Over the holidays I have been reading about the first president of our provincial beekeeping association here in B.C. J.W. Winson was born December 21, 1874 in England. He immigrated to Canada in 1907 and bought a farm on the Washington/B.C. border near Vancouver.

J.W. was short for John William. There seemed to be a fad at the time to use initials in place of names. J. W.’s mother had died early on. He only attended school for seven years. His father was a coal miner and J.W. started his working career as a miner.

J.W. had an inquisitive mind and a lifelong interest in reading. He helped to establish a network of libraries in B.C., served as secretary of the school board, Justice of the Peace, Police Magistrate etc. etc. But he was best known for writing a newspaper column in the Vancouver Daily Province under the pen name Wildwood. These columns were also collected together and published as books: "Weather and Wings" (1932), "Open Air Jottings" (1940), and "Wildwood Trails" (1946).

Reading some of Winson’s columns in the age of Monsanto illustrates how far agriculture has evolved in the past 100 years.  I have attached one of his columns, courtesy of UBC archives, below.
 
A cynic might say J.W. worshiped subsistence farming rather than money because he couldn’t make much money at farming. Even so, I think he’d have trouble supporting some of Monsanto’s secrets to success such as patenting genes, including a “terminator” gene that will stop seeds from growing. I expect all our ancestors would oppose this practise. Does anyone besides a Monsanto shareholder think we will all be better off by pitching in and helping the company succeed at this? Or standing silently by while they do?

Ted

 
The Weather of the Spirit, by J. W. Winson, 1939

“Country life encourages a frame of mind that is not popular in competitive places. So much depends on things beyond control; dry weather at seeding, rain at haying, frost before harvest, winds that break and batter crops, animal ills that are caused by such vagaries; then, prices governed by foreign finances, or smart machinations near home.
This develops a spirit content with fewer things.

Food is plentiful, with monotony balanced by appetite; clothing need be only serviceable; shelter is homemade. The “weather” has taught the settler that little else matters. He can get only just enough; should he produce more, he is paid less. World markets are based on his efforts, and he is and always was kept to the base of the rewarding.

There are careers with the aim of making money; others accumulate knowledge for its own sake. The man of the weather can attain neither ends. His products perish if stored. The labor of his hand is limited only by his need for rest and sleep. He gathers experience, of his fellows, his crops, his weather. His gains are of the spirit, the success of growth, the joy of well-being, the great faith in life, in the seasons returning, in sowing and reaping, the constant hope that the next season, or tomorrow will be better.

Because of this constancy of the country man, less constant men, less solid minds can play or fight with destinies, claim governance, make foolish use of the profits he provides or the things they make while he feeds them.

There are no passports for sunbeams, clouds or winds; these make the weather of the farmer the world over.

The others trust him to brave the weather; food flows to the market, whatever be done to it afterwards, hoarded, wasted or mal-distributed. He is the shock absorber of their turbulences.

His reward is in this absorbing. The earth rewards his tilth, one year with another. He may be a forced vegetarian at times, that is a scarcity to be weathered. Hunger can always be attained through fatigue, and appetite makes rich dishes.

While absorbing shocks of market and weather, he absorbs health, and a sound satisfaction in creative work, in kinship with nature’s laws of growth and increase. He knows the clouds that change the heavens, the winds that dry, the fertile rains, the frost of evening, the stars of morning. He has a fellowship with his animals that lesser minds would despise in him, and a feeling of security many wealthier folk would envy. The land-worker gains a weather of the spirit which serves him well, from the spirit of the weather by which he lives.” 

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at:
http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm