A Dairyman of Dryden

Former Student of Guelph Operates Successful Dairy Herd on Farm he Helped His Father Clear From Bush

November 1932

When the Dryden section of North Western Ontario was opened for settlement, thirty five years ago, the idea was to establish a dairying locality. Before realizing this dream a lot of hard work had to be done. Land had to be cleared of bush, and crops grown to feed the stock. It is greatly to the credit of the pioneers of this district that they have lived to see the realization of their ambitions.

In August 1903 a family part consisting of father, mother, two sons and a daughter arrived from the Old Country, and selected a location two miles north and east of the present town of Dryden, in what was then unsurveyed country, and the first thing to be done was to cut a road to get into the homestead, and erect the necessary buildings for a temporary home and shelter.

Like all newcomers the Edye family made their start by cutting and selling the dry wood on the farm. Tamarac fuel wood was worth three dollars a cord delivered in the town, and it cost them half of the price to haul it. But there are more ways than one to make a dollar in the North country.

In the early part of the century the rush to the West was on, and talk was heard of wind-breaks and trees for prairie farms. "Why not utilize the young growth on the farm?" said Mr. Edye, Sr., instead of cutting it down and burning it." So in 1906 he started shipping forest stock West, to Winnipeg, and to the Indian Head Experimental Station. To this station went more than 100,000 seedlings and trees from the Edye farm. Regina Park was also the recipient of a number of trees, especially spruce, mountain ash, and white birch.

Shipments of forest stock were continually made to western points till the year of the war, 1914. During these years the young family had grown up and were doing their share in the development of the homestead. The eldest son, Kenneth, entered Guelph College as a student in 1912, but the war cut short his studies. He returned home to find his father in charge of recruiting activities in the Dryden district. . . . . .

Discharged from the army, Ken returned to Dryden in July 1918 and immediately devoted himself to farming, looking forward to the development of a dairying business. But the aftermath of the war demanded a lot of reforestation in the older countries of Europe to take the place of those forests destroyed for military purposes. Tree seeds were in demand, and the Edyes brought a carload of Sitka spruce cones from the Queen Charlotte Is. in B.C., for cleaning purposes. . . . . .

Men with cattle were never down and out. Consequently when the farmers in the Dryden district decided to take advantage of the Government's offer to put in diary cattle on easy terms to the settlers, Mr. Edye was chosen as the representative to go with the officials east and purchase dairy stock, Holstein and Ayrshire breeds. He returned with a car containing 18 head, mostly purchased in Oxford County. These cattle were all good, coming from the farms of C.C. Brink, J.C. Karne, de Montmorency, and A.H. Teeple.

Ken had four Holsteins for himself in this bunch and in the following year, June 1926, he went east again on a similar errand, returning with two carloads of Holsteins and Ayrshires. These cattle were all selected from pure bred and accredited herds in and around Simcoe County. C.S. Collver of Simcoe, and R.C. Lanning, Waterford, contributing most of them. The average price of these cattle, freight included, was $162 for Holsteins, and $100 for Ayrshires. These cattle as well as the first were bought through the Provincial Live Stock Department.

Looking through the barn at "Dennyhurst" the visitor sees a good-looking bunch of cattle, and a credit to the owner. The barn is up-to-date, having water-bowls with fresh clean water coninuously in front of the cow.

At present Ken is milking 17 cows, but the work is done with a milking machine installed in 1929. He has a good-looking sire purchased in Stomewall, Manitoba, "Kenview Mechthilde DeKol" No. 84220. This bull replaced Canary King Teake, purchased locally and bred by John Adams of Oxdrift. . . . .

Asked if he considered dairying a paying proposition in the Dryden district, Ken was most certain that it was, provided you got the right kind of cows, grew your own feed, and looked after details. A look over the thrifty fields of oats, barley sunflower for silage purposes, and a tramp across a ten-acre clearance, from which the stumps were being pulled with a powerful stumping machine, gave one the impression that there's money in cows if you know how to get it out of them, and that the dairying industry has a future before it in this section of the province, and I trust Mr. and Mrs. Edye may live long enough to see the results of their activities in advocating "Dryden as a Dairyman's Country".