John F. Gibbons
From the Renfrew Mercury
13 March 1925
One of the leading men of the Renfrew district is Mr. John F. Gibbons of the Northcote section of Admaston township, whose farm has been said to possess all the conveniences of city life except the crowd and the streetcars. On a fine farm which his father hewed out of “the forest primeval.” Mr. Gibbons and family live a life of comfort – a life which Mr. Gibbons holds open to all agriculturists, though maintaining that the rewards from agriculture are not what they ought to be, and in late years he agitated for better opportunities for the farmer through U.F.O. channels. With the U.F.O. organization he is still connected in an executive capacity.
Mr. Gibbons was born at Northcote and has always lived there. Up until fifteen years ago his cattle, in which he specializes, were of the Shorthorn Durham variety, since then he has pinned his faith to Holsteins, and does so still despite his Scottish ancestry and the existence of the Dairy Standards Act. He generally has from 30 to 50 head on hand, of varying ages and sells to persons near and far, though as a rule to Renfrew county men. He buys herd sires occasionally. Not only does he subject his cattle to the tuberculin test, until today reactors are not to be found, but he has put four cows into a Record of Performance test and won prizes with three.
One of the dairy farmers of Renfrew county is Mr. Gibbons, who is a director of the Eastern Ontario Dairymen’s Association and a member of the executive. He has been called to conference three times by the Ontario Government; the Dominion Department of Agriculture has also included him among leading farmers summoned to confer over matters relating to husbandry.
Mr. Gibbons’ father use to lament that there was no creek running through his farm to reduce the amount of water necessary to be pumped. Today on the same farm no pumping is done by hand; machinery does it all, the machinery being run by a gasoline engine installed fourteen years ago and once replaced, which engine not only drives the pumps but pulls roots and runs the milking machine.
A hobby of Mr. Gibbons is to try to have everything as convenient on the farm as possible. He sees no reason why tillers of the soil should not have comforts and conveniences as well as the city people have and he holds that it is possible. His horses number only five but he has tractor, plows and other labor saving machinery. And he has the conveniences of a bush lot, obviating the necessity of buying coal or wood to heat his home.
It is said that a farm whose outbuildings are excellent and whose residence is very ordinary is a farm where the farmer is captain and his wife Lieutenant; also that a farm where the residence is superior and the outbuildings inferior is a farm proclaiming the rule of a woman. On the Gibbons farm there is no such one-sidedness; the home is a substantial structure of excellent appointments, with acetylene lights and tap-water among the accommodations. Both house and barns are of high standard.
Mr. Gibbons is a man of pleasing personality who impresses all who meet him as being one who aims for progress in every laudable direction. Taking the public platform, he expresses himself readily and clearly, and gives evidence of a careful reading of literature bearing upon his life work. He has not been too deeply engrossed in his own affairs to lack the time for public service in different directions. For four years he served as a Township Councillor, entering one contest and getting three acclamations. He is today a member of the directorate of the South Renfrew Agricultural Society.