Mailer history of farming
October 27, 2024 By: Marsha Clarke
At one time Scotland sheltered many species of animals, some now extinct: beaver, wolves, aurochs (wild oxen), wild boar, roebuck, wild cats, grouse, and salmon. The first people lived in caves, fished, and hunted reindeer and seals, avoiding the wolf and wild boar. As the centuries passed, they left the caves and began the use of agriculture. The climate is temperate with a lot of rain and short summers. It is often humid and can fall below freezing in winter. Snow falls on high grounds, but rarely lasts long. I have chosen to write about my mother’s lineage, starting with my ancestors in the mid-1800s in Scotland. My story reflects the evolution of farming from then until now.
William Mailer of Coldoch and Janet Ronald Lang of Gargunnock were married in 1875 by the Church of Scotland. Both were raised on farms; they were my great-great-grandparents. With four employees, they farmed 220 acres and had 9 children. The main crops were oats, clover, and potatoes planted in rotation. Farmhands would take dead fish that had spawned and died in a nearby stream to dig into the land as fertilizer. They also raised Clydesdale horses and shorthorn cattle. Some of their children stayed on the farm and some moved to Canada. My great-grandfather, James, was one of them.
James spent his first Canadian winter on a ranch in Arcola, Saskatchewan where he hauled feed for cattle. It was a harsh winter, and many cattle perished. He then moved on to work at lumber camps in BC during winters and on farms in the Fraser Valley Delta in the summers. In 1910, he moved to eastern Alberta and acquired a homestead near Cairns. The railroad was being built across Alberta at the time and crossed his homestead. The railroad brought more settlers, and one was soon to be his wife, my great-grandmother Dorothy Shermer. James threshed for farmers in the Cairns and Twin Lake area with his steam engine and threshing machine. He had a crew of 24 men. He eventually wanted to expand, so he left his homestead in his brother’s care and bought a ranch near Vermilion, AB where my grandmother was born. The Cree called the nearby watercourse “Dead Man’s Creek”. It is thought the name originated in one of the great smallpox epidemics when many Indigenous Peoples died there.
A killing frost in July 1918 and a drought in 1919 resulted in a shortage of grain and hay in the region. The open-range pastures became severely overgrazed. Following this devastation, a winter of deep snow resulted in herds of cattle and horses starving to death. James had to move his cattle to Onion Lake Reserve to graze and calve before returning to Vermilion. Meanwhile, the drought enabled him to seed a dried-up lake bottom, and he yielded a heavy crop of green feed. In 1920, due to a dramatic drop in cattle prices, James had to sell his ranch and move back to the Cairns homestead. The 20s and 30s were hard times, and Dorothy sewed her children’s clothing, and canned food, such as wild berries when they were available. Settlers in the area traded help with each other. Haying during these years was done by horse and manual labor. The meadows were hayed using a bucking pole, which was an 18-foot-long timber made from a straight, large poplar tree, with a team of horses on each end. Through the 30s, horses traded for seven head of cattle each, but the introduction of tractors in the 40s ended this era. Horses were slaughtered at Swift Current and the meat was sent to Europe. James founded a community cattle sale at Cairns that ran for several years. It was eventually unprofitable when a larger auction market began weekly sales. James and Dorothy eventually retired from farming and passed their homestead on to their sons.
Their daughter Carel, my grandmother married my grandfather, and they raised four children, one being my mother, in Edgerton, AB. They had a hobby farm for eight years and my grandfather sold farm equipment. My mother married my father and moved to his childhood farm near Czar, AB where my brother and I grew up. My parents had the benefit of modern farming equipment, but we still picked berries and harvested a garden, just as my ancestors have done over many decades.
Although farming has changed since my great-great-grandparents lived in Scotland, some aspects remain the same. Farming is labor-intensive, so neighbors and families have always worked together to cultivate the land. Information is passed down through generations, so each doesn’t have to learn the same hard lessons. All the Mailer families have grown diverse gardens for their consumption, providing year-round food security. Many aspects of farming have also changed since the mid-1800s, such as the climate. Implementing water conservation practices, selecting resilient species for crops, and altering planting schedules are some ways farmers are adapting. Technology has advanced greatly from the time James Mailer used horses and manual labor to mow hay. Tractors enable farmers to cover more area in less time and with modern-day comforts. I have noticed there are fewer small family farms than when I was young. Many of our neighbors have had to sell their farms due to losses from mad cow disease and lack of feed during drought years. I think sustainable farming and local food security are making a comeback, which will help small operations. My parents’ farming business is called Coyote Enterprises because, like my dad says, “You never see a fat coyote, but you never see a starving one either; they always get by.”