Farm, Country, and Community ...Since 1976
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© VOLUME 41 #9 APRIL 2017 $3.95 ORGANIC PEST CONTROL . SEED LIBRARIES . SWALLOWS AND SWIFTS . TREATING LEG MITES . SMALL-SCALE GRAIN . GM ALFALFA CONCERNS . And much more! DISPLAY UNTIL MAY 1, 2017 PM40051580 R09186 PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40051580 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPT. BOX 1509 LIVERPOOL NS B0T 1K0 www.RuralLife.ca Farm, Country, and Community . Since 1976 APRIL 2017 RURAL DELIVERY PAGE 1 PAGE 2 RURAL DELIVERY APRIL 2017 APRIL 2017 RURAL DELIVERY PAGE 3 PAGE 4 RURAL DELIVERY APRIL 2017 Inside this magazine Pot Luck .....................................................................................................................6 Just don't call it agriculture (Editorial) ....................................................................8 Volume 41 #9 April 2017 Published by DvL Publishing Inc. Letters to RD ...........................................................................................................10 Box 1509 Liverpool, NS B0T 1K0 1-877-354-3764 www.RuralLife.ca Rural Delivery is published 10 times per year, Fresh-ground local flour ................ Emily Leeson 18 providing information and support to rural residents in Atlantic Canada and points west. Through How food grain became an important side dish on this advertising, RD provides a marketplace for the exchange of goods and services. Free non- mixed farm commercial advertising is available to subscribers. (See “Country Classifieds” page for details.) We cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited Nasty gams! (Barnyard Poultry) ............................... manuscripts. Submissions, queries, and letters are welcome. Please email dvlmagazines@ ................................................Trevor MacDonald 23 gmail.com, phone 1-877-354-3764, or visit www.RuralLife.ca contact page for submission Scaly leg mites are not fatal, but should definitely be guidelines. Material selected for publication may be edited. Subscriptions $24 per year (Includes treated tax).Outside Canada $39 U.S. funds, ($34 Cdn.) until May 1, 2017. We do not sell or rent our mailing lists. Does "organic" mean no pesticides?..........................................Shannon Jones 24 Rural Delivery reserves the right to refuse any advertiser or advertisement. Rural Delivery attempts On certified farms, products meant to kill troublesome organisms are a last resort to accurately publish all editorial and advertising but assumes no responsibility for the accuracy or truthfulness of submitted copy. In the event of an Why GM alfalfa is just a bad idea (Agrarian Reflections) ....................Av Singh 29 error, Rural Delivery is responsible for adjustment of the cost of advertising only in the portion of the ad where the error occurred. The publication of opinions expressed or implied does Some cute combine! .................Megan de Graaf 32 not signify endorsement by the publisher or staff. Compact machine offers a solution for harvesting small Publisher and General Manager: plots of organic grain Chassity Allison Publisher Emeritus: Dirk van Loon Managing Editor: Not to buy but to borrow .............Vern Faulkner 36 David Lindsay Seed libraries aim to engage new gardeners, sustain supply Editorial Assistants: Jack Scrine Mike Bienstock Where are the swifts and swallows? ....................... Advertising: Janie Smith-Clattenburg ..........................................Amy-Lee Kouwenberg 40 Jannine Russell Fred Holborn The plight of aerial insectivores in the Maritimes Production Coordinator & Webmaster: Angie Fredericks Production/Graphic Design: A homemade house that really stacks up Stephen Nickerson (Book Review) ................................Brent Stanley 48 Circulation: Tammy Wolfe Updated cordwood construction guide is thorough and PUBLISHED AND PRINTED IN CANADA. TaX REGISTRATION NO. 127869261 balanced MATERIAL IN RURAL DELIVERY IS PROTECTED BY NORTH AMERICAN COPYRIGHT REG. DESIG. A half acre of wheat ..........................................................................Mark Taylor 50 ISSN NO. 0703-7724 PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40051580 The risks and rewards of small-scale grain production RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPT. BOX 1509 LIVERPOOL NS B0T 1K0 The old, the new, and the well preserved (Household Notes) .........Anne Gray 52 Printed by Advocate Printing & Publishing, Pictou, N.S. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada "Between Two Trees" and two World Wars (Echoes) .....................Fred Isenor 56 Periodical Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage. Do Nova Scotians remember their native sons who made great music? Change of address? Country classifieds ..................................................................................................59 Hello out there! Canada Post has been returning magazines Directory of advertisers ..........................................................................................62 as undeliverable in all provinces as they make “improvements” to their system. Unfortunately, they don’t let us know the address they assign Cover: A nest of Barn swallows. See Amy-Lee Kouwenberg’s story on pg. 40 you when they make that change. We know that whole communities are not packing up and (Christian Artuso photo) moving, but that’s how it looks. If your address is about to change, please let us know so we can update our file and continue to get your Subscription form on page 27 magazine to your mailbox. APRIL 2017 RURAL DELIVERY PAGE 5 POT LUCK The fat lady is singing her heart out… And it’s (still) not over yet! Guess what. After 40-plus years, The more important story is where “Pot Luck” opinions and rants, along with DvL is no longer owner-publisher of the DvL Publishing Inc. goes from here. We illustrations and cartoons. Pretty good deal. company that grew out of the need to know now that the journey will be with But retired? No. Just shifting down find some way to pay dental bills. It was Chassity Allison at the helm. She’s about to take on the next and steeper hill of April 1976. I had published Papeek, a that same age I was in ‘76, and full of succession here at home. This includes children’s story, with JB Lippincott seven enthusiasm for the task ahead. Chas- Edgar MacDonald’s beautiful seaside years prior. That must have sold a dozen sity is from the area, is a graduate from farm we were fortunate to have stumbled copies. Following that, the fiction well was the Nova Scotia Community College, is upon in 1970, and obligations relating plumbed to greater depths and found dry. married, with two young children, and to the Harrison Lewis Centre on the hill There were odd jobs. I turned to non- has been with us the past decade, most above the barn. fiction and The Family Cow was born. recently as general manager. The Centre is governed by a not-for- This went over far better than Papeek “Out with the old, in with the new,” ad profit registered charity with a mission that and is still on the market with Storey production person Stephen Nickerson reads: “To operate an educational retreat Publishing these decades later. Then quipped. for the exploration and appreciation of what to do? A book about raising pigs Chassity has the able backing of the natural history and rural heritage of came to mind. That sounded like fun. Stephen plus 10 more, looking after ad- Nova Scotia through instruction, research, While researching that topic in books vertising, production, and editorial tasks literature, and the arts.” Lofty, eh? and direct experience here on this small either in the office or from their homes. Over the past decade several hundred farm, Rural Delivery came together with Add a small army of freelance contribu- people of all ages have taken part in a the help of many friends. This classified tors, many of whom have been with us variety of offerings relating to natural his- advertising exchange would keep beans for years, and we have all the ingredients tory at the Harrison Lewis Centre, either on the table pending eventual launch of for the “new” to keep faith with the old. our own workshops or field schools tied to the pig book – while saving old farm and In this regard and because this is Dalhousie University’s Seaside summer kitchen tools the indignity of ending up Rural Delivery, I’ll single out editor David program. With rural heritage in mind, the lawn and bar-room ornaments. Lindsay, who deserves a great deal of Centre has presented workshops relating From the start, making a buck credit for going beyond “keeping faith.” to small farm and woodlot management publishing magazines has remained a Enthusiastic reader response says all is and garden-to-plate food self-sufficiency. tricky task. That first year, June through well in RD land. We’ve made a start – probably more December, display advertising brought The “old” is not out of the picture, so on the natural history side of things. As in $75. Subscriptions at four dollars a however, for the crew now in place has for an appreciation of “rural heritage,” that year barely covered printing and mailing generously granted me the exalted position has to include an introduction, at least, to of an eight-to 16-page newsprint “pony on the masthead of “publisher emeritus.” traditional rural skills of all sorts. There is tab” (half tabloid size). I turned 38 that With it comes the understanding that I room to grow, as our departments of ag- first year and that’s enough about me. may continue to butt in (a little), contribute ricultural and