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Early Agriculture: Subsistence Farming and Community
The Sunshine Coast is not currently regarded as a major agricultural region, yet farming has a long and vibrant history here. While logging and fishing were the predominant industries throughout the 1900s, they offered only seasonal employment, forcing workers to turn to subsistence farming to make ends meet. Settlers who came to the Sunshine Coast intending to farm often found that they had to supplement their meager farming income by working in other industries. The Dominon Lands Act of 1872 allowed for white settlers to pre-empt, or claim large tracts of land in hopes of settling the west. It is important to note that First Nations and Chinese settlers were barred from directly pre-empting land through discriminatory legislation which was designed to only benefit the fledgling country, and European settlers.
Most farms in Gibsons located on the flat shelf of land below Mt. Elphinstone were relatively small operations that mixed subsistence farming with a few cash crops. Although it is difficult to find information on many of these family farms, information from financial ledgers indicates that while providing some additional income, most farms were not successful profit making ventures. Yet, agriculture was successful at bringing forth a strong sense of community for early settlers, most of whom planted a large garden that carried them along until late spring and enabled a few to spare a portion of their production to others who were in need.
Farmers often needed to clear land, which involved the practice of removing large stumps with massive root formations. To do this, they would organize with other farmers to purchase ‘stumping powder,' an explosive used to detonate the stumps. This cooperation amongst local settlers led to the formation of the Howe Sound Farmer’s Institute in 1911. This organization sponsored fall fairs in the community, and held meetings where discussions of marketing problems led to the creation of the largest cooperative effort for local farmers in the region to date: the Howe Sound Cooperative Canning Association.
Agriculture was a major industry on the Coast up until the 1940s. At this point, higher wages and government unemployment benefits replaced the need to farm when work was slow in other industries. While transportation costs were always a barrier for farmers who wished to market their products in other places, by the time good transportation was established, it only exposed local farmers to competition from large agribusiness.
Watch this slide show from our 2011 temporary exhibit Our Food: Then and Now
Most farms in Gibsons located on the flat shelf of land below Mt. Elphinstone were relatively small operations that mixed subsistence farming with a few cash crops. Although it is difficult to find information on many of these family farms, information from financial ledgers indicates that while providing some additional income, most farms were not successful profit making ventures. Yet, agriculture was successful at bringing forth a strong sense of community for early settlers, most of whom planted a large garden that carried them along until late spring and enabled a few to spare a portion of their production to others who were in need.
Farmers often needed to clear land, which involved the practice of removing large stumps with massive root formations. To do this, they would organize with other farmers to purchase ‘stumping powder,' an explosive used to detonate the stumps. This cooperation amongst local settlers led to the formation of the Howe Sound Farmer’s Institute in 1911. This organization sponsored fall fairs in the community, and held meetings where discussions of marketing problems led to the creation of the largest cooperative effort for local farmers in the region to date: the Howe Sound Cooperative Canning Association.
Agriculture was a major industry on the Coast up until the 1940s. At this point, higher wages and government unemployment benefits replaced the need to farm when work was slow in other industries. While transportation costs were always a barrier for farmers who wished to market their products in other places, by the time good transportation was established, it only exposed local farmers to competition from large agribusiness.
Watch this slide show from our 2011 temporary exhibit Our Food: Then and Now
