Newfoundland - Memorial University's Digital Archives Initiative

38 - DECKS AWASH
stead of subsidizing those who
can't compete any other way. Let
people live where they want to
live: vou don't tell a bird where
to build Its nest. We've got too
smart for our own good.
"Good solid advice is not easy
to come by anv more either. The
only sheep specialist I know of
was Mack Greening and he died
several years ago. There's nobody
I can turn to really. Last fall
I experimented with a Suffolk
ram , but the lambs aren't born as
stro ng as the Cheviots. I can compar
e the weights of the Cheviot
a nd Suffolk lambs and both of my
Suffolk lambs died. A lot of what
you get is based on what has been
going on in other parts of the
world. My neighbor brought
back some sheep from Cape Breton
and they had foot rot. It costs
all kinds of extra money to treat
the sheep and once the land is affected
there are alw ays enough
carriers to keep it going. The
xova SCotian farmers weren't
concerned because they could
just slaughter the sheep and start
again, but it's a bad thing here.
I can keep it down, but I can't get
rid of it. Sheep follow eac h other
on a trail and all of the m pick it
up."
Clarence a lso has his own
views on rea r ing lam bs for
ma rket.
"If you raise ewes for just one
lamb you're lost," he says. I' ve
been a firm believer in the twolamb
cro p, the second one being
your profit. Some people will tell
Farming and fishing under pressure
J
im Hilliard represents a dying
breed of Newfoundlanders,
descendants of the
fishermen-farmers of pre­
Confederation days. Now Jim,
who lives in the small community
of Cape Anguille just north of
Codroy, is under pressur e beca
use of policies th at discriminate
against the part-time
inshore fisherman.
"There's a strong possibility
that. I will lose my salmon licence,"
Jim tells us bitterly. "If
I lose tha t, 1 might as well quit
farming as well. I'm a pa rt -time
fisherman , fishing for three or
four months a yea r with two
boat s an d 15 sa lmon nets . That's
the only money I ca n mak e in the
vou twin lambs will never reach
the size of a single lamb, but the
weight difference betwee n a single
lamb and a twin is very little
in the fall.
"There's no secret to how I ensure
twins. To start with I Ilush
my sheep and provide extra feed
in the fall. In October I put the
burlap jacket on my ewes a nd let
the ram loose. He ca n' t do any
damage but he gets them in better
breeding conditio n when I
take the jackets off in tbe middle
of November. Most of our sheep
had twins; the only one that
didn't had a lar ge lamb early, but
I don't know if it was my ram or
not. If you' re keeping a few
sheep, the ext ra meat makes it
worthwhile."
summer. I fish longer than a fulltime
fisherman and,in the winter
I do some logging, What we mak e
in the summer, $3,000-$4.000.sees
us through the winter . If we can't
fish, we're not going to make it at
all. We couldn't hope to make it
on far ming a lone. The few sheep
and cattle we ca n keep on our
land and the crops we can grow
in our ga rde n provide us with
food, but they don't offer us a
living.
"My young fellow ca n't get a licence
and he's out of school in a
vear. He can fish for cod this
).'ear, but I can't transfer my
salmon licence to him . I can get
a job in the summer, but wha t is
there for him? He'll have to leave
I Iewfoundland to get any thi ng at
all. I have enough in fishing gear
and livestoc k for both of us, He
wants to work on the farm and
there's a ll kinds of land. but the
government gives it to people on
welfare. I could keep 50 head of
cattle, but I've only got enough
land to keep 25,"
Jim ca n' t understand why the
government spen ds taxpayers'
money on non -productive
programs.
"Those that have the jobs don't
seem to understand the needs of