66 The Illumination of Joseph Keeler, Esq. 



left to till them, and of others where fathers and husbands had 

 died and only women were left to manage them. So many in- 

 stances of this nature were related that Mr. Keeler enquired 

 still further as to the conditions. He found that while farms 

 would vary in the percentage of readily tillable soil, yet it was 

 plain that most farms were but partially cultivated. Not only 

 was this the case, but the character of the cultivation was fur- 

 ther quite limited. Relatively few cattle were found in the dis- 

 trict, apart from a certain number of cows on each farm to 

 supply milk to the local cheese factory, the number decreasing 

 rather than increasing in recent years; while these farmers 

 seemed never to have learned the art of feeding fat cattle or 

 else had ceased doing so as being unprofitable. So the growing 

 of hay and oats mostly for the cows and working horses, and 

 the cultivating of tomatoes and peas for the canneries, seemed 

 to be the chief methods pursued. 



The chief feature of interest, however, was the apple or- 

 chards; but there were even in this fruit-growing business ele- 

 ments which did not seem satisfactory. He noted that the 

 census showed fewer fruit trees in some counties of Ontario 

 in 1910 than in 1900, while he found that the local practice of 

 many years still prevailed of the apple-buyer of the neighbor- 

 ing town coming during the late summer and bargaining for 

 the apple crop, at the same price per barrel as had been paid 

 twenty years before. 



"No wonder then," said Mr. Keeler to himself, "if the wages 

 paid and the cost of living are higher to the farmer, and prices not 

 much increased, that he should have grown weary and either 

 retired to the neighboring village, renting his farm which he 

 could not sell, or continued on the farm a mere vegetative exis- 

 tence, not doing much and not getting much, not laying much 

 out and not incurring any serious expenditure or responsibility." 



Before going further into the matter, Mr. Keeler invited 

 the professor to spend another evening with him. The results 

 of their discoveries were pregnant with many altered views of 

 life in the various members of the Keeler family. 



