 Victoria-lnverness Bdfetin, 2 Aug 46, p. 2. 37 Victoria-Inverness Bulletin, 2 Aug 46, p. 2. Victoria-Inverness Buifelin, 2 Aug 46, p. 2 and 7 Nov 47, p. 5; Interview #23, Sarah-Anne & Walter F., Margaree Forks, 1 1 May 2000; interview #29, Levi A., Margaree Forks, 15 May 2000. investments in new machinery. By relying on contract work, some fmers were able to continue fming "the old way," albeit at the subsistence level, throughout the period under review. Many fmers were able to mechanize by exploiting the local demand for contract work: "Those that could afford it started buying tractors. They used to help pay for their tractors by doing custom work for those that didn't have them. So that was a source of income and a way for them to pay for their machinery too." Many fanners first bought tractors and charged their neighbours to mow their hay. They then used this income, dong with financing hma local credit union or fiom the machinery dealers, to upgrade their tractors and to purchase additional pieces of machinery such as hay balers. The more prosperous Margaree residents were the fint to purchase tractors and they were more likely to prosper (or at least survive) by consequence. It is hardly surprising to find a report in the Victoria-Inverness Bulletin of a Margaree merchant perforrning contract work for local fmers in the Iate 1960s." In structural terms, this fonn of capital accumulation was iittle different than the petty accumulation of the inter-war period whereby some Margaree residents purchased portable sawmills with which they processed neighbours' firewood. However, social relations which emphasized mutuai aid and volunteerism mediated the earlier mode whereas farmers who adopted modem fm machinery appear to have used their fixed capital in a directly exploitative mariner." 39 Victoria-Inverness Bulletin, 27 Sep 67, p. 7. Interview #02, Elisha M., Margaree Harbour, 2 1 June 1999; Interview # 1 1, Angus G., Upper Margaree, 03 May 2000; Interview #21, Oman N., Margaree Valley, 09 May 2000; interview #22, Caleb & Ephrath I., Margaree Valley, 10 May 2000; Interview #37, Ephraim C., Margaree Valley, 24 May 2000. While the exploitative pattern of agricultural mechanization may have initially enhanced economic stratification within the comrnunity in the post-WWII period, the overall deterioration of farmers' economic position meant that even "prosperous" faners sometimes had a lower standard of living than individuals in other occupations. One enterpnsing fmerwho invested heavily in fmmachinery lamented: The farmer - he never made much money. He was always had to buy machinery, and there's always something breaking, and repairing, and 1 figured he didn't have it near as good as a guy that was back in the Highlands on the machinery cutting pulp. When Friday night corne out, he had his cheque. He was sure of his cheque every night where the fella that - the farmer, especially in the beef business - about the only time you got any money was in the fall of the year when you sold your canle, you know." Second-hand equipment became available to other residents as farmers upgraded their machinery. For exarnple, when an Acadian man who migrated to Québec and the Gaspé region in search of employment in 1949 returned to Margaree Forks almost a decade later, his sibling had rnechanized the family fmoperation with second-hand machinery: "Mechaniution was coming on the scene more [and] we were down to one horse when 1 came home." By the mid 1960s North Inverness fmers may have overîapitalized their operations in cornparison to agricultural output. The availability of second-hand rnachinery, the possible over-capitalization of production, and the relative marginality of agricultural producers downgraded the social impact of the mechanization process? '" Interview #37, Ephraim C., Margaree Valley, 24 May 2000. '" MacDonald, North lnverness Resource Survey, pp. 1 18-1 19; Interview #07, Moses A., Margaree Forks, 23 June t 999; Interview #18, Moses A., Margaree Forks, 07 May 2000. Mechanization did, however, render obsolete the local business people who traditionally serviced the agricultural industry . Between 195 1 and 197 1 the nurnber of horses kept in North Inverness dropped by 92% as inhabitants switched to automobiles and tractors (Chart Ais). Farmers were buying their machinery fiom an International Tractor dealer, forcing a man who dealt in horse-drawn machinery to shut down his Margaree Forks business in the mid to late 1950s. Eventually, the majority of Margaree residents no longer needed the services of craftspeople such as hamess-makers and wagon-rnakers. Many communities in the Margaree Valley had had their own blacksmiths who repaired fmimplements, made horseshoes and shod horses, and performed a wide variety of tasks. In 1952 an article soaked in nostalgia appeared in the Victoria-Inverness Bulletin lamenting the demise of the blacksmithing trade. William Chiasson, a Margaree blacksmith who apprenticed with his father, stated: "The trade is dying out and there seems to be no one willing to learn it; before long it is doubtful if there will be any of us lefi.'"' The tenor of the article was decisively anti-modemist. The author wrote: To their picturesque forges which at one time were a necessity of village life, the people came with their mechanical problems. Usually these were solved quickly and the more difficult one dercalm deliberation, followed by lusty blows of the hammer, and on a hot surnmer day the ring of the anvil through the village gave forth a sound that cannot be compared to any other. In this present day of speed, the artistry of the blacksmith has had to give way to the science of the machine .. . 4.4 J3 Victoria-Inverness Bulletin, 13 Aug 52, p. 3. Victoria-Inverness BulZetin, 13 Aug 52, p. 3. This fatalistic transition from "artistry" to "science" symbolized the wider pattern of economic restructuring and the modemization of the nual landscape that was affecting communities like ~argaree?' Despite Margaree inhabitants' experience of modernization and their struggles with modemity, a few critics have labelled these people as "backward" for their rejection of modem technology and for harbouring parochial attitudes that stunted agricultural development. Pierre-Yves Pépin wrote of Margaree producers: Generally, the commercial development of primq industries is handicapped by excessive individualism, which is perpetuated in a subsistence economy. This individualism means lack of CO-operationthat hampers the standardization of natural products and prolongs the use of old-fashioned rnethodd6 The first chapter of the present study, which emphasizes the CO-operativenature of Margaree's subsistence economy, casts considerable doubt on Pépin's claim that "excessive individualism" marred the cornmunity's economy. Moreover, collective ownership of farm machinery was a practice that illustrates economic CO-operationamong Margaree fmers. lgnoi-ing these clear indicators that individualism did not characterize Margaree inhabitants' productive relations, however, Pépin interpreted the nature of Margaree's Interview #Ol, Alice D., Belle Côte, 20 June 1999; Interview #30, Hasrah T., Margaree Valley, 16 May 2000. 46 Pierre-Yves Pépin, Lfe and Poverty in the Maritimes (Ottawa: Depamnent of Forestry and Rural Development, 1968), p. 110. economy in terms of a crude, if not offensive, framework which saw ethnic characteristics as part and parcel of the comrnunity's economic problems. Pépin set up a dichotomy between Margaree Acadians and Margaree Scots, portraying the former as "cheemil and outgoing, active, industrious, sociable" and the latter as "gloomy and withdrawn, listless, creatures of habits, individudistic and attached to the land.'"' Pépin's perspective was atavistic in the sense that he saw the attitudes of each group as "more the result of their "natural ties" to their original ethnic group than of their isolation and nual environment.'"' He predicated his sweeping denunciation of Margaree Scots on the basis of two sources alone: a general survey article by P.M. Hobson and an interview with a local "Scottish leader." In regards to Scottish attitudes toward modemization, all that Hobson said was: "the Highland Scot of Cape Breton is not attracted by a commercialised economy and he is very loath to give up his traditional highly independent way of life, depending partly on his own produce and supplementing his income by part-time work when and as it suits hirn?' Such an argument ignored the fact that the subsistence econorny never allowed for a "highly independent way of life." As Chapter One demonstrates, subsistent producers in Margaree "tmditionally" engaged in commercial pursuits out of economic necessity, not choice. Furthemore, Chapter Two shows that Margaree residents were more than willing to abandon their subsistent lifestyle in exchange for waged work in the pulp industry of the Stora Kopparberg regime. The lack " Pépin, Lijè and Poverty in the Maritimes, p. 1 1 1. 4 Pépin, Life and Poverty in the Maritimes, p. I 1 1 . Peggie M. Hobson, "Population and Settlement in Nova Scotia," Scottish Geopphical Magrnine, vol. 70, no. 2 (Sep 1954), p. 6 1. of rigour in Hobson's research and in Pépin's analysis engenden suspicion about the veracity of their accounts. Cultural aetiologies of economic marginality are extremely dangerous because they often elide the matenal factors and the structural forces which in large part determine the course of a community's economic history. Political actors can use this type of perspective to justify the liquidation of a "surplus" (Le., unwanted) population. Uncritical readers who fall upon scholarship which employs ethnicity to explain economics may perpetuate questionable assumptions about people living in the communities involved. Such was the case with Susan M. Kober's essay on familand abandonment in the Southwest Margaree Valley. Taking physical and spatial variables as possible determinants of familand abandonment, Kober applied multiple regression analysis in order to explain the process of abandonment as it occurred in Southwest Margaree. Kober's statistical examination failed to yield any matenal explanation for farmland abandonment, thus inciting her to make conclusions that replicated, practically verbatim, Pépin's cultural approach. The inadequacy of this facile approach demands a more nuanced interpretati~n.'~ Oral research undertaken for the current study did not provide sufficient evidence to allow for a definite conclusion about the extent to which cultural beliefs facilitated or militated against local economic developrnent. Some participants had never heard 'O Susan M. Kober, "Farmland Abandonment in the Southwest Margaree Valley: A Response CO Changing Perceptions" (Honours essay, Saint Mary's University, 198 I), pp. 22,SO, 42-46. hother honours project relating to Margaree is Leslie Christine McDaniel, "nie Little White Schoolhouses: A Statistical Study of cornments differentiating the work attitudes of one ethnic group fiom those of another. Two participants believed that the Acadian farmers were more aggressive in their production. The Sconish worked more leisurely. They were not as "senous about life" and "they loved the music and they loved to dance and they loved to have a drink." Two participants asserted that social attitudes among Margaree Scots did inhibit some members of the older generation fiom rnechanizing their fming operations in the post- WWII period. Many older Scottish people would not borrow money to invest in new farm equipment. Nathan M., who grew up among the Scots of Southwest Margaree, recalled: There was no such thing as borrowing money in those days, you know. You çot along with whatever you had." Oman N., a Margaree Valley man of Scottish background, similarly stated: 1 think Scottish people were always looked upon as being very tight with their money and they had to be sure they - they never wanted to borrow money. 1 know even in my father's day if you wanted something you worked for it and got the money before you went and bought it. 1 think that was the general mie. And rnost people - not al1 but I think most people - had that attitude. And 1 think they weren't as willing to take chances. That's one reason why they were so slow in mechanizing." Some people in the older generation "were pretty set in their ways" and "didn't want to make any changes" whereas the younger people were more inclined to bomow and invest in tractors and related machinery. Sometimes tension arose within a family over whether the Schoolhouses of Margaree, Inverness and Mabou Pnor to Consolidation" (Honours thesis, St. Francis Xavier University, 1984). Interview #2 1, Oman N., Margaree Valley, 09 May 2000, or not the family should update its equipment. Nathan M. gibed: "Willie D. used to Say 'There wasn't a god damn thing, implement on the old fmto work with, even if you wanted to stay there. Not a thing to work with, except an old rusty axe. And my father wouldn't let me use it."' Oman N. reflected that "there was a certain amount of [tension] on individual fmsbetween fathers and sons. 1 think there was a desire to go the mechanica! route and mechanize where the older fellas controlled the purse strings and they were more reluctant to try it." According to Oman N., the transition in farming technology fiom horse-drawn to tractor-drawn machinery was protracted because mechanization occurred on individual fams as the older members of the family passed away and the younger people gained control. Cultural attitudes may have contnbuted to the pattern of fami mechanization in Margaree. Yet it would be anaiytically wisound to reduce Margaree's condition of economic marginality to an articulation of one ethnic group's sociocultural tendencies." Concrete factors for avoiding or delaying rnechanization existed, at least during the initial phase of the mechanization process. The older generation's hesistance may have reflected rational concems about investment risk given the unfavourable climate for small-scaie agricultural production. In a series of publications on historical applications of draught animals, scholars Kyle D. Kauffinan and Jonathan J. Liebowitz have refuted cultural explanations for the use of certain species in certain contexts, instead highlighting the role of draught animals as forms of capital and the economic factors that " Interview # 1 1, Angus G.,Upper Margaree, 03 May 2000; Interview #2 1, Oman N., Margaree Valley, 09 governed this type of capital investment." By illuminating the vast array of decisions that producers had to consider when seiecting between various means of motive power, the work of Kauffman and Liebowitz discourages a purely cultural understanding of many Margaree fmers' decision to continue employing draught power. The first tractors that became available in the late 1940s and early 1950s were not significantly more productive than "a good tearn of horses." Horses' ability to haul logs fiom the forest also rendered them more versatile as a means of motive power. Horses were suited to serving producers engaged in an occupational pluralism which often combined farming in the surnmer with logging in the winter. The fact that fming in the traditional economy constituted only one activity in a seasonal round of work likely discouraged many producers fiom making expensive investments in a technology more or less limited to agricultural uses. Moreover, the feasibility of fmmechanization increased over time, especially by the late 1960s, as more farmland became available through abandonment. A definite correlation existed between the rate of farm abandonment and the rate of farrn mechanization (Charts AS, A6, A7). Opportunities to harvest hay fiom neighbours' land allowed for greater production and consequently wananted investrnent in more May 2000; Interview #29, Levi A., Margaree Forks, I5 May 2000; interview #38, Nathan M., Port Hawkesbury, 26 May 2000. '' Kyle D. Kauffinan, "Why Was the Mule Used in Southern Agriculture? Empirical Evidence of Principal-Agent Solutions," Explorutions in Economic History, vol. 30 (1993), pp. 336-35 1; "Why Was the Mining Mule Not a Horse? The Control of Agency Problems in American Mines," Reseurch in Economic History, vol. 16 (1996), pp. 85- 102; Kyle D. Kauffman and Jonathan J. Liebowitz, "Draft Animals on the United States Frontier," Overland Journal, vol. 15 (Summer 1997), pp. 13-26; Jonathan J. Liebowitz, "The Persistence of Draft Oxen in Western Agriculture," Materid History Review, vol. 36 (Fall 1992), pp. 29- 37. See also Martin A. Garrett, Jr., 'The MuIe in Southern Agriculture: A Requiem," Journal of Economic Histoty, vol. 50 (1990), pp. 925-930. productive machinery. Clearly, a purely culhual perspective on the mechanization process appears naïve in its crude reductionism." An historicd event which likely fùeled the cultural orientation toward the economic history of contemporary rural Cape Breton was the mival of Dutch migrants who settled throughout the region following the Second World War. Fleeing fiom a war- tom, densely-populated country in economic min, many Dutch came to Nova Scotia to take advantage of the great availability of cheap agrîcultural land. Only a few Dutch farnilies settled in Margaree, but greater concentrations of Dutch settlement occurred in other Inverness County communities, especially Mabou. An agreement between the Government of the Netherlands and the Nova Scotia Land Settlement Board made Ioans available to Dutch immigrant fmers wishing to establish new farms, buy equipment or stock, and expand their fmsthrough additional land purchases. The Dutch immigrants, having lived in a nation where overpopulation produced a shortage of opportunities for aspiring fanners, consequently took advantage of these loans to expand their operations rapidly. The Dutch quickly eamed a reputation among the resident population for being astute agriculturalists. Many Dutch farmers were quite successful in relation to the Scottish fmers whose communities were eroding through farm abandonment and out- migration. The economic disparity between Dutch and Scots gave rise to some conflict expressed intemally, at least, within the Sconish comrnunity in Margaree. Nathan M. Interview #SI, Oman N., Margaree Valley, 09 May 2000. remembered "the Scottish people very oflen talking 'Oh yeah, it's alright for the Dutch to come in and get big parcels of land and the government gives them this and gives them that."' Both Nathan M. and Oman N. attributed the prosperity of the Dutch not to government prograrns, which they thought were probably available to dl, but to cultural differences between the two ethnic groups. The Dutch had "an industrious way of looking at land, whereas the Sconish people didn't." In juxtaposition to the Scottish people's alleged reluctance to make investments, the Dutch were quite willing to assume capital risk: "They come from a country that was in the throes of \var for a number of years and everything was totally tumed upside down. So they come with the attitude 'We have nothing to lose,' you know." The adaptive pattern of occupational pluralism which typified Margaree's inter-war economy probably fostered a belief that economic well- being necessitated multiple forms of resource exploitation. The Dutch, on the other hand, likely perceived farming as a full-time venture. Yet cultural difference was only one reason for the apparent discrepancy between the fming activities of Dutch immigrants and those of "native-bom" resident~.'~ The Dutch people who settled in Mabou had chosen a location propitious for the establishment of profitable commercial f's. As a result of higher clay content, the soils in Mabou generally retained more moisture than in Margaree. Farmland in Margaree, except for the intervale lands, was stony and/or sandy, a situation contributing to drought 55 G.H.Gerrits, They Farrned Well: The Dufch-ConcldianAgriculfural Commtiniîy in Nova Scotia, 1945- 1995 (Kentville, NS: Vinland Press, 1996), pp. 1 1 - 13,63-77; Interview #2 1, Oman N., Margaree Valley, 09 May 2000; Interview #29, Levi A., Margaree Forks, 15 May 2000; Interview #30, Hasrah T., Margaree Valley, 16 May 2000; Interview #38, Nathan M., Port Hawkesbury, 26 May 2000. problems. Mabou's most important advantage was its market ties with dairy concems in Sydney. Road conditions between Mabou and Sydney were superior to those between Margaree and Sydney. Economic expansion in Sydney in the period after the Second World War forced local dairy companies to seek out new producers to meet the growing demand and the dairy fmsof Mabou were well-situated to serve the Sydney market. Some Dutch settlers in Mabou inherited production quotas when they purchased established dairy fms. The Dutch made improvernents to their operations and progressively built up their quotas so that, in the esteem of one commentator, "milk production in that area went sky high." The Sydney market was a critical inducement to the growth of Dutch agriculture in Mabou and fluid milk production fetched higher overall remsthan cream production. Margaree producers' involvement in dairy production, by contrast, declined during the same period in which the Mabou industry boomed. 56 The demise of the Margaree dairy industry ensued fiom an indirect deterioration in the market position of the srna11 dairy producer and fiom a direct capitaiist take-over of Margaree's dairy marketing system. The province established a crearnery at Margaree Forks in 1916 which a CO-operativeorganization of local producers appropnated in 1942. In 1953 the profitable CO-operativehad 575 shareholden and employed a manager and six 56 Cann and MacDougall, Soif Survey of Cape Breton Island, pp. 33,45-46; Anthony Winson, "Researching the Food Processing-Farming Chain: the Case of Nova Scotia," Canudian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, vol. 25, no. 4 (1988), p. 548; Interview #29, Levi A., Margaree Forks, 15 May 2000; hterview #30, Hasrah T., Margaree Valley, 16 May 2000; Interview #34, John M., Brook ViIlage, 22 May 2000; Interview ii37, Ephraim C., Margaree Valley, 24 May 2000; Interview #38, Nathan M., Port Hawkesbury, 26 May 2000. men in surnmer. Although a milk route fiom Margaree to Sydney did exist at least in the mid 1940s, the CO-operativemarketed the cream in Antigonish or churned it into "Margaree Brand" butter. Well into the 1950s, most families in the communities along the coast from Chéticamp to Margaree Harbour and throughout the Margaree River watershed made weekly shipments to this creamery. For Margaree families, crearn production was a primary source of income generated from the fm:"We had a creamery. We sold cream and we done alright. You know it was a good - how'll 1 put it - the crearn cheque was sort of the backbone." By the late 1950s, however, local dairy production had noticeably decreased because local people were giving up the activity as crearn prices were not keeping up with the costs of production. In the words of a Margaree Forks fmer, dairy producen had to "get bigger or get out of it - one or the other." A major weakness of the Margaree dairy industry was the CO-operative's concentration on cream, which received lower prices than fluid milk, a situation which did linle to stimulate dairy production in Margaree. For a few years in the 1950s, some Margaree farmers shipped fluid milk to an operation in Inverness until it closed dom, forcing producers to retum to selling to the Margaree Forks creamery.'' '' Norman H. Morse, "Agriculture in the Maritime Provinces," Dalhousie Review, vol. 39 (1959-1960), p. 480; Winson, "Researching the Food Processing-Farming Chain," pp. 537,540; Victoria-înverness Bulletin, 9 Feb 45, p. 8; 8 Feb 46, p. 5; 1 Mar 46, p. 2; 20 Jui 49, p. 5; 8 Jul 1953, p. 1; Interview #02. Elisha M., Margaree Harbour, 2 1 June 1999; Interview #07, Moses A., Margaree Forks, 23 June 1999; Interview # 1 1, Angus G., Upper Margaree, 03 May 2000; Interview # 16, Elisha M., Margaree Harbour, 05 May 2000; Interview # 18, Moses A., Margaree Forks, 07 May 2000; Interview #21, Oman N., Margaree Valley, 09 May 2000; Interview #29, Levi A., Margaree Forks, 15 May 2000; Interview #30, Hasrah T., Margaree Valley, t 6 May 2000; Interview #38, Nathan M., Port Hawkesbury, 26 May 2000. A veritable "nail in the coffui" for dairy production in Margaree occurred when an Antlgonish company purchased and phased out the Margaree Forks creamery during the early to mid 1960s. Capital consolidation in the dajl industry was perhaps the most conspicuous example of capitalist restnicturing in Nova Scotian agriculture during the 1960s, a process which a Margaree farmer articulated with the statement: the "big crearneries swallowed up the little crearnenes just like the big fmsswallowed up the small." The Antigonish company ran the creamery for a few years after the purchase, dictating production quotas to Margaree producers. The company gradually dropped its Margaree suppliers as the small operations increasingly could not meet the company's expectations. As Anthony Winson notes, 'rhe quota system provides a severe 'discipline' mechanism for producers who over or under produ~e."~~ARer a few years, the company shut down the operation, transforming the location into a depôt for shipping milk, produced outside the area and processed in Antigonish, into North Inverness for domestic consumption by a growing non-fami population, notably the fishers and pulp workea. mie company re-established the traditional mik routes, instead dropping off processed milk rather than picking up produced cream. This event completed the subversion and reversal of the local dairy industry. The contrasting cases of Mabou and Margaree illustrate how commercial arrangements, as well as locationai and logistical factors, produced a tremendous difference in the economic development of two nearby communities. In the late 1%Os, and especially in the 1960s, the detenoration of - - -- - '' Winson, "Researching the Food Processing-Fanning Chain," p. 539. Margaree's agricultural industry stimulated local and govemmental interest in rehabilitating North Inverness agriculture by adjusting production away from d~iirying.'~ Some Margaree farmers expenmented with the marketing of Gniits and vegetables. This activity had been a significant source of income for some Margaree farmers in the 1950s and earlier. While many Margaree inhabitants produced hits and vegetables mostly for home consurnption, a local market for such produce did exist in places such as Inverness and Chéticamp. However, outside produce came to dominate the local market throughout the 1950s and the 1960s. During this time Margaree residents gained greater access to motor vehicles, especially through employment in the pdp industry, and they increasingly travelled to buy their grocenes at stores outside the Margaree area. With the advent of transport trucking in the 1950s, fruits and vegetables produced in outside areas and sold at cheaper prices gradually encroached on the local market. Margaree fmers made some attempts to compte by improving the production and marketing of locally- grown bits and vegetables. In 1958 a "Small Fruits and Vegetables Group" conducted a "Grading School" at Margaree Forks with the aim of educating local producers about how to market produce of better quality. The course organizers stressed to fmers the importance of studying grading regulations; of delivering produce to market in excellent condition; of ensuring a continuous supply; and of packing produce of uniform quality. Farmers who followed these directions wouid establish the reputation necessary for 59 Interview #02, Elisha M., Margaree Harbour, 21 June 1999; Interview #07, Moses A., Margaree Forks, 23 June 1999; Interview # 1 1, Angus G., Upper Margaree, 03 May 2000; Interview # 16, Elisha M., Margaree Harbour, 05 May 2000; Interview #18, Moses A., Margaree Forks, 07 May 2000; Interview #2 1, "good results with marketing boards, ready outlets and demand sa~es.'~Organizers also emphasized the benefit of enhancing the "eye appeai" of produce by marketing goods in "attractive" packaging. During this occasion, the opinion was put forth that "the Cape Breton potential for growing hits and vegetables is excellent.'"' This view was overly optimistic because other areas of the Maritimes enjoyed locational advantages in the production of fmits and vegetables. In Nova Scotia, for exarnple, hapolis Valley fmenspecialized in small hits, especially strawbemes, and Cumberland County was an important area for blueberry production. Following the advice of Department of Agriculture representatives, a farnily who fmed at Margaree Forks tt-ied marketing canots but this endeavour proved unsuccessful. A Margaree Harbour fmer who expenmented with stniwbemes discovered that the retums for labour input were so low that he was better off using his time to harvest logs. Moreover. outside cornpetition discouraged Margaree farmers fiom producing these crops: "Like everything else they'd start coming in in trucks. There'd be a truck parked somewhere, selling them earlier than we could produce them and maybe cheaper than we could produce them." While some Margaree farmers grew hits and vegetables for market Oman N., Margaree Valley, 09 May 2000; Interview #29, Levi A., Margaree Forks, 15 May 2000; Interview #30, Hasrah T., Margaree Valley, 16 May 2000. 60 Victoria-Inverness Bulletin, 9 Apr 58, p. 4. Vicioria-Inverness Bulletin, 9 Apr 58, p. 4. purposes, outside competition and poor climate rneant that this type of production remained marginal in cornparison to animal h~sbaridry.~~ The efforts of local producers, organizations, and governments to stimulate livestock production as a substitute for dairying were the most important initiatives toward agricultural rehabilitation in North Inverness during the period under review. The encouraging of producers to pursue this avenue of agriculture came fkom many corners. Invemess County fmers and govemment collaborated in establishing in 1955 an artificial breeding unit at Margaree Forks aimed at facilitating the expansion and improvement of stock in North Invemess. The implementation of an artificial breeding prograrn would allow North Inverness fmento improve the quality of their beef and dairy herds. The Invemess County Federation reported that the "Board considers this an accomplishment they can really be proud of, for they are convinced that this programme will eventually mean more income to our fmers and a boost to our indusiry in general."b3 In 1956 the Federation initiated a Sheep Flock Improvement Association, with the CO-operationof the Department of Agriculture, "to encourage and further develop the sheep industry in our county through use of improved pastures and the practice of extensive flock management.''M In 1958 the govemment urged famiers to raise larger flocks of 100 to 300 sheep." In 1962 Gerard Chiasson, a Margaree Forks '' Morse, "Agriculture in the Maritime Provinces," pp. 478-479; Interview #1 1, Angus G.,Upper Margaree, 03 May 2000; Interview # 14, Michael P., Southwest Margaree, 04 May 2000; interview # 16, EIisha M., Margaree Harbour, 05 May 2000; Interview #38, Nathan M., Port Hawkesbury, 26 May 2000. " Vicroria-Inverness Bulletin, 1 1 Jan 56, p. 1. 6j Vicforia-lmernessBulletin, 1 I Jan 56, p. 1. 65 Victoria-Inverness Bulletin, 1 Oct 58, p. 1. native who was a former president of the Nova Scotia Federation and who was politically involved with the New Democratic Party, recornmended that Inverness County farmers increase their livestock production. Working in tandem with local farm leaders, Department of Agriculture oficials, especially the agricultural representatives at the Mabou office, attempted to have local producers recognize the potential value of increased livestock prod~ctioo.~ Local farmers realized that a shift to higher production in beef and lamb might bring hem greater income. Domestic beef production was far below domestic demand throughout Atlantic Canada. A firm demand for Margaree producers' beef and larnb existed both in North Invemess and in sub-regional markets such Sydney. Margaree fmswere too smdl to keep beef and dairy herds simultaneously and so, with the demise of dairying, those who remained in faming had to concentrate on livestock. Consequently, the average number of non-dairy cattle and sheep per fami in North Invemess rose fiom the 1950s to the early 1970s even though the absolute volume of production plummeted drarnatically (Charts A9 & A 13)." Beef production was quite practical for Margaree farmers, who usuaily had to work off-fami as well, because they could let their cattle out to pasture in the spring and not have to tend them very much until the fall. In addition, the srnall average size of Margaree farms necessitated a careN balance between scarce resources and livestock in " Victoria-InvernessBuffetin, 14 Dec 55, p. 1 ;9 May 56, p. 1 ;28 Nov 62, p. 1 ;Interview #21, Oman N., Margaree Valley, 09 May 2000. " Morse, "Agriculture in the Maritime Provinces," p. 480; Interview #37, Ephraim C., Margaree Valley, 24 May 2000. order to maximize the value of the land. One by-product of beef production was a surplus of cows which fmers could sel1 to dairy farmers outside the irnmediate area. The switch to beef cattle was especially advantageous in resource terms because fmes could winter two or three calves on the feed which one milk cow would consume. At the end of the sumer, farmers slaughtered the larger cattle and kept the smaller ones to cany through the winter. This anangement yielded "a better overall income and utilization of what you could produce on the fm." Yet most Margaree famiers could not rely on farm profit as their sole source of income despite the higher returns and more efficient resource utilization that beef production often entailed. The North Inverness climate was well-suited to animal husbandry. However, herd expansion required not only good quality in pasture, but also an adequate quantity of such land.68 Local need for more pasture sparked the creation and expansion of community pastures at Cape Mabou and Chéticarnp Island. The community pasture at Cape Mabou, conceived in the mid 1950s, followed from joint efforts of the province and the Inverness County Federation. Organizea of the Cape Breton Folkschool who visited the pasture in 1916 "agreed on the great value of such a project" and hoped "that the farmers of the area would take full advantage of it when c~mpleted.'"~E.D. Haliburton, at that time the opposition's agriculture critic, hailed the low-cost community Pasture program as 'Vie Interview #02, Elisha M., Margaree Harbour, 2 1 June 1999; Interview f: 1 1, Angus G., Upper Margaree, 03 May 2000; interview #16, Elisha M., Margaree Harbour, 05 May 2000; Interview #21, Oman N., Margaree Valley, 09 May 2000; Interview #37, Ephraim C., Margaree Valley, 24 May 2000. 69 Victoria-Inverness Bulletin, 15 Sep 56, p. 1. best thing to corne out of the department" since the early 1930s." Labour Minister Clyde Nunn commented favourably on the community pasture, remarking that Inverness County needed the program since "the county ha[d] sdfered economic reverses of considerable magnitude."7' Various oficials and politicians hoped that comrnunity pastures would resuscitate Invemess County's once-thriving sheep industry7' North Inverness fmers did make use of the pasture program. The Cape Mabou pasture expanded gradually throughout the late 1 950s and early 1960s. In 1957 the Mabou pasture comprised 390 cleared acres and included a breeding service.73 In 1958 the pasture had expanded to between 600 and 800 cleared acres and provided grazing for between 750 and 1O00 sheep.'" The following year the pasture held 1500 sheep and as many as 300 cattle." One commentator believed that the pasture could help Inverness County regain "its place as Nova Scotia's biggest sheep producer" and F. W. Walsh, as deputy Minister of Agriculture, felt that the pasture "could mean a return to the flocks of the old day~."'~In 1963, however, North Invemess farmers used the Cape Mabou pasture Victoria-InvernessBuIletin, 4 Apr 56, p. 1. " Victoria-lnverness Bulletin, 4 Apr 56, p. 1. '' Victoria-1riverne.s~Bulletin, II Jan 56, p. 1; 4 Apr 56, p. 1; I Oct 58, p. 1; II Feb 59, p. 3; 3 1 lu1 63, p. 6; 27 Apr 66, p. 1. Fictoria-lnverness Bulletin, 13 Feb 57, pp. 1-2. " Victoria-InvernessBulletin, 1 Oct 58, p. 1. This source claimed that the pasture had 800 cleared acres and pastured 1000 sheep. A report the following year stated that the pasture in 1958 comprised 630 cleared acres and had provided grazing for 52 head of cattle and 786 sheep. Victoria-Inverness Bulletin, 1 1 Feb 59, p. 3. '' Victoria-lmernss Bulletin, 12 Aug 59, p. 1. " Victoria-InvernessBulletin, 1 Oct 58, p. 1. to graze some 450 cattle and 700 heads of sheep and lambs, a number of animais not considerably greater than five years earlier.77 Evidently fanners and oficials perceived a need for Merexpansion of community pasture lands. A joint provincial-federal project enacted in 1963 under ARDA legislation aimed at expanding the Cape Mabou and Chéticamp Island pastues. The motivations for the 196 1 ARDA legislation were (i) to facilitaie strategies for coping with "low-income problems" linked to structural change in Canadian agriculture, and (ii) io constitute one component of "a larger agricultural and development pr~gram."'~In Nova Scotia ARDA programs focused on (i) controlling floods endangering intervale lands and coastal marches, (ii) assisting small woodlot owners with resource management, (iii) developing the blueberry industry, and (iv) facilitating fmexpansion through the Land Settlement ~oard.'' The rationale for the ARDA community pasture program mirrored the aims of the Inverness County Federation. An ARDA publication stated: The main purpose of the community pasture is to improve the eaming power of the neighbouring fms. It enables the fmer to enlarge his operation or to add beef cattle, dairy cattle or sheep enterprises to his business. This has the effect of increasing the land and labour resources of his fmunit. It is a means of Victoria-ImernessBuIfetin, 12 Aug 59, p. I and 2 Oct 63, p. 1. '' James N. McCrorie, ARDA: An Experiment in DweIopmenf Planning (Ottawa: Canadian Council of Rural Devefoprnent, 1969), p. 9. " Victoria-invernesr Bulletin, 25 Sep 63, p. 1; 3 1 Jul63, p. 6; 27 Mar 68, p. 3. diversiQing and enlarging the fm,which not only yields higher returns but also gives greater stability of income to the fmer." The operations at Cape Mabou and Chéticamp Island did help some Margaree fmers who took advantage of the community pasture program to expand their business. One Margaree fmerwent so far as to cal1 the pastures a "temfic boost" for many local livestock producers, commenting that some famiers depended on the program to swive. Other testirnonies were more reserved." Not al1 Margaree farmers used the pastures: 1 think it was persona1 choice. They decided just to keep on going the way they were and not expand. It may have been maybe because they didn't have buildings enough to house the extra animals or they didn't want to build more. 1 really don't know their rea~oning.'~ Some evidence suggests that North Inverness farmers were disappointed with market returns for their livestock despite the pasture program. A meeting of the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture in 1960 aired a proposed resolution calling for the governrnent to eliminate user fees for pasturing sheep. The resolution stated that low prices for lamb, user fees, and transportation costs were discouraging for sheep growers. In response to the resolution, which Federation members defeated, a director with the Department of Agriculture blamed low returns on the poor condition of the lambs at the Cape Mabou S.R. Burkell, A Guide to Communicy Pasiures for Eastern Canodo (Ottawa: Department of Foresay and Rural Development, I966), p. 1. Comments on the publication of this guide appear in Victoria-Inverness Bulletin, 8 Feb 67, p. 1. '' Interview #16, Elisha M., Margaree Harbour, 05 May 2000; Interview # 18, Moses A., Margaree Forks, 07 May 2000; Interview #2 1, Oman N., Margaree Valley, 09 May 2000. " Interview #2 1, Oman N., Margaree Valley, 09 May 2000. pasture. The director called for Inverness County sheep famiers to improve their stock and to increase their Bocks. The sheep growers' problems persisted, however, for in 1963 the Invemess County Federation resolved to "request that the federal and provincial governments speed up research in [on-going] experimental work" and "until a satisfactory solution is found the collection of fees for boarding animals in the community pasture at Mabou, be suspended, as the returns from the lamb market at the pasture were very un~atisfactory.''~~The strategy of adaptation to market forces through concentration on livestock production did not stem the erosion of domestic agriculture. As a Margaree Harbour farmer noted: "1 myself tried to keep more cattle and more sheep and I used other people's land for it. And it worked for a few years. But then it came that it wasn't working anymore." Govemment would have to find remedies for small producers' ills that went beyond simple projects such as cornrnunity pastures to enibrace wider systemic problems." The ARDA fiamework provided the most CO-ordinatedgovernrnental attempt during the 1960s to rehabilitate rurai economies in Maritime comrnunities such as those of North Invemess. Besides the community pasture program, popular and governmental initiatives comected with ARDA manifested themselves in North Inverness through the North Invemess Development ~ommittee." A group of 35 inhabitants formed the MDC in 1964 to apply for ARDA assistance for local deveiopment projects. The NIDC Victoria-Inverness Bulleiin, 4 Dec 63, p. 1 . Victoria-Inverness Bulletin, 4 Jan 61, p. 1; Interview #16, Elisha M., Margaree i-iarbour, 05 May 2000. comprised sub-cornmittees responsible for agriculture, education, fisheries, forestry, and tourism. Although the cornmittee's name suggested that its membership was drawn fiom the entire North Invemess area, the NIDC appears to have consisted primarily of Margaree residents, possibly as the result of factionalism between Margaree Scots and Chéticarnp Acadians. Local businesspeople and clergymen appear to have figured importantly in the make-up of the group. Although arnbitious at the outset, the NIDC's efforts materialized into one concrete project ~nly.'~ That project was stopping erosion along the Margaree River, a goal which occupied the short-lived NIDC fiom its creation in 1964 until at least 1966, when newspaper accounts of the group's activities ceased. Soi1 erosion fkom flooding endangered valuable intervale lands as well as Margaree's major tourism attraction: fishing pools. In 1964 the MDC submitted a proposa1 to the ARDA director calling for the appointment of engineers to study the erosion problem. By the following year, engineers had completed their survey, afler which they recornrnended the construction at seven sites of rock abuttments to protect banks fkom erosion. The project began in the winter of 1965-66, but difficulties as a result of winter thaws delayed the work for another year. Some Margaree residents apparently critiqued the manner in which organizers had executed the project. Pépin wrote: "The fmers are complaining (. ..) that the work has been undertaken without serious study and that the funds have been A number of narnes for this group appear in the written record, including North Inverness Industrial Development Committeee, North Inverness Development Group, and North Inverness Deveiopment Association. wasted."" The Resource Development Representative for the Department of Agriculture, Ross M. Burry, a key figure in promoting the ARDA regime in Inverness County, attempted to neutrdize objections in his periodic column in the Victoria-Inverness Bulletin: We realize, of course, that problems always arise with work of this nature and we are bound to run into cnticisms. However, in the final analysis, we have to be govemed by recornmendations of the M.M.R.A engineers and whose training in this field certainly qualifies them to make proper decisions." These comments reflected the hegemonic element of the ARDA officiais' activities in eastem Nova Scotia. Through his columns, Buny tned to conform his readers to the institutional demands of the ARDA bureaucracy. Oficial wisdom on development matters ovemled popular approaches. A central committee composed of memben selected by a chaiman was superior to a committee fonned through popular choice." In making a proposa1 for a development project, cornmittees were to await patiently for the approval or disapproval of oficials in a bureaucratic chain which led "al1 the way to ~ttawa."~'Discussing an instance where a local cornmittee sent a proposai without going through the appointed central committee, Burry stressed that it was "extremely important " Pdpin, Life and Poverty in the Maritimes, pp. 93-94; Victoria-Inverness Bulletin, 25 Mar 64, p. 7; 27 Jan 65, p. 3; 3 Jun 65, p. 9; 7 Jul65, p. 10; 23 Mar66, p. 1; 27 Mar68, p. 3. " Pdpin, Lije and Paverîy in the Maritimes, p. 94; Vicforia-lmerness Bulletin, 25 Mar 64, p. 7; 8 Jul64, p. 8; 16Sep64, p. 1; 16 Dec64.p. l;27 Jan65,p.3;5 May65,p.5;3Nov65,p. 1; 16 Mar66,p. 1;23 Mar 66, p. 1. Victoria-inverness BulIetin, 29 Dec 65, p. 5. '' Victoria-Inverness Bulletin, 8 lu1 64, p. 8. * Victoria-Inverness Bulletin, 27 Jan 65, p. 3. that they work through their central cornmittees rather than go off on tangents.'"' As for criticism relating to the ARDA program, Buny lambasted "skeptics who are always ready to criticize or throw cold water on any group action or plans that are Medto develop an area," especially those people who pointed out that ARDA could not realize the objectives that other organizations, like fmers' federations, had unsuccessfully attempted to a~hieve.~?The ARDA program seemingly restricted genuine popular determination in the formulation of community development strategies. Perhaps the most hegemonic articulation of bureaucratic attitudes toward the economic problems of North Inverness was A.A. MacDonald's North Inverness Resource Swvey. MacDonald's report amalgarnated two separate studies that the Extension Department and the NIDC carried out for Chéticamp and Margaree, respectively. Conceived in 1965, the NIDC research was a "self-survey" of local resources based on a mode1 sponsored by ARDA oficials. The NiDC commissioned the Extension Department to execute the study, which the Department delivered to the ARDA administration in 1966. The overall orientation of MacDonald's report accorded with the dominant philosophy of contemporary "experts" who saw comrnunity development "as a process of planned intervention for the solution of socio-economic problems with the purposehl and active participation and involvement of the people concerned.'"' Yet "experts" like MacDonald too ofien forgot the second part of this philosophy, instead - - " Victoria-lnverness Bulletin, 26 Jan 66, p. 8. Victoria-Inverness Bulletin, 18 Nov 64, p. 9. 93 Jean-B. Lanctot, The Impact of Urbaniration on Rural Areas, ARDA Reports and Digests (Ottawa: Department of Forestry and RdDeveloprnent, 1966), p. 9. focusing on how govemment might liquidate "redundant" producers in rural communities in order to the facilitate the structura! changes underway in rural Canada in the post- WWII period. Bureaucratics, "experts," and politicians grappled for a mechanism by which govemment codd achieve the desired "adjustment" in socio-economic conditions. In his influentid 1965 paper, "Poverty in Canada," M.W. Menzies crystallized the policy objectives attached to this "adjustrnent fienzy" when he proposed offerhg incentives to encourage marginal producea "to release the resources they are not exploiting efficiently."" No doubt the issues prompting Menzies' work were at this time on the minds of oficials like Ross Buny, who wrote in the Victoria-Inverness Bulletin: "No doubt in Nova Scotia there are many rural communities in which there are no resources and people should be moved to other areas.'"' The resource adjustment perspective was the central underpinning of MacDonald's report. North Inverness suffered fiom an "imbalance" in the distribution of resources to people. The logical solution to this "rcsource imbalance" was to "phase out" those "human resources" engaged in production that was not maximally "efficient." As far as remedying an agricultural industry in a state of flux, such as that of Margaree, inputs into land consolidation must be accompanied by inputs into the related human, physical and institutional resources of the industry to facilitate transferal to alternative oppominities by the human resources which are least qualified to utilize the adjusted land reso~rces?~ Meml W.Menzies, Poveriy in Canada: Its Nature, Signifkance and Implicationsjor Public Policy (Winnipeg: Manitoba Pool Etevators, 1965), p. 30. 95 Victoria-Inverness Bulletin, 7 Jul65, p. 10. % MacDonald, North Inverness Resource Survey, pp. 1 1 - 12. This dehumanking agenda sternrned from the pervasive notion, both implicit and explicit in contemporary developrnent literature, that industrialization, rnodernization, and urbanization were inherently desirable. Yet conternporary development policy emphasized the need for adjustment not so much for the well-being of people in mal cornmunities, but for the benefit of mainstream society at large. Development work was essentially hegemonic because the metropolis' "standards and values provide[d] the ultimate objectives in ternis of adjustment, adaptation and rehabilitati~n."~' The development policy embodied in the ARDA program failed, for better or for worse. to make a substantive impact on the lives of Margaree inhabitants. Participants in the present study with whom the researcher raised the issue of ARDA's involvement in Margaree knew little or nothing about ARDA. Those who recalled the program believed that Margaree residents were not very involved with the ARDA initiatives. An idormant recalled ARDA oficials visiting the cornrnunity and speaking with the people: They seemed to be community-minded people that in their training they had an understanding of how people thought and reacted in cornmunities. They seemed to be quite professional. And also quite sympathetic to an area, dthough they would admit there might be something you could do and maybe not, you kn~w.~~ 9' McCrorie. ARDA: An Experimen in Development Planning, p. 9; Bic kerton, Nova Scoria, Ortawa, and the Politics of Regional Development (Toronto: University of Toronto, 1 WO), pp. 187- 19 1 ; MacDonaId, North Inverness Resource Survey, pp. 1,9- 13; Victoria-lrrverness Bulletin, 2 Jun 65, p. 9; 16 Jun 65, p. 9; 29 Dec 65, p. 5; 26 Jan 66, p. 8; 7 Sep 66, p. 1. Interview # 17, Solomon F., Margaree Centre, 07 May 2000. Informants were vague on exactly what the ARDA program had represented. An informant comrnented: "1 remember going to meetings, you know, and it was a big topic of discussion. 1 think it was accepted, if 1 remember correctly, pretty well by the community." Yet he nevertheless stated: "1 suppose I couldn't rhymr off any specific project that maybe took place in this immediate area. Maybe that development on Chéticamp Island might have corne around through that and maybe even Cape Mabou." A few infamants associated ARDA with the river stabilization work undertaken through the administration: "It was realiy good, in my opinion, anyway. Because we were losing a fair arnount of fmland." For most Margaree residents, ARDA's legacy was that of yet another Iargely forgotten govemment program, its only accomplishment besides helping fund the community pastures having been restricted to the erosion work performed at various locations dong the Margaree River. At the time, an ARDA advertisement, entitled "PACNG PROGRESS,"declared: "No Canadian should rernain indiffèrent to the fact that there is, in this country, a program whose objective is to promote progress in disadvantaged rural area~."~Despite such lofty intentions, governmental "intervention" to "assist" small producen floundered in the face of the dynamic forces of capitalist 94 I'icroria-lnverness Bulletin, 27 Mar 68, p. 3. underde~eloprnent.'~As Elisha M., a Margaree Harbour famier, put it: "We weren't big enough to fight progress, right."IO' Through the 1950s and 1960s many farmers like Elisha were gradually cûawn into an indirect capitalist underdevelopment. Despite individual and collective efforts to stem the deteriorating position of small producen, the capitdist tnincation and sabotage of the domestic mode forced many famiers to engage in off-fm Labour in a manner that often perpetrated a vicious cycle leading to abandonment of famiing and pmletarianization: Everybody tried something, you know, differently. But linle by little the bills was coming in so you had to go out and start working out and then you tried to look afier the place and you tried to work out but it didn't work out. After awhile your fences started going down and you weren't serving two masters. Eventually some day the cattle were loaded on a truck - sheep usually went first, then the cattle - and then it came down to just working out.I0' Neither indirect nor direct forms of capitalist underdevelopment prompted Margaree residents to engage in an anti-capitalist struggle. The sheer lack of radical responses to the capitalist underdeveloprnent of the local economy illustrates the bmtality of capitalist hegemony in eastem Nova Scotia during this period. Fatalism over the matter of 'O0 This conciusion accords with observations made independentiy by Sinclair and Winson. Sinclair notes: "Overall, state policies for agriculture have been inadequate in the face of a persistent probtem of low incomes. In most cases, wealthy producers receive the most direct aid. Hence, the state encourages the deveiopment of capitalist fms." See Peter Sinclair, "From Peasants to Corporations," p. 290, and Winson, "The Uneven Development of Canadian Agriculture," p. 43 1. 'O' Interview # 1 1, Angus G., Upper Margaree, 03 May 2000; Interview # 16, Elisha M., Margaree Harbour, 05 May 2000; Interview #17, Solomon F., Margaree Centre, 07 May 2000; Interview #18, Moses A., Margaree Forks, 07 May 2000; Intewiew #20, Hazael N., Margaree Valley, 09 May 2000; Interview #2 1, Oman N., Margaree Valley, 09 May 2000; Interview #37, Ephraim C., Margaree Valley, 24 May 2000. 'O2 Interview # 16, Elisha M., Margaree Harbour, 05 May 2000. economic determination, a psychosocial legacy of this hegemony, echoed in Elisha's statement: 1 would say considering the way mechanization came in and took over it's not only - it's not a new thing mechanization - but the way it took over on us. The fmsdone well for a few generations ... done well. They served a purpose for a few generations. Now, what is it, you just have to accept the changes ... that's about it.Io3 The market relations that Chapter One establishes as crucial to the local inter-war economy formed the structural mechanism for dynarnic underdevelopment following the war, but these relations sirnultaneously constituted a conduit for the bolstering of a capitalist hegemony which effectively stifled the possibility of a "working-class-like" response among petty producers. Margaree fmers continued to perceive themselves as "independent" petty producea operating within the context of a market economy and the fatalistic attitudes surrounding out-migration, bred by the community's historical position within the labour reserve of the periphery, did little to incite protest. Margaree inhabitants coped with agricu~turaldecline by out-migrating, exploiting non-agricultural resources, seeking employment in other industries, and adapting production to take advantage of tec hnological changes and market opportunities. Their responses to the capitalist underdevelopment of the community's economy coincided more with the predictions of classical Marxism than those of neo-Mvlanllst scholars who seek to theorize agrarian change in ternis usually associated with industrial labour. Far fiom mounting a carnpaign of proletarian resistence, Margaree producers simply adapted to "the times" as best they could. Cultural values may have moderated these responses in some cases, but commercial, locationai, logisticai, and geographical factors were fundamental in determining the pattern of agricultural adjustrnent in Margaree. Adjustment proceeded more from popular initiatives than fiom any bureaucratie program purporting to implement a regime for the "rebalancing" of human and natural resources in North Inverness. Agrarian decline in Margaree was more or less unfettered by state intervention. Structural forces continued to underdevelop the agricultural sector, effecting a steady decrease so that, by the early 1970s, very few Margaree inhabitants were involved in market-oriented agricultural production. 'O3 Interview #16, EIisha M., Margaree Warbour, 05 May 2000. Tourism Development, Imperiabm, and Resource Management in the Margaree Valley, 1945-1970 Tourism became increasingly important to Margaree's economy as traditional industries such as fming faltered in the face of capitalist underdevelopment. Recent scholarship on tourism in twentieth-century Nova Scotia emphasizes the role of the state and the work of "cultural producers" in the invention and cornmodification of an idealized Folk concept aimed at attracting tourists to the province.' At the regional level this process of tounsm development had major economic and social effects in rural Nova Scotia; however, in Margaree expansion of the industry proceeded primarily from endogenous initiatives to accommodate tourists' needs through the provision, improvement, or maintenance of infrastructure, resources, and services. Cultural production was of minimal importance to Margaree inhabitants engaged in the towist trade because environmental and recreationai attractions brought most tourists to the area. A Toronto- based newspaper columnist highlighted the contemporary value of Margaree as a tourist destination by writing: "the Margaree Valley in Nova Scotia has a quiet beauty, being ' Ian McKay, The Quesr of the Folk: Antimodernisn, und Cultural Seleetion in Twentieth-Century Nova Scotia (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1994); "Among the Fisherfok: J.F.B. Livesay and the Invention of Peggy's Cove,"Journol ofCanadian Studies, vol. 23, no. 1-2 (Sp~g1988), pp. 23-45; "Tartankm Triumphant: The Construction of Scottishness in Nova Scotia, 1933- 1954," Acadiensis, vol. 2 1, no. 2 (1992), pp. 5-47; "History and the Tourist Gaze: The Politics of Commemoration in Nova Scotia, 1935-1964," Acadiensis, vol. 22, no. 2 (1993), pp. 102-138; DA. Muise, "Who Owns sparsely inhabited and with little industry. The Margaree winds through scattered farmlands and is world-renowned for salmon fishing.'" Tourism activities in Margaree centred around servicing shonanglers, as well as leisure tourists drawn by the rnagnificent scenery of the Margaree Valley and by the aesthetic ch- of coastai northem Inverness County. This type of tourism may be labelled as "recreational tourism," which "is often sand, sea, and sex" and which "attracts tourists who want to relax or commune with nat~re."~ Recreational tourism in Margaree provided a srnall subset of the population with oppominities for establishing profitable businesses. The selectiveness of tourism participation produced three identifiable groups: brokers, locals, and tourists.' The "broken" were Margaree entrepreneurs in the business of providing accommodations and food services, and of guiding tourists who wished to hunt garne or to fish salmon on the Margaree River. Their stake in the tourism trade differentiated them fkom the "locals," the remainder of Margaree residents, and their special position in the tourism trade sometimes produced genuine, although very limited, conflict of interest within the cornmunity. On the whole, however, relations between locals and tourîsts were amicable, oftentirnes very cordial, and on many occasions locals expressed acceptance and appreciation of their guests. The closeness of the local-tourist relationship helped ------. History Anyway? Reinventing Atlantic Canada for PIeasure and Profit," AcadiemrS, vol. 27, no. 2 (1998), pp. 124- 134. ' Victoria-Inverness Bulletin, 2 Feb 66, p. 1 . Valene L. Smith, Hosu and Guesis: The Anthropology of Tourism, Znd edition (Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press, 1989), p. 5. smudge the distinction between those who lived in Margaree and those who profited from tourism. Brokers' activities led to concerted community development initiatives that combined community needs with entrepreneurs' attempts to harness Margaree's tourism potential. An important economic result was that, while some Margaree residents exer~isedagency in their response to tourism incentives, the nature of the tourist demand conditioned this response and, consequently, the pattern of local economic development. This encounter, viewed as a negotiated exchange between locals and tourists with brokers as intermediaries, embodied a type of touristic imperialism founded upon hegemonic conditions that simultaneously released and inhibited the economic potential of Margaree's tourism industry. Most Margaree tourism establishments consisted of farnily-owned hotels such as the Belmont Hotel, Margaree Lodge, and Colbeen Lodge, al1 in Margaree Forks; the Duck Cove Inn at Margaree Harbour; and the Riverview Hotel at Margaree Ford. The "Bed and Breakfast" concept was unheard of, but a few families, particularly at Margaree Harbour, made good livings at running "country inns." A nurnber of families erected cabins as the local towism industry expanded in the late 1940s. Tourism activity was strong and sustained throughout the 1950s and the 1960s, but the nature of the industry did not change significantly during this tirne. The majority of tourists, mostly fiom the United States, visited Margaree in order to angle salmon.' These "sport" fishea tended to ' This distinction between brokers and local~follows Marc L. Miller, "The Rise of Coastal Marine Tourism," Ocean and Coastat Management, no. 20 ( 1993), pp. 18 1- 199. The Margaree River was celebrated for its salmon much earlier than the period studied. TC. Haliburton noted that the River was "famed for its salmon, and in some charts styIed Salmon River" in An H&torical stay at Margaree Forks and Northeast Margaree, whereas tourists who came for the scenery, often fiom as far away as Europe, preferred Margaree Harbour. Scenery was secondary to salmon angling as the main tourist attraction! Even less important was the cornmodification of cultural forms. One exceptional instance of cultural production was the establishment of a handicrafis shop at Margaree Forks in 1950. This initiative stemmed in great part fiom the state-directed "handicraft revival" movement underway at this time under the aegis of the Handicraft Division of the Nova Scotia Department of Trade and Industry. In late 1949 Helen McDonald of the Handicraft Division visited Belle Côte, where she held a meeting aimed at stimulating handicraft development in the Margaree area. An observer commented: A large group of men and women were present, interested in hearing the plans which are under way to open a Handicrafl Shop in this Parish. Miss McDonald showed many articles, which she brought with her. such as knitting, hooked mgs, blankets, embroidery, etc., to illustrate the kind of work in which tourists are interested.' -- - and Statistical Account of Nova Scoiia: in Two Vohmes (CIalifax: Joseph Howe, 1829)' p. 229. Charles G.D. Roberts cornmented on the "renowned fishing waters of the Margaree River, where the trout and salmon swarm" in his book The Canadian Guide-book: the Tourïsr 's and Sportsman 's Guide to Eastern Canada and Naufoundland (New York: D. Appleton, 1891), p. 210. A verse of Malcolm Gillis' "Am BrAighe," from Helen Creighton and Calum MacLeod, Gaelic Songs in Nova Scoria, National Museum of Canada Bulletin No. 198, Anthmpological Series No. 66 (Ottawa: Queen's hinter, 1964), pp. 64-66, reads: "Many a man fishes for salmon around your fair shores; gentlemen fiom England corne over to pass summer near you." Interview #15, Francis & Kathleen L., Margaree Forks? O4 May 2000; Interview #17, Solomon F., Margaree Centre, 07 May 2000; Inte~iew# 19, Mary-Anne G., East Margaree, OB May 2000; Interview #23, SarabAnne Sc Walter F., Margaree Forks, 1 1 May 2000; Interview #26, Joah S., Margaree Harbour, 14 May 2000; Interview #28, Mered M., Northeast Margaree, 15 May 2000. ' Victoria-Inverness Bulletin, 4 Jan 50, p. 2. Apparently the local people were enthusiastic about CO-operatingwith the Division. Some Margaree women had, in fact, produced many of these products. Priests of the Margaree and Southwest Margaree parishes assisted McDonald in her presentation and they were "very much in favor of this undertaking.'" The priests "urged the gathering to CO-operatein making the necessary articles which are in great dernar~d."~During the winter of 1950 work proceeded in earnest and, as the result of citizen effort, the "Valley Rest Cr& Shop" at Margaree Forks opened for the tourist season of the sarne year. The shop seemingly drew considerable interest, as "many visitors [were] calling to see the products manufactured in the homes of residents of Margaree, such as hooked mgs, weaving, woodwork, salmon flies, etc."1° The Valley Rest Craft Shop's mission was two-fold: "to increase interest in the making of the products mentioned and to provide a market for them."" Despite this auspicious beginning, the significance of craft production to the Margaree tourism industry appears to have remained peripheral in comparison to the dl- important sport fîshing on the Margaree River. A Margaree resident who emigrated from the area in the early 1950s remarked that, upon his return to Margaree in the early 1970s' one noticeable change in the tourism industry was that "some people were getting knowledge of handicrafks." Yet Margaree craft production was by no means comparable to that of Chéticarnp, where the hooked mg reigned supreme as tourist commodity and Victoria-(rrverness Bulletin, 4 Jan 50, p. 2. Victoria-InvernessBulletin, 4 Jan 50, p. 2, 'O Victoria-lnvernessBulletin, 12 Jul50, p. 3. " Victoria-lnverness Bulletin, 12 Jul50, p. 3. was a major attraction in itself. As in much of Nova Scotia, the Handicraft Division's contemporary aspirations for the development of the handicraft industry never fùily realized themselves in ~argaree.'~ State involvement in tourism development in Margaree was very limited during the penod. In 1966 the Department of Trade and Industry did sponsor a highly-attended coune, held in the Margaree Lodge at Margaree Forks, to train waitresses to serve in the tourism industry. This occasion highlighted the government's involvement in molding the populace to meet the industry's demands. The course emphasized the need to educate waitresses to conform to a set behaviour code. During the course, a home economist of the Department of AgnculNre and Marketing, Yvonne LeVert, stressed the need for "good grooming." Each of the "girls" received a copy of "Every Customer is My Guest," authored by Jean Ross. director of the Division of Accommodations and Facilities. Bill MacIsaac, the owner of the Margaree Lodge, encouraged waitresses to have "a sound knowledge of cornrnunity attractions and events" and to serve visitors with utmost hospitality. l3 The training supervisor of this Division, Darrell Kent, stated: Nobody has the oppomuiity to dispense Nova Scotia hospitality like a waitress. Most of the travelling public corne in contact with hotels, stores and filling stations once or twice a day, but the waitress serves three meals a day. Her l2 McKay, @est of the Folk, pp. 152-2 13; Victoria-lnverness Bulletin, 4 Jan 50, p. 2 and 12 Jul50, p. 3, Interview #23, SarabAnne & Walter F., hkrgaree Forks, 1 I May 2000, with emphasis. At the political level, as McKay points out, some tension existed between Antigonish CO-operativesupporters and the head of the Handicraft Division, Mary E. Black. This conflict did not play out locally in Margaree, where Margaree priests' encouragement of local handicraft production accorded with the Division's agenda as well as with the Antigonish proponents' own efforts to develop handicrafl industry in rural Nova Scotia. " Victoria-Inverness Bulletin, 18 May 66, p. 1. attitude may detemine the visiter's general impression of the restaurant, the cornrnunity and even the province. l4 This type of training evinced the social aspect of the government's tourism program. The program attempted to teach women to serve in a suitably "womanly" way. This conformity benefited local brokers with a stake in the tourist trade, such as the man who owned the Margaree Lodge and who hosted the event. One participant in this study who attended the waitressing course remembered the distributed literature, but merely commented that the woman who ran the Margaree Lodge was a very capable woman who did not need the govenunent's instruction on managerial matters. One certainly should not exaggerate the local impact of a single course. Yet the overall position of Margaree women in the industry suggests that tourism reinforced traditionai gender roles at the sarne time that it provided economic benefits to many local women.'' The jobs that were available extended Margaree women's traditional domestic work to an environment away fiom the home. There were very few employment opportunities for Margaree women other than working in hotels. Women and girls cleaned, cooked, and waitressed at establishments such as the Duck Cove IM and Margaree Lodge. Severai study participants performed this type of work at various local hotels. Francis, who in the 1960s was employed at the Margaree Lodge for "minimum wage," recalled that tourists lefl the women 'iemfic" tips but they had to share these with the entire staff. Around the sarne tirne, a widow's children helped support their family by -- - '' Victoria-Inverness Bulletin, 18 May 66, p. 1. eaming income through hotel work. In regards to her children's contribution to the farnily economy, the mother commented: "1 think they were brought up that way and that was the way it was." A participant said about another widow: "Now I remember the neighbour right over here. She did dl the washing for the motels. In the home, by hand, and she had no water. She saved rainwater or they hauled water, as they called it, from a brook or whatever. And she did dl those sheets and towels." Such work was dificult with little remuneration, but the income was much-needed, especially for widows with children. For Margaree women, work in the tourism industry "was very important. It was their bread and butter." However, Margaree residents as a whole apparently did not feel the economic benefits fiom tourism: "Local ladies would work doing beds and su on. But it was sort of important to that family more than to the community." Tourism-related employment for men was similarly restricted.I6 For Margaree men, tourism's primary spinsff was guiding tourists who wished to hunt game or fish salmon. American hunters and sport fishers came to Margaree to fish and hunt in the summer and fdl. Acting as broker between local and tourist, the hotel managers often accepted anglers' requests for guides and then procured a local man to provide the demanded service. Guiding these recreational tourists "was a big thing" financially for some families and at one time it employed at least a few dozen men. Only ------l5 Victoria-tnverness Bulletin, 18 May 66, p. 1 and 8 lun 66, p. 1 ; Interview #15, Francis & Kathleen L., Margaree Forks, 04 May 2000. l6 Interview # 15, Francis & Kathleen L., Margaree Forks, 04 May 2000: Interview #19, Mary-Anne G., East Margaree, O8 May 2000; Interview #23, Sarah-Anne & Walter F.. Margaree Forks, 1 1 May 2000; Interview #25, Hannah W., Belle Côte, 13 May 2000; interview #26, Joah S., Margaree Harbour, 14 May men did such work: "our women never got interested in fishing salmon. 1 don? know why. And the American women are crazy for it and they 're good fishermen [sic], a lot of them."" This description of Margaree salmon angling recognizes gender roles within the cornmunity as they pertained to leisure and tourism while simultaneously highlighting a cultural distinction between locals and tourists. Guiding positioned local men in relationships whereby they observed cultural difference and economic disparity. Some study participants, like many elder nual Nova Scotians, grew up in the pre-WWII period with the image of the "shiny Arnerican cars" that toured through their communities in the summertime." Calling upon the quintessential symbol of conspicuous wealth, the Cadillac, a former Margaree guide narrated: Holy gosh. The Cadillac came. The women saw the salmon. And they said they wanted to take a little drive, sight-seeing - just the time of the year when everything is so beautifil - so 1 suggested we go to the Big Intervale. And it was no trouble to sit into a Cadillac car, you know, not a bit. Well, they thought that was glorious, out of the world altogether. Came back down to the Kilmuir. Got out of the car and he opened his purse and he passed me over 40 dollars. Two 20- dollar bills - for less than 4 hours.l9 2000; Interview #38, Nathan M., Port Hawkesbury, 26 May 2000. Besides the hotels, the fish plant at Grand Étang was an important employer of women. l7 "Guiding for Salmon on the Margaree," Cape Breton S Magazine, no. 26 (Aug 1980), p. 5. ''James H. Morrison briefly discusses Iocal experiences associated with exposure to American materialkm in his essay "American Tourism in Nova Scotia, 187 1- 1940," Nova Scotia Historicat Review, vol. 2, no. 2 (1982), pp. 40-5 1. l9 "Guiding for Salmon on the Margaree," p. 10. Many salmon anglers favoured their guides with "Me gifls," not uncommonly "ail kinds of liquor," as one participant put it. Can we view the angler-guide relationship as part of an imperialism in which affluent members of the metroplis used economic power to appropriate, for their own recreational uses, hurnan and natural resources in the periphery? Transactions between guest (angler) and host (guide) did follow similar patterns as those that anthropologist Dennison Nash outlines as part of touristic imperialism. For instance, "the work-leisure distinction continues to separate [the host] fiom their guests."20 This distinction is evident in the following discussion between an interviewer and a Margaree guide: (When you guided, would you also fish?) I didn't. Some of them would want you to fish and some of them don't want you to fish. A good many of the guides would fish, but 1 felt if there was salmon, they wanted to get them, and they were paying me to get them for them - 1 mean, not to catch them but to show them - then, if they'd ask me to fish, they'd give me a rod and I'd fish probably over a pool or a couple of pools for them." This is evidence of unequal power relations; yet, for there to be imperialism, the demands of tourists From the metropolis must condition the nature of development in the periphery, Margaree, in this case? Willingness to accommodate the needs of American tourists, especially anglers, increased as incentives for tourism development in Margaree grew in the period 'O Dennison Nash, "Tourism as a Form of Imperialism," in Smith, Hosts and Guests, p. 45. " "Guiding for Salmon on the Margaree," p. 7. " "Guiding for Saimon on the Margaree," pp. 1- 1 1; Interview # 15, Francis & Kathleen L., Margaree Forks, 04 May 2000; Interview #17, Solomon F., Margaree Centre, 07 May 2000. following the Second World War. In the late 1940s local observers fiequently commented in the Victoria-Inverness Bulletin on growth in Margaree's tourism industry. In the spring of 1945 a reporter stated: "On Saturday evening several of ou.local tourist cabins were occupied by visitors from various parts of the province. This early start bodes well for the "tourist season" in Margaree."u A year later someone commented about Margaree Harbour: "Our bathing beach is now working over time as every day many cars park here while the occupants flock to shore for a dip in the salt water. Many more cars with American registration are seen out on our streets daily than in former years."24 In 1948 Mr. Gillis of the Colbleen Lodge and Mrs. Tardiff of the New Belmont anended a hotelkeepers' meeting in Halifax, no doubt to lem how to improve their services. The local who reported this event in the papa quipped: "A busy tourkt season is expected and considering the fact that these hotels may be able to cater to the ''Thirsty" guests ii is quite possible that some of the natives may decide to "Take rooms" including yours tr~ly."'~Like many angler-guide transactions, recreational tourkm seemed to bring more alcohol into the community. The recreational nature of Margaree tourism made it imperative that local establishments provide for tourists' desires - alcohol, for exarnple. Aithough tourism was a facet of Margaree's economy prior to the 1940s' in the late 1940s some Margaree residents were seizing upon the notion of expanding the industry. A Local urged development in this sector: "If we had more hotels to cater to the needs of tourists a " Victoria-lnverness Bulletin, 4 May 45, p. 2. We fid another report of a busy tourist season in Victoria- Inverness Bulletin, 13 Feb 48, p. 5. '' Victoria-InvernessBulletin, 19 hl46, p. 8. Victoria-lnvernessBulletin, 23 Apr 48, p. 7. large revenue could be denved therefrom, as we have al1 the scenic attractions available, also the best fishing Stream for salmon in North America and one of the best bathing beaches in the province.''26 Exploithg the tourist potential of Margaree's natural surroundings necessitated development of infiastructure and services to meet American guests' metropolitan expectations. The metropolis holds "varying degrees of control over the nature of tourism and its development" and "this power over touristic and related developments abroad is what "makes a metropolitan center imperialistic and tourism (. ..) a form of imperialism."" Contemporary reports of tourism development in Margaree emphasized the modemness of effected improvements and indicated their convenience to visiton. In 1946 a Northeast Margaree man constmcted "two new tourist cabins" and these combined with cabins associated with "David Thompkins' Hotel" for a total of eight cabins in the Northeast area. The cabins were "being modernized to an up-to-date tand dard."'^ That same year, a Cranton man built three bungalows on his property, "[als a large number of Tourists are Anticipated for the coming season."" At a time when many Margaree residents could not afford electricity or indoor plurnbing, these bungalows were "modem in every respect being equipped with running water, electricity and Our commentator, makiog an obvious connection between modem amenities and salrnon '' Victoria-Inverness Bulletin, 22 A pr 49, p. 7. " Nash, "Tourism as a Fonn of Imperialism," p. 39. Victoria-lnverness Bulletin, 10 May 46, p. 7. '' Victoria-lnverness Buliefin, 3 1 May 46, p. 5. 30 Victoria-herness Bulletin, 3 1 May 46, p. 5. anglers' needs, pointed out that these bungalows were "ideally located" and "handy to a number of popular salmon pools'y on the Margaree Ri~er.~' These developments were modest compared to the 1946 re-opening of the Normaway Inn, located in Northeast Margaree, under new management by a group of Sydney businessmen. As part of a publicity carnpaign, the new managers invited the public "to visit this ultra modem hostel and inspect buildings and s~rroundin~s.""Their invitations attracted visitors "fiom near and fa," resulting in a "monster reception." A reporter revelled at the new Nomaway's "spacious grounds, cornmodious housing facilities, modem equipment and lwurious f~mishin~s."~'The "large modem dining room and kirhen" and "modem tourist cabins" were impressive, as were the managers' grandiose plans for "tennis courts, putting greens or golf course, and swimming pools."'" Tounsts' demands for urban amenities, the provision of which being critical to the expansion of the local tourist trade, exerted influence over the course of development in Margaree. Tourists' desire to experience a "pnstine" recreational environment encouraged those supportive of tourism to accommodate the tourist gaze by making attempts to manipulate the aesthetic of Margaree's human landscape. At the beginning of the 1947 '' Victoria-inverness Bulletin, 3 1 May 46, p. 5. This construction seems to have been part of a larger "building boom" in the Northeast Margaree area, because the next year a new store was built and "a number of prominent citizens" erected new homes. See Victoria-lnverness Bulletin, 14 Nov 47, p. 8 and 19 Dec 47, p. 5. '' Vicroria-imerness Bulietin, 19 Jul46, p. 5. l3 Victoria-lnverness Bulletin, 19 Jul 46, p. 5. 34 Victoria-Inverness Bulietin, 19 Jul46, p. 5. tourkt season, the following comment appeared in a cornmunity column of the Victoria- Inverness Bulletin: The ungainly practise of the citizens of Margaree is again in evidence on Margaree Beach of dumping dl kinds of debris. They have no shame, yea, no decency in littering the path followed by towists in summer, but it is of no avail to forbid this practise and stem measures must be taken by a~thorities.~' This effort to sharne residents into ceasing their uncouth garbage-disposal practices evidently failed, for a year later, someone (no doubt the sarne complainant) made a similar criticism: It would not be miss to request respectable citizens to refrain fiorn littering the approach to one of the best bathing beaches on the Coast with al1 kinds of debris. It is a sad sight to the eyes of tourists to be confionted with al1 kinds of rotten logs with large sharp bolts protniding from same washed up by the sea and littering the In the 1960s the Margaree Board of Trade pursued what may have been a more persuasive strategy for combatting littering and improving cornmunity aesthetics; a set of "beautification and clean-up contests" to incite people to maintain tidy properties. The first contest occurred in 1963 and the second in 1964, when the Board of Trade sponsored a "Clean-up, Paint-up, Fix-up" campaign in Northeast Margaree so that residents might beautiQ their homes and properties, rendering the Valley more appealing to tourists. The j5 Victoria-Inverness Bulletin, 2 May 47, p. 5. j6 Victoria-lmernessBulletin, 4 Jun 48, p. 5. Board sent letters to households, put up posters, aired radio appeals, and offered cash prizes for the most ameliorated properties, al1 to encourage residents to improve the appearance of the comm~nity.~' Tourism's effect on local development moved well beyond aesthetics and arnenities to encompass institutional politics. The local institution most active in development initiatives in Margaree was neither an ARDA committee nor the fmers' federation; rather, it was the Margaree Board of Trade. The Margaree Board of Trade, so-called, actually represented the interests of people in the Northeast area and focused its activities on improving conditions for Northeast residents.18 The Board operated in a part of Margaree traditionally popular for salmon angling and. unsurprisingly, Board members comprised local businessmen, many of whom having had interests in the tourism trade. This small group of people controlled the Board, an organization in which few "workers" participated. The Board combined community improvement with tourism development in an integrated agenda for raising community living standards and accommodating tourists' needs. The Board was, in the esteem of one commentator, "the only organization in the valley interesting itself in the affairs of the area it serves, and merits the support of the District in general."39 The moral suasion embodied in this statement implies, fiom the " Victoria-InvernessBuiletin, 12 Jun 63, p. 7 and 15 Apr 64, p. 1. '' The Board of Trade is recorded as operating in "North East Margaree" in Nova Scotia Department of Trade and Industry, Inverness County Survey (Halifax: Department of Trade & Industry, 1963), p. 14. Solomon F. remarked that the Board concentrated its efforts on Northeast Margaree; Interview # 17, Solomon F., Margaree Centre, 07 May 2000. The Margaree Board of Trade was likely a successor of an earlier organization called the North East Margaree Community Improvement Association; Victoria- Inverness Bulletin, 12 Oct 45, p. 2. 3"ictoria-hern~ Bulletin, 23 Feb 66, p. 4. perspective of discourse analysis, that the community was no1 unified in supporting the Board's activities. Orai evidence in fact suggests that factors such as political factionalism, persona1 differences, and lack of interest may have inhibited local solidarity for the group. A few "dedicated" individuals kept the Board running and, from the late 1960s onward, the Board faded away as these people shifted their energies into other areas of community and family life. Seemingly, this elite never harnessed sufEcient popular support to sustain its political rnornent~rn.~~ Even though social conflict intemal to the communty may have militated against support for the organization, the Margaree Board of Trade executed a program that in many ways was of genuine benefit to local residents. The Board was arnazingiy energetic, taking action on a wide variety of concems, including securing improved telephone and television service, snow removal, and waste disposai; establishing a tire fighting system; and backing an effort to license an airfield at Northeast Margaree. The Board "did a lot of things for the community," recalled a former member. "They did everything that we needed, like road conditions if they became unbearable, which was often the case." Lobbying for govermentai action was the Board's choice manner of attaining its goals and this strategy appears to have been quite effective: "They were quite a powerful group. They had, you know, influence. And 1 think they also knew the right people to contact, you know, to get action." For example, to bring television into the area, the rnembers "worked away and hammered away at Ottawa until the CBC put in a Inte~iew#12, Kadmiel M., Northeast Margaree, 03 May 2000; Interview #17, Salomon F., Margaree tower." Although intensely political in its methods, allegedly the Board was non-partisan in its membership. One member claimed that "we just had a comrnon project in mind and we worked away and tried to get it done the best we could. So we didn't care what colour your skin was, what church you went to, or how you voted.'"' Tourism-related projects constituted a major portion of the Board's activities. Oral research suggests that there was very linle government assistance for local tourism developrnent during the period under review. The responsibility for any development in this industry therefore fell upon a local organization such as the Board of Trade. As one participant remarked: "See, there was no boards of tourism at that time so we kind of paid attention to the tourist business." Prior to the late 1960s, the Board directed its work especially toward improving transpot-tation infrastructure. Road conditions were so poor, even along the Cabot Trail, that driving conditions may have deterred some visitors fiom touring around the area. Boards of Trade in North Invemess pressured the province to remedy the situation. In the spring of 1952 an observer reported that heavy trafic and poor weather in the previous year had damaged highways and hoped "that permanent repair and paving will be effected soon on the highway and the Cabot Trail which is for the benefit of the public and for the increasing nurnber of t~urists.'"~That summer thirty individuais attended a joint meeting of the Chéticarnp, Invemess, and Margaree Boards of Centre, 07 May 2000. Victoria-Znverness Bulletin, 23 Feb 66, p. 4; Interview # 17, Solomon F., Margaree Centre, 07 May 2000; Interview #20, Hazael N., Margaree Valley, 09 May 2000. Some political tension may have existed in the comrnunity over the Margaree Board of Trade's activities, because a key figure in the Board was a well- known Liberal "political man" whom local Conservative supporters sornetirnes cnticized. '' Victoria-invernessBulieth, 30 Apr 52, p. 2. Trade at Colbleen Lodge, Margaree Forks. The most pressing issue discussed was the need to lobby the govemment for construction work dong the highway between Baddeck and Margaree Forks. Board members "feared that the delays will seriously affect the profitable tourist trade that has been built up over the years in Margaree and Cheticamp areas, as well as isolate Northem Invemess County fiom Sydney and other Eastern Cape Breton points?' At another joint meeting in 1954, delegates discussed improvements made along this highway, which they labelled Cape Breton's "main trade and tourist route" and the "lifeline" for North Invemess. Those in attendance passed a "unanimous decision" to push for grading and hard-surfacing of the entire section between Baddeck and Margaree Forks? More than ten years later, when the Margaree Board of Trade reviewed its past activities, members boasted at having attained this goal, along with accomplishing other related tasks such as the construction of a road diversion fiom Rossville to the Cabot Trail; placement of road signs throughout Northeast Margaree; and raising this comrnunity's tourism profile by having the name "North East Margaree" appear on provincial highway maps. While infrastmcture improvement was of value to the local residents, recognition of tourists' expectations clearly stimulated the Board in its endeav~urs.~~ '' I7iCtoria-Inverness Bulletin, 18 Jun 52, p. S. Victoria-lnverness Bulletin, 30 Mar 54, p. 6. Efforts to develop tourism along this route continued well into the 1960s. See Victoria-InvernessBulletin, 16 Mar 66, p. 6. "'Victoria-/nvernss Bulletin, 23 Feb 66, p. 4; Interview # 12, Kadmiel M., Northeast Margaree, 03 May 2000; Interview # 17, Solomon F., Margaree Centre, 07 May 2000; Interview #20, Hazael N., Margaree Valley, 09 May 2000; Interview #23, Sarah-Anne & Walter F., Margaree Forks, 1 1 May 2000; Interview #28, Mered M., Northeast Margaree, 15 May 2000. The case of the Margaree Airport's establishment at Northeast Margaree exemplifies how a resident's need and tourism imperatives rnerged to prompt local action. Hoping to have access to an aintrip from which he could fly, M., a self-titled "aviation nut" famous for building and flying his own aircrafl, CO-operatedwith a local businessrnan in 1959 to convert a blueberry barren into an aintrip: "So the guy used to run the Normaway out here, a Hart fella. So anyway, we decided to make a strip here. Course this is a big advantage to him 'cause this is a tourist resort, see. If they can gt tourists coming in, that's just right up his alley.'" A few years later M. and two other businessmen teamed up to improve the strip by grading it and then securing governmental assistance to surface the ninway. These individuals formed the Margaree Airport Association. In 1966 the Association, dong with some Margaree Board of Trade and North Inverness Development Cornmittee membea, met with municipal and Department of Transport officiais to discuss the possibility of bringing the airfield up to the standard necessary to qualiQ for licensing. Inverness County Council resolved to support the airfield "providing no part of the cost of the project would have to be borne by the Municipality, or any responsibility incurred in respect to the fbture upkeep of the field.'"' The Department of Transport granted the Margaree Airport Association a fixed sum Without any sharing-of-costs stipulation.'"' Reflecting about the govemment's intransigence over the matter of financial aid for airport maintenance, a participant exclaimed: "talk about govemments being cheap!" The Department of Transport and the "Donnie MacDermid of Margaree Valley," Cap Breton's Magazine, no. 73 (Jun 1998), p. 96. Cape Breton Development Corporation did, however, contribute considerable sums of money toward the construction project and, on 16 August 1968, the Department licensed the 38-acre airfield for public use by one- or two-motor aircraft. The facility was "expected to boost the tourist trade in Northem Inverness County quite s~bstantially.'"~ In the following years some tourists and govenunent officiais used this facility, and ofien M. would drive visitors fiom the airport to their local destination. The Margaree Airport "brought some money into the community," but it appears to have not realized the purpose of providing a major boost to Margaree's tourism industry." Margaree brokers' investment of resources into developing the community for tourism purposes, rather than some other industry, increased Margaree's economic dependence on this trade. Tourism "really was the key thing for a lot of years down here." But infrastructure was not in itself productive. Tourists would have to choose to holiday in Margaree. Tourists' structural position as transmitters of economic wealth into the periphery gave them direct or indirect influence over economic affairs in communities like Margaree. An instance of direct touristic effort to control domestic arrangements occurred in 1946 when an American salmon angler, William A. Thompson, manager of the Bureau of Advertising of the Arnerican Newspapers Association, sent a telegram to 47 Victoricl-1mwrne.n Bulletin, 16 May 66, p. 1. "'Victoria-fnverness Bulletin, 18 May 66, p. 1. J9 Victoria-lnvernessBulletin, 28 Aug 68, p. 1 . 'O Bill Doyle, "He Builds His Own," Atlantic Advocate, vol. 65, no. 2 (Oct 1974), pp. 40-4 1; "Domie MacDermid of Margaree Valley," pp. 79-98; Helen Campbell, "Crows tose monopoly on 35-mile trip from Port Hzwkesbury to Margaree," Cape Breton Highlander, 9 Aug 1972, pp. 22-23; Victoria-Inverness Bulletin, 15 May 63, p. 4; 18 May 66, p. 1; 28 Aug 68, p. 1 ;interview #10, Hezekiah T., Margaree Valley, 02 May 2000; Interview #22, Caleb & Ephrath [., Margaree Valley, 10 May 2000. the Chief Supervisor of Fisheries on behalf of a "group of sportsmen who have corne for many seasons to fish the Margaree ~iver."" The message urged the Supervisor to "take immediate action to correct law-breaking and abuses of privilege which, uniess stopped, will destroy valuable asset of this Province as well as vacation pleasures of thousands of Nova Scotians and visitors fiom the United States."j2 Thompson claimed that local people were drift-netting salmon at Margaree Harbour and jigging and netting salmon in the River itself. In addition, residents were swirnming in the anglen' favourite salmon pools, thereby disturbing the fish as well as creating unsanitary conditions which posed "a menace to heaith." This practice was "very unf~rto fishemen who spend considerable surns each season in the Province for their sport."53 Salmon poaching was, in fact, quite common: A lot of the people that live on the rivers felt that they could go and get - it was kind of a game went on, you know - that they could go and get salmon for their farnily. They'd go and spear them at night, you know, or net. They didn't think they were doing wrong in their own mind. And fisheries officers were aiways trying to catch them so there was sort of a cat and mouse thing, you know." Many local people did view the resource as a common property which they had a traditional right to utilize for their families' well-being. Expressing this attitude, an old- time Margaree poacher justified his past activities: Victoria-Inverness Buifetin,20 Sep 46, p. 2. 5" Victoria-Inverness Bulletin, 20 Sep 46, p. 2. 53 Victuria-InvernessBulletin, 20 Sep 46, p. 2. A book containhg extensive information on Margaree River saimon pools is James T. Grey, Ir., Handbook for the Margaree: A Guide to the Salmon Pools of the Margaree River Systen, 3" Edition (Yardley, Pa.: Self-published, 1987). There were never any salmon wasted. Every salmon that was taken was made use of. And if you had too much, you always sent it around to your neighbour who didn't have any or wasn' t out. Or didn' t like to go poaching . And 1 still believe that anything you take that way, for your farnily or yourself and you don't waste it, there's no hann whatsoever in it - it's a natural gift." In his telegram, Thompson larnented that "[n]o other Canadian Community blessed with so fine a salmon stream and so beautifid a valley as the Margaree would tolerate this unhappy situation'" claiming that Margaree inhabitants would support "any remedial action" taken to correct the ~ituation.'~Yet anglers fished for sport rather than for subsistence and, as our poacher pointed out, visitors sometimes did not rnaximize the value of the resource: "der the season was closed and the Americans al1 went back, I've seen beautifid salmon behind the barn on the dung pile, that nobody had wanted. Now, that's what 1 cal1 waste."" The premium that tourists placed on salmon as a leisure commodity altered the value that the community placed upon it. This transitionai period brought some tension between anglers and locals as definitions of what constituted proper resource use clashed. The comrnunity gradually redefmed the resource fiom a source of food to a source of tourist cash. Touristic pressures in this way exerted control over the comm~nity.~~In earlier times, likely pnor to the 1960s, local people perceived the River as having "an '' Interview #14, Michael P., Southwest Margaree, 04 May 2000. 55 ''Poaching for Saimon on the Margaree," Cape Breton's Magrnine, no. 28 (lun 198 1), p. 28. s6 Yicroria-InvernessBulletin, 20 Sep 46, p. 2. " "Poaching for Salmon on the Margaree," p. 28. endless supply" of salmon for both anglers and locals to catch. Yet, over the years, the cornmunity began to recognize that the salmon population was declining. The Salmon Fishermen's Union at Margaree Harbour became defunct around the mid 1950s because salmon stocks could no longer support a significant local commercial salmon fishery. The tourism industry's continued prosperity would require conservation measures. A season with little precipitation, and consequently low waters in the Margaree River, adversely affected tourism business fot that year. A local businessman noted that "the river is extremely important to this area. If we lose the river, we'd lose the major portion of our tourist ~ade."'~ The issue of declining salmon stocks has produced considerable speculation about the cause from Margaree residents and fiom fisheries scientists alike. The problem is complex and here is not the place to survey literature on the matter. For oui- purposes, we mut resign ourselves simply to pointing out that saimon catches fiom the Margaree River suffered, as oral data and Chart 4- 1 indicate, both hmcyclical fluctuations and from long-term decline during the petiod under review.6' Victoria-Inverness Builetin, 20 Sep 46, p. 2; Interview # 1 1, Angus G., Upper Margaree, 03 May 2000; Interview #12, Kadmiel M., Northeast Margaree, 03 May 2000. 59 Interview #12, Kadmiel M., Northeast Margaree, 03 May 2000; Interview # 17, Solomon F., Margaree Centre, 07 May 2000; Interview #20, Hazael N., Margaree Valley, 09 May 2000; Interview #35, Patrick N., Margaree Harbour, 22 May 2000. " Chart 4- 1 relies on data fkom G.J.Chaput and R.R. Claytor, "Spon Catch of Atlantic Salmon From Margaree River, Nova Scotia, 1947 to 1987," Canadian Dota Report of Fisheries and Aquatic Science, no. 678 (Moncton: Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Science Branch, 1988), p. 7; Interview # 12, Kadmiel M., Northeast Margaree, 03 May 2000; Interview #3 1, MalcoIm G., Margaree Harbour, 17 May 2000; Interview #35, Patrick N., Margaree Harbour, 22 May 2000. Chart 4 - 1: Annual Salmon Catch from Margaree River, 1947-1977 A retrospective explication for the decline, popular among many Margaree people. attributes poor water conditions, which hinder salrnon reproduction, to the commercial forestry operations conducted on the Highlands. Clearcutting associated with pu1 p harvesting on the plateaus surrounding the headwaters of the Northeast Margaree branch created a situation where rainfall caused erosion and sudden, heavy run-off of dirty water into the headwaters. Forest cover had regulated water flow into the tributaries and had kept snow fiom melting too quickly, thus avoiding unusually dry conditions in summer. Although Margaree inhabitants likely adopted ihis explanation following the budworm crisis of the mid to late 1970s, an event which enhanced locai consciousness about forestry conservation, recognition that commercial forestry exploitation could possibly disturb river ecology predated the arriva1 of Stora and its clearcuning policies. In 1948, for exarnple, the Senior Inspecter of Fishenes, J.M. O'Toole of Baddeck, visited the Margaree area where he made a round of presentations at community schools in the Northeast district. O'Toole remarked upon "the value of investments made by residents of the Margaree Valley represented by hotels, tourist cabins, etc., al1 wholly dependent on anglers.'"' Maintenance of the river-oriented tourism industry necessitated "a sane and careful program of forest conservation in order to "guard against wasteful and unnecessary depletion of our forest growth," which otherwise "meant an abundance of water in our rivers and streams.'"' Despite this precedent, concern in Margaree over clearcutting was minimal, almost non-existent, during the period undet review." Popular anxiety about salmon stock decline in the 1960s manifested itself in discursive conflict between supporters of commercial fishers at Margaree Harbour and those who wished to save the salmon for recreational sport. A Margaree Harbour resident remarked: You always had this kind of different ideas on the salmon and how they should be taken care of and who should be fishing or should anybody be fishing them or .. . the commercial fishermen would Say, "well, you know, we're not catching al1 the sdmon. The river's full of them at certain times." The anglers would Say, "well, any fish that's caught in the ocean, well, not going to go up river, that's for sure." Then the commercial fishermen would Say, bbwell,you're fishing salmon when they're hl1 of spawn" (. ..) which 1 could never see any sense in. I don't care how much - 1 never cal1 that a sport, fishing salmon, or be like hunting deer when '' Victoria-inverness Bulletin, 26 Nov 48, p. 2. 6' 6' Victoria-InvernessBulletin, 26 Nov 48, p. 2. 63 Cape Breion 's Magrnine, no. 3 1 (Jun 1!?82), pp. 3 8-39; Interview # 12, Kadmiel M., Northeast Margaree, 03 May 2000; Interview # 17, Solomon F., Margaree Centre, 07 May 2000; Interview #33, Ishrnael H., Margaree Harbour, 20 May 2000; Interview #35, Patrick N., Margaree Harbour, 22 May 2000. they're (. ..) going to calve. 1 could never see bat. But anyway, they always had a way of j ustifying that." Here is one example of how touristic pricnties penetrated Margaree, altering domestic relations, circurnscribing two identifiable interest groups, and creating some degree of politico-resource conflict between them. Brokers used the Margaree Board of Trade to address the need of conservation for the Margaree River. In the late 1960s' especially, entrepreneurs engaged in the tourist trade became interested in finding solutions to the problem of inadequate salmon to support the tourist derna~~d.~~An indicator of increased engagement in tourisrn, the Board of Trade assembled five members in 1966 to form a tourist cornittee that would be responsible for develo~rnent.~Moving beyond its traditional activities of improving infrastructure and services for tourists, the Board of Trade commissioned an engineer named J.E. Tilsley to produce a study on how to encourage better angling conditions in the Northeast branch of the Margaree River. Tilsley delivered, likely in 1970, the result of his work in a pseudo-scientific report entitled "Preliminary Study: River Management to Improve Salmon Angling, North-East Margaree River, Inverness County, Nova Scotia." The report's poor citation style makes identification of sources difficult, but it is * interview #35, Patrick N., Margaree Harbour, 22 May 2000. " Interview #12. Kadmiel M., Northeast Margaree, 03 May 2000; Interview #17, Solomon F., Margaree Centre, 07 May 2000; interview #20, Hazael N., Margaree ValIey, 09 May 2000. 66 Victoria-Inverness Bulletin, 23 Feb 66, p. 4. clear that a series of federal fisheries studies from the late 1930s informed the document to a very great e~tent.~' Tilsley identified the major issue prompting the investigation into river management possibilities as the need "to have salmon available for anglers during that part of the season which corresponds with the most active surnrner tourist season.'*' About the controversy over the commercial salmon fishery at Margaree Harbour, the report argues that cessation of this fishery would bring about an increase of saimon for angling of between 5% and 14% only and that a "practical approach to the problem From both the political and technical points of view is a river management prograrn which must include provisions for effective river discharge and predator contr01.'"~ Manipulation of nver discharge could occur through the placement of control dams at strategic points on the Northeast or Southwest branches of the Margaree River, as well as on nver tributaries. As for predator control, Tilsley recommended a "bounty system to encourage local residents to hunt" kingfishea and mergansers, both species being principal salmon predators.70This plan of discharge control and predator elimination would have cost anywhere between one and seven million dollars (ca. 1970 value), no doubt an '' See A.G. Huntrnan, "Return of Salmon fiom the Sea," Fisheries Research Board of Canada, Bulletin, no. 5 1 (Ottawa: Department of Fisheries, 1936); "Salmon for Angling in the Margaree River," Fishenes Rescarch Board of Canada, Bulletin, no. 57 (Ottawa: Departrnent of Fisheries, i939); H.C. White, "Bùd Control to Increase the Margaree River Salmon," Fisheries Research Board of Canada, Bulletin, no. 58 (Ottawa: Departrnent of Fishenes, 1939). b' b' 3. E. Ti Isle y, Prehinury Stuày: River Management Co lmprove Salmon Angling, North-East Margaree River, Inverness County, Nova SCotia (mortheast Margaree]: wargaree Board of Trade], [l WO?]), p. 25. 69 TiIsley, Preliminary Study, p. 28. Tilsley, Preliminary Study, p. 45. expenditure that the Margaree Board of Trade could not finance." Engineering a Margaree River ecosystem that could provide the greater number of salmon needed to stimulate the local tourism industry might have been desireable fiom an economic viewpoint, but it was not a realistic project. The Margaree Salmon Museum's establishment at Rossville was, by contrast, a very successful project comected with local attempts to promote awareness about river conservation. Mr. and Mrs. William A. Thompson, the angler who sent the aforementioned telegrarn about salmon poaching, conceived the notion of having a salmon museum while the Margaree Anglen' Association, a cornrnunity group fomed in the early 1960s. sponsored the scheme. The Rossville Ladies Community Group had previously acquired a two-room schoolhouse left vacant &er the school consolidation movement of the late 1950s and early 1960s, and this building the group leased to the Anglers' Association. The task of realizing the project fell upon a few dedicated citizens and, through their labour, the Museum opened to the public in August of 1965. The co~ectionbetween conservation and tourism is clear in the following description of the Anglers' Association and its museum: The chief aim of the Association, together with promoting the conservation of the saimon and trout runs in the Margaree River, is to sponsor and operate what is known as the Margaree Salmon Museum. This rnuseum is the product of the planning of a number of local citizens who conceived the idea of establishing an institution of that description as a tourist attraction, and as a means of drawing '' Tilsley, Prehinas, Study, p. 54. attention to the necessity of preventing the Margaree River fiom becoming depleted of its valued salmon and bout r~ns.'~ The Museum was a conscious effort to enhance local tourism potential. Not surprisingly, many Anglers' Association members were brokers; hotel and store owners. The Museum was conveniently located off the Cabot Trail and featured aquariums, books, and a wide variety of display items. Al1 evidence suggests that the Museum's value as a tourist attraction was considerable. The Museum's mission was aiso to educate the public about proper resource use and, according to one organizer writing in 1970, the Museum apparently did help in this regard: The Museum was established not only as a place to display old time angling and poaching equipment, but with a view to arousing interest in the preservation of the salmon and trout runs in the Margaree River and already there is growing indications of interest so ar~used.'~ During his lecture tour of schools in the Northeast district in 1948, LM. O'Toole attempted to impress upon his listeners the importance of education in fostering concem about resource conservation. Genuine popular measures in this vein would have to wait for the Margaree Salmon Museum, nearly two decades later, when Margaree's tourism industry faced serious challenges to expansion? " Victoria-imernas Bulletin, 9 Mar 66, p. 1. Frances Hart, "The Margaree Salmon Museum," Nova Scofia Mflseums -ter&, vol. 1, no. 2 (October 1970), p. 4. " Cape Breton Highlander, 1 1 Aug 65, p. 3; Victoria-imerness Bulletin, 26 Nov 48, p. 2 and 13 lu1 66, p. 1; Interview # 12, Kadmiel M., Northeast Margaree, 03 May 2000; Interview # 13, Abigail R, Northeast Margaree, 03 May 2000. In the mid 1960s some citizens organized another organization called the The foregoing discussion emphasizes the role of brokers in mediatuig between tourists' expectations of Margaree and the community's actual condition, but this argument does not purport to a strict dichotomy between brokers and locals. While brokers had the greatest economic stake in tourism, local people did engage their visiton through direct social contact as well as through discursive channels. Examples of the latter mode occurred fiequently in the community columns of the Vicioria-Inverness Bulletin. Local columnists relayed information about visiting tourists and their comments about the c~rnrnunity.~'Tourists' reported impressions in turn fed back into the community and likely helped define domestic notions of the community's attraction to outsiders. Tourists invariably praised the superior beauty of Margaree's natural surroundings. Columnists transmitted tourists' favourable assessment. One wrote of a visitor having "travelled extensively in the British Isles" who felt that Cape Breton's Cabot Trail and Margaree's "scenic splendeur" surpassed "by far anything she has seen in ~cotland."'~About two Amencan tourists, a columnist noted first that the women had in previous years vacationed "in Egypt, Italy and the British Isles" and second that they "emphatically state that the scenic beauty of Nova Scotia has surpassed any places they have ~isited."~~A retired lawyer fiom Massachusetts, who was remodelling a home around Margaree Harbour that he and his wife purchased that summer, was "very much blargaree Saimon Association with the purpose of monitoring rules and regdations pertaining to saimon fishing on the Margaree River. Like the Anglers' Association, the Salmon Association membership also comprised tourism brokers. 75 See, for examples, Victoria-lmterness Bulletin, 9 Aug 46, p. 3; 6 Sep 46, p. 2; 22 Aug 47, p. 5; 13 Aug 52, p. 5; 20 Jul60, p. 5. 76 Vicioria-fmernessBulletin, 2î Aug 47, p. 5. irnpressed with scenice [sic] beauty of Cape Breton" and 'king a philanthropist he enjoy[ed] meeting residents and they in tum admire[d] his a~quaintance."~' Relations between locals and tourists were, on the whole, very fiiendly. Some visitors returned yearly and often stayed for a long duration during the sumrner. Their annual visits facilitated close relationships between them and their hosts. Many local people welcomed the tourist presence. As one person opined: "Margaree is highly favoured in the type of tourists that come fiom year to year, temperate, law-abiding fnendly people whose presence is a joy to us and whose departwe at the end of the season leaves us with a sense of los^."'^ One study participant remembered the tourists during this period as "nice people." Another participant descnbed guest-host relations as "wonderful" while yet another qualified local attitudes toward visitors as "relatively positive." This last participant remarked that al1 the anglers "made a point of having a little chat" with a "very pleasant" gentleman whose property was adjacent to a salmon pool. An East Margaree woman illustrated this type of interaction with the following anecdote: 1 remember tourists coming around and looking for buttons or something, you know. And they would come up the hill. Maybe somebody would send them up there, you know. My mother used to Save every bunon, you know, that she didn't need. The shirt - well, she'd take the buttons off. And they would save the buttons. So a tourist was looking for a special kind of button or whatever. They were sent up the hill. And then my mother was making cookies or whatever. The tourist wodd always end up with going away with maybe a dozen cookies Victoria-InvernessBuIfetin, 27 Jul49, p. 5. '' Victoria-herness Bulletin, 23 311152, p. 2. Victoria-IrrvernessBulletin, 17 Aug 45, p. 5. whatever. Oh, yeah. 1 remember that so vividly, you know, when I was Young. Of the tourists. Yeah, for me there was a very good relati~nship.'~ A fnendly attitude toward visitors did not mean that local people were unaware of economic or social difference between them and their gwsts. While noting that tourists "got along good with the people here," a Margaree Harbour man stressed: "They're different than we are, but that's not saying they're any better, any worse. You know, they have different ways than we have." A few participants during unrelated interviews made a point of indicating that tourisrn benefited brokers much more than the general cornmunity. Brokers relied on tourism for their survival, so their involvement with their visitors "was a very personal thing. There was a good relationship between the owner of the enterprise and the customers or the clients coming. And there was also a tie between the tourists. They wodd look forward to visiting one another." hother person similarly remarked upon the special tie between broker and tourist: If you're in the position to cater to tourists, fine. Well, as a person who was in business, you would certainly greet them. But with the average so-called famer then, the tourist wasn't leaving too much money with him (...) As far as anybody along the way it didn't seem to make any difference to them one way or another." Clearly, then, brokers existed as a defined group with interests in the tourism trade that extended beyond those of the general pop~lace.'~ interview # 19, Mary-Anne G., East Margaree, 08 May 2000. *' Interview #23, Sarah-Anne & Walter F., Margaree Forks, 1 1 May 2000. '=Interview # 15, Francis & Kathleen L., Margaree Forks, 04 May 2000; interview #17, Solomon F., Margaree Centre, 07 May 2000; Interview #23, Sarah-Anne & Walter F., Margaree Forks, 1 1 May 2000; Margaree brokers utilized their economic and politicai influence to Mertheir aims through groups such as the Margaree Board of Trade and the Margaree Anglers' Association. Brokers geared their strategy for tourism development around the demands of a predominantly American clientele whose attraction to Margaree rested upon the availability of quality saimon for angling purposes. Brokers sought to effectuate material improvements for tourists' comfort and to find ways of providing more fish for tourists' diversion. In so doing, Margaree brokers were in fact "collaborating in the touristic expansion (and thus imperialism)" of the American rnetr~polis.~'Tourkm rooted in cultural production would have been more sustainable, yet in this period tourist demands centred around recreational activities, especially salmon angling. The resource orientation of Margaree tourism's industry meant that, just as there were geographical and natural limitations to agncultural development in the Valley, so too were there material constraints on the expansion of the tourist trade. The increase in tourist trafEc in the decades following the Second World War created resource demand that the Margaree River could not match given the decline of salmon stocks. nie responsibility for fish conservation did not fdl upon the tourists who used the Margaree River; it fell upon a local population that depended on the seasonal injection of towism money. They consequently attempted to accommodate tourists interested in salmon by seeking arrangements for maintaining the resource. This situation is typical of tourisûc imperiaiism, following Nash's observation: -- Interview #26, Joah S., Margaree Harbour, 14 May 2000; Interview #33, IshmaeI H.,Margaree Harbour, the fact that native people usually "choose" to take on the additional responsibilities of adjustment necessary for dealing with tourists suggests that the incentives or constraints in the direction of touristic development are very great and that the tourist benefits in his [sic] adaptations vis-à-vis hosts fiom the considerable econornic, political, or military power of the metropolitan center he [sic] represents? The process of dynamic underdevelopment which eroded the base of Margaree's traditional economy bolstered conditions of economic marginality, thereby necessitating adjustment to touristic demands. Margaree residents' involvement in the tourism trade, while offenng clear economic rewards, helped produce localized articulations of a capitalist hegemony in the form of touristic imperialism which contributed to the community's structural dependence on the metropdis. -- - 20 May 2000. Nash, "Tourism as a Form oCImperialisrn," p. 42 " Nash, "Tourism as a Fonn of hperïalism," p. 46. CONCLUSION Margaree residents' responses to the dynamic underdevelopment of the domestic economy in the post-WWII period culminated in an organic adjustment to structural change and an integration into the new capitalist hegemony. The market connections established in the period before the onslaught of capitalist restructuring paved the way for local producers' subsumption into the capitalist mode in later decades. In the inter-war period, Margaree's economy was complex in the combinations of economic activities and the degrees of market activity in which producers engaged. Even in the nineteenth century, Margaree did not exist in isolation from extemal economies, but instead fonned one localized unit in a larger maritime economy that connected communities on the western Coast of Cape Breton with other communities in the Gulf of St. Lawrence region, Newfoundland, southem Nova Scotia, New England, and even Britain and the Caribbean Islands. Trade in agricultural goods, fish, and timber provided the exchange basis for Margaree residents' procurement of whatever consumable goods local producers could not supply. The communities scattered throughout the Margaree-Lake Ainslie watershed system shared a common semi-market, semi-subsistence mode of production, but differences in the natural allocation of resources generated a degree of economic variegation suficient enough to give rise to a significant local market. Despite the presence of market ties with extemal zones, a pervasive economic rnarginality characterized the local economy and consequently necessitated adaptive subsistence strategies for harnessing the potentiai of available resources. Mixed farming, combined with other activities such as fishing or logging, was the dominant pattern of economic activity. The subsistence mode was founded upon social relations of production that featured CO-operationbetween households. Although the local economy allowed for a sharply curtailed degree of petty capital accumulation, the domestic relations of production were essentially non-exploitative. Market activity, especially in the areas of livestock production and forestry, was an integral component of this moral economy. The merchant supply system provided the structural channels by which local producers could realize cash income from their activities and facilitated productive and reproductive imperatives through the provision of vital credit. Mercantile hegemony at the localized level was well established, but it was not ail powerfûl. The operation of a social ethic between merchants and producers symbolized the consensual or negotiated terrain bctween these two social groups. Waged employment in the commercial forestry industry and the role of agriculturai production as a fom of import substitution lessened Margaree families' dependence on merchant credit, thereby permitting relations between merchants and producers that were more equitable than was the case in outport Newfoundland. Although out-migration was a feature of Margaree's inter-war society, the well-balanced system of production and marketing that the merchant supply system regulated had offered a progressive social life to many Margaree inhabitants. In the decades following the Second World War, structural and technoiogical changes in the capitalist world system perpetrated a rapid and dynamic underdevelopment of the domestic agmrian economy. The peripheral location of Invemess County in the regional economy placed producers in comrnunities like Margaree at an extreme disadvantage in their attempts to adapt to the new modes of production. An acceleration in the rate of out-migration and a high incidence of fmland abandonment were symptorns of local farmers' deteriorating position in the market economy. Population loss through out-migration and a demographic movernent away fiom the traditional farm- based society changed the social composition of Inverness County toward a predominantly non-fm, proletarianized populace. The dynamic underdevelopment of the sub-region's domestic economy prompted efforts, both on the part of government and of the people, to 6nd a place for Inverness County residents in the apparatus of production under advanced capitalism. Efforts to establish a viable program for the rehabilitation of the agrarian economy met tremendous structurai obstacles. The state's failure in ihis regard necessitated an alternative program for the development of the pulp-and-paper sector. Politicai pressures originating fiom govemmental and popular circles laid the ideological foundation for the formulation of a new capitalist hegemony which featured the penetration of Stora Kopperberg, a multinational forestry Company, into the sub-region. The ovemll consensus on the benefits of attracting foreign capital to the province, and social actors' assumption that the state was responsible for instituthg such a scheme, agrees with Antonio Gramsci's notion of the State as "political society + civil society, in other words hegemony protected by the amour of coercion."' Indeed, the govemment's facilitation of foreign capitalists' super-exploitation of the sub-region's resources illustrates the far-reaching role of the state in adapting the masses to the dominant economic structure. A perspective that highlights human agency with a concrete understanding of popular experience must, however, balance this stnicturalist interpretation. In the Margaree Valley, local residents supported the new hegemony because Stora's regime offered clear economic and social benefits in a context of economic rnarginality and dynarnic underdevelopment. The pulp industry fueled a massive boost to the local economy through the provision of a hither-to unknown availability of waged employment. While the entrance of local labour into the pufp industry represented one response to a declining agrarian base, some Margaree famiers continued to perservere in their market activities. The folkschools held in the vicinity of the Margaree area throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s were ventures in encouraging local producers to recognize the benefits of the traditional mode of production and the attendant social relations. The capitaiist restructunng did not totally obliterate the domestic mode of production. Occupational pluralism remained the important survival strategy that it had ken during the inter-war period. Mixing fming with other activities such as fishing and logging was imperative because geographical constraints and the naturai state of local agricultural resources rendered impracticable any reliance on farming as the sole means of income. ' Quintin Hoare and Geofiey Nowell Smith, eh., Selectionsfiom the Prison Notebooks ofAntonio Arrangements which helped Margaree farmers overcome the small average size of cultivated holdings were the practices of using neighbours' unused land for increasing hay production and of pasturing livestock on clearings of wild grasses on the Highlands. This praxis signalled the continued operation of a moral economy despite the capitalist penetration and meant that Margaree families' custom of keeping deserted lands in the narne of a descendent posed little problem to the development of tocal agriculture. Utilization of abandoned fârmland proved a stimulus to agricultural mechanization, especially as the rate of abandonment increased during the 1960s, by providing the means of greater production that Fmers required to warrant investment in costly machinery. The limited degree of social stratification in the inter-war economy was the spnng-board for a greater disparity between those who could and those who could not mechanize in the post-WWII period. With income earned by performing contract work for famien possessing only horse-drawn rnachinery, astute fmers were able to accumulate capital in the form of new or upgraded machinery. However, mechanization's potential social implications did not, to any significant extent, materialize at the community level. Factors that militated against the ascendancy of more affluent farmers included the spread of second-hand equipment, over-capitalization with respect to farm output, and puip workers' prospenty as compared to the relatively marginal fmer. - Gramsci (New York: International Publishers, i 97 1), p. 263. Socio-cultural values among the Margaree Scots may have influenced the pattern of farm mechanization in Margaree. Yet these farmers' cautious stance also reflected genuine apprehension about the possibility of losing the means of production in an economic climate that made the feasibility of large capital investments quite uncertain. Contemporary observers hailed the Dutch immigrants as superior agriculturalists for succeeding where Scottish farmers "failed," but the complexity of this phenornenon demands an interpretation that balances the cultural approach with a healthy dose of historical materialism. A comparative examination of the fates of the Mabou and Margaree dairy industries indicates that commercial and material factors conditioned the industry 's growth in Mabou and its demise in Margaree. Margaree fanners coped with these outcornes by expenmenting with altemate cash crops and farm products, the most important trend having been a shift toward marketing beef cattle and sheep fiom the late 1950s onward. The Inverness County Federation of Agriculture, representing the interests of local fmers, and the govemment collaborated to institute community pastw and livestock breeding programs that were beneticial to Margaree residents involved in livestock production. These efforts, while well-intentioned, could not by themselves address the systernic problems that plagued North Inverness farrners. Under the ARDA provisions, local citizens fomed cornmittees in the 1960s to study the area's economic difficulties in view of implementing community development projects. In Margaree, ARDA-related initiatives yielded very little in the way of concrete improvements other than arresting erosion problems dong the Margaree River. The hegemonic orientation of the ARDA bureaucracy possibly stunted the potential of locally-formulated objectives by discouraging participation. Popular distrust of governrnental intervention may have militated against local support for the ARDA administration, as the following anecdote suggests: "1 never got into anytiung with the govemment. Whatever I did 1 did it on my own. 1 was too scared to getting involved with the govemment. The fiat thing, they'd think they had a hold of something."' Indeed, Margaree residents had reason for concem about the government's motives considering that authorities within the state were plotting means by which to liquidate marginal (and marginalized) segments of the mal population. The adjustment schemes hatched by these bureaucrats were but articulations of a process of organic adjustment which proceeded fiom the sum of nual producers' responses to the dynamic underdevelopment of the domestic economy. Integrally linked to the decline of local agriculture was the rise in prominence of Margaree's tourism industry. Throughout the p&od under review, the principal "tourist draw" was the Margaree River's reputation as a favourable location for recreational salmon angling, an activity which attracted sport fishen from throughout the world, bot especially fkorn the United States. While revenues fiom tourism-related activities arneliorated some Margaree residents' economic positions, thus providing a greater degree of personal agency, incentives generated fiom the tourist demand fiom the late 1940s onward nevertheless exerted coercive pressures on the marner in which the local Interview #3 7, Ephrairn C., Margaree Valley, 24 May 2000. economy developed. The role of men as guides to salmon anglers on the Margaree River and the employment of women as domestics in local hotels reinforced the gendered division of labour that charactenzed the domestic economy. Young women tended to emigrate in greater nurnbers than their male counterparts, a dynamic which signalled the marginalization of women within the comrnunity. Margaree broken' provision of modem arnenities to cater to their clients' desires exemplified the economic disparity between tourists and locals, the latter group's lifestyle having been considerably more modest. The human geography of a cornmunity in the throes of economic restnictunng apparently did not meet the aesthetic standards which tourists expected, because the Margaree Board of Trade, an elite group having had interests in the tourism trade, mounted a campaign to incite the local populace to improve the condition of their homes and properties. The Board of Trade dso employed political channels to bring about the development of local infrastructure that was so crucial to the enhancement of Margaree's tourism potential. The commitment of local leaders' energies to the tourism industry increased the cornmunity's dependence on the trade and relegated the development of other sectors of the economy to a subordinate position. The value that tourists placed on salmon angling determined the evolution of the industry toward one greatiy reliant on the state of the Margaree River's salmon population. Unfomuiately, the contemporary decline of salmon stocks constrained the growth of the industry. The importance of salrnon as a marketable tourism commodity also engendered a certain degree of resource confiict between the commercial deep-sea fishen at Margaree Harbour and Margaree Valley inhabitants with stakes in the tourism industry. The need for better management of the resource prompted concem that found articulation through various local organizations. The Margaree Salmon Museum, established in the late 1960s with the dual mission of stimulating tourism and interest in salmon preservation, embodied endogenous attempts to address the problem of relative resource scarcity. The end result of touristic development was to throw responsibility for managing the resource ont0 the shoulders of Margaree residents who depended on the trade for their survival. Local accommodation of towist demands, in this context, represented one facet in a system of touristic imperialism that reinforced the conditions of dependency already in place as the result of the structurai inequalities stimulated by the dynarnic underdevelopment of the agarian economy and the hegemonic orientation of the pulp-and-paper industry. The underdevelopment of Margaree's economy in the decades following the Second World War prompted a series of local responses that amounted not to class smiggle, but to an overall adjustment to the pervasive forces of advanced capitalism. The implications of the present study for future economic development in the Margaree Valley are modest but worthy of mention. Farming and fishing will occupy only a small fraction of Margaree's population for the foreseeable future. The pulp industry, having in the 1960s proved a great boon to Margaree's economy, now employs very few Margaree residents. Clearcutting on the Highlands and the terrafonning conducted for the Wreck Cove hydroslectric project have virtually obliterated the natural ecology of a vast tract of Cape Breton's forest. The budworm infestation, which wreaked havoc on the forest in the mid to late 1970s especially, only accelerated a process of resource depletion that, under Stora, inevitably caused the withdrawal of a great proportion of pulp workers fiom the industry. Many Margaree residents optimistically note that the forest is regenerating. Yet, as long as Stora controls the Crown leases, the resource will remain nothing more than a monocrop of cheap pulpwood that contracton will harvest using machinery with very Melabour requirements. Combined with a sane program of selective cutting aimed at maximizing the value of the resource, CO-operative production could, in theory, provide a sustainable industry that would allow some rneasure of demographic stability. The manner in which capitalist hegemony has insidiously reproduced itself within the sub-region suggests that nothing short of a popular movement stnking directly at the foundation of the state could achieve the necessary force to subvert the capitaiist hold on Cape Breton's forest. Perhaps, then, further development of the tourism industry might offer a more attainable means for long-term economic well-being in North Inverness. Currently, a number of Margaree citizens, known as the Margaree Area Development Association, are taking encouraging steps in this direction. Tie Association's membership appean to recognize that recreational fishing can only be one part of an enhanced tourism trade. A local organization may be able to rnitigate the relations of dependency that tourism encourages by directly marketing the area in a manner that will attract visitors whose recreational pursuits correspond to the community's aspirations and values. Realizing tourism's full potential as a means to local development will require close CO-operation within the community to provide goods and services that maximize the industry's possible linkage effects and that decrease the community's economic vulnerability. The lesson fiom the case of the former Margaree Board of Trade is that, while an organization can spearhead such an effort, the responsibility for achieving this goal ultimately rests in the hands of the people of the Magarees. Method: The following charts derive fiom data inputted into a spreadsheet program. The program performed calculations on the compiled data and then produceci the desired illustrations. Sources: Canada. Dominion Bureau of Statistics / Statistics Canada. Cennrs ojAgncufture, 195 1, Tables 29,30,3 1. Index Nmbers of Fmhices of Ag~i~lttlruralProhcts, no. 6 (Jun 1954), p. 3. Cennrs of AmcuIhrre, 1956, Tables 15, 16, 17. CensusofAgricufttrre,1961,Tables28,29, 30. Index Numbers of FmPtices ofAgrcufturuI Prdcts, v. 18, no. 12 (Feb 1964). p. 3. Census of Agric11fiure, t 966, Tables 27,28,29. Index Numbers of FmPrices of Agrkdlrtrul Prodircts, v. 24, no. 7 (Sep 1969), p. 3. Prices md Prices Indexes, v. 33, no. 1 2 @ec 1959, p. 29. PricesdPricesIndexes,v. 45, no. 12(Dec 1967),p. 34. Census of Agriculture, 1 97 1, Tables 49,50,5 1. Assumed Definitions: Beef Cattle = [Census entries for Total Cattie] - [Census envies for Milk Cattie] Chickens = [Census entries for Total Hem and Chickens] - [Census entnes for Hens and Wets] Chart A2: Average Farm Size in lmproved Acreage 1961 Year r Nova Scotia r Inverness Co. North Inverness Chart A6: Average Tractor per Farm Year œ Nova Scotia r Inverness Co. North Inverness Chart A7: Average Hay Baler per Farm m 1966 Year m Nova Scotia r Inverness Co. North Inverness Chart Al1 (a): Pigs per Farm 1 1956 1961 1966 1971 Year = Nova Scotia r Inverness Co. * North Inverness --- O O Cr) APPENDIX B Cbarts P (uPopulatioo") Series Method: The following charts derive from data Uiputted into a spreadsheet prograrn. The prograrn perforrned calculations on the compiled data and then produced the desireû illustrations. Sources: Canada. Dominion Bureau of Statistics / Statistics Canada. Census of Cm&, 195 1, Tables 6, 15,23. c'Population by Rural and Urban Distribution," Bulletin 1-7, 1956 Census, Table 12. 'Topdation by Rural and Urban Distribution," Bulletin 1.1-7, 196 1 Census, Tables 13, 14. Topulation by Specined Age Groups and Sex for Counties and Ceasus Subdivisions," Bulletin SP- 1, 196 1 Census, p. 15- 16. 'Topulation by Specified Age Groups and Sex for Cowities and Census Subdivisions," Bulletin S-2, 1966 Census, p. 1 1. Cemsof Cd,1971, Tables 2, 1 1 "Population by Specified Age Groups and Sex for Counties and Census Subdivisions," Special Bulletin SP-2, 1971 Census, p. 14. Chart P3: Rural Farm 1 Rural Non-Farm Distribution (Inverness Co.) 1961 1966 Year Chart P5b: Population by Age and Sex North Inverness - 1966 -400 -200 O 200 400 600 Male # Female # 1. Primary Sources a. Government Documents and Publications Canada. Censuses of Canadu? 193 1,194 1,195 1,196 1,197 1. Canada. Censuses of Agriculture, 193 1, 194 1, 195 1, 1 956, 196 1, 1 966, 1 97 1. Canada. Dominion Bureau of Statistics. Index Numbers of Farm Prices ofAgricultural Products, no. 6 (Jun 1954). Canada. Dominion Bureau of Statistics. Prices and Prices Indexes, v. 33, no. 12 (Dec 195 5). Canada. Dominion Bureau of Statistics. "Population by Rural and Urban Distribution," Bulletin 1-7, 1956 Census. Canada. Dominion Bureau of Statistics. "Population by Rural and Urban Distribution," Bulletin 1.1-7, 196 1 Census. Canada. 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Petition fkom Margaree and Cheticamp, Inverness County for changes to the "Act for the Encouragement of the Seal Fishery"." PANS. RG 5, Series P, vol. 54, no. 21. Petition of 4 Feb 18%. PANS. RG 5, Series P, vol. 62, no. 39. "March 10, 1890: Petition fiom Cheticamp, Margaree Harbour, Broad Cove, Mabou and Port Hood, Inverness County for a subsidy for a packet to travel to Halifax." PANS. RG 5, Series P, vol. 64, no. 10. "March 28, 1906. Petition fiom Cheticamp, Grand Etang, Margaree, Invemess County for increased steamer communication to Mulgrave." PANS. RG 5, Series P. vol. 124, no. 84. "Jan 29, 1845. Petition fiom Margaree and Cheticamp, Inverness County regarding the bounty on the seal fishery." PANS. RG 44, vol. 158A. Select briefs and transcnpts submitted to the provincial Royal Commission of Forestry. "In the North River Lumber Woods," Cape Breton 's Magazine, no. 7 (Mar 1974): 1-7. "Fishing Gaspereaux on the SW Margaree," Cape Breton's Magazine, no. 14 (Aug 1976): 4-9. 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