Cormack, Newfoundland and Labrador
Encyclopedia
Cormack is a farming community on the Great Northern Peninsula
of Newfoundland
.
by the Commission of Government
as an agricultural settlement for the relocation
of returning war veterans
. After a comprehensive soil survey
, the government took over 12,141 hectare
s (30,000 acre
s) of good agricultural land in the Humber River
area. Under the relocation scheme, each family was given 20 hectares (50 acres) of land (a portion of which was to be cleared before the settler moved in), a six-room bungalow
, and money for the construction of a barn
, the purchase of livestock
and equipment
, and a maintenance allowance for the first winter. 217 veterans applied and 163 were approved. All were required to have had previous farming experience or were sent on a twelve-month training course in Canada
. It was thought that at the beginning many of the settlers would supplement their earnings by logging
.
The government of Newfoundland also runs a 243 hectares (600 acre) community pasture, the largest of thirty throughout Newfoundland, providing cheap grazing
for the cattle
and sheep of the Cormack farmers and allowing the farmers' own land to be sow
n for winter feed. The government also provides veterinary services, mineral
supplements, a programme of spraying and dusting for parasites
, and the services of a purebred
bull at the community pasture
.
explorer William Epps Cormack
. There was a short period of growth in the 1950s but in the 1960s the settlement declined. According to the 1971 Census
, of a labour force of 130, 38% were involved in agriculture and fishery
, 33% in construction
and industry
and 29% in transportation and administration
. Nine years later the majority of the citizens of Cormack were still employed outside the community; and in the 1976 Census only twenty farms are listed for Cormack. The community has become largely a dormitory
for nearby Deer Lake
and even for Corner Brook. Prices for land are low, there have been few building restrictions and the community itself has favoured development
. The Newfoundland Government has, however, renewed its interest in the community and in the latter half of the 1970s prepared inventories of good available agricultural land with a view to establishing controls to ensure that such lands be reserved for farm use. Early in 1980 the government issued an invitation for public applications to develop five new farm units covering a total of 405 ha (1,000 acres) in the area.
The first attempts at farming in Cormack were abandoned mainly because of limited access to markets and competition from mainland farmers. Both still presented problems in the late 1970s. A report in The Rounder (Nov. 1977) stated that high costs of feed, fertilizer
, machinery and transportation, and a small market base contributed to keeping many farmers from growing large enough crops
to compete outside the Province. Small farmers who do not sell to wholesalers have to truck their produce
about locally and that has increased transportation costs. Another problem has been the dumping
, mainly of potatoes, by mainland producers, thus flooding the market and causing prices to drop. In 1977 the Vegetable Marketing Associates Limited (VMAL) was formed to help combat these problems and to coördinate marketing efforts. Several of the larger vegetable producers from Cormack joined and in 1979 the Department of Rural, Agricultural and Northern Development built and equipped a centralized processing building at Cormack.
Great Northern Peninsula
The Great Northern Peninsula is the largest and longest peninsula of the island of Newfoundland, Canada, approximately 225 km long and 80 km wide at its widest point and encompassing an area of 17,483 km²...
of Newfoundland
Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada. Situated in the country's Atlantic region, it incorporates the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador with a combined area of . As of April 2011, the province's estimated population is 508,400...
.
Foundation
Cormack was originally created following World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
by the Commission of Government
Commission of Government
The Commission of Government was a non-elected body that governed Newfoundland from 1934 to 1949...
as an agricultural settlement for the relocation
Population transfer
Population transfer is the movement of a large group of people from one region to another by state policy or international authority, most frequently on the basis of ethnicity or religion...
of returning war veterans
Veteran
A veteran is a person who has had long service or experience in a particular occupation or field; " A veteran of ..."...
. After a comprehensive soil survey
Soil survey
Soil survey, or soil mapping, is the process of classifying soil types and other soil properties in a given area and geo-encoding such information. It applies the principles of soil science, and draws heavily from geomorphology, theories of soil formation, physical geography, and analysis of...
, the government took over 12,141 hectare
Hectare
The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...
s (30,000 acre
Acre
The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...
s) of good agricultural land in the Humber River
Humber River (Newfoundland)
The Humber River is a river in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is approximately 120 kilometers long, flowing through the Long Range Mountains, southeast then southwest, through Deer Lake, to the Bay of Islands at Corner Brook. It begins near Hampden, Newfoundland. Taylor's...
area. Under the relocation scheme, each family was given 20 hectares (50 acres) of land (a portion of which was to be cleared before the settler moved in), a six-room bungalow
Bungalow
A bungalow is a type of house, with varying meanings across the world. Common features to many of these definitions include being detached, low-rise , and the use of verandahs...
, and money for the construction of a barn
Barn
A barn is an agricultural building used for storage and as a covered workplace. It may sometimes be used to house livestock or to store farming vehicles and equipment...
, the purchase of livestock
Livestock
Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning...
and equipment
Farm equipment
Agricultural machinery is any kind of machinery used on a farm to help with farming. The best-known example of this kind is the tractor.-Soil cultivation:*Cultivator*Cultipacker*Chisel plow*Mulch tiller*Harrow**Spike harrow**Drag harrow...
, and a maintenance allowance for the first winter. 217 veterans applied and 163 were approved. All were required to have had previous farming experience or were sent on a twelve-month training course in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. It was thought that at the beginning many of the settlers would supplement their earnings by logging
Logging
Logging is the cutting, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks.In forestry, the term logging is sometimes used in a narrow sense concerning the logistics of moving wood from the stump to somewhere outside the forest, usually a sawmill or a lumber yard...
.
The government of Newfoundland also runs a 243 hectares (600 acre) community pasture, the largest of thirty throughout Newfoundland, providing cheap grazing
Grazing
Grazing generally describes a type of feeding, in which a herbivore feeds on plants , and also on other multicellular autotrophs...
for the cattle
Cattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
and sheep of the Cormack farmers and allowing the farmers' own land to be sow
Sow
Sow may refer to:* Sowing seed* Female animals: badger, bear, pig family* Shape in which metal is cast* Type of siege engine* River Sow, England* "Sow", a poem by Sylvia Plath* Sow , the band/spoken word project comprising Anna Wildsmith-People:...
n for winter feed. The government also provides veterinary services, mineral
Mineral
A mineral is a naturally occurring solid chemical substance formed through biogeochemical processes, having characteristic chemical composition, highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties. By comparison, a rock is an aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids and does not...
supplements, a programme of spraying and dusting for parasites
Parasitism
Parasitism is a type of symbiotic relationship between organisms of different species where one organism, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the other, the host. Traditionally parasite referred to organisms with lifestages that needed more than one host . These are now called macroparasites...
, and the services of a purebred
Purebred
Purebreds, also called purebreeds, are cultivated varieties or cultivars of an animal species, achieved through the process of selective breeding...
bull at the community pasture
Pasture
Pasture is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep or swine. The vegetation of tended pasture, forage, consists mainly of grasses, with an interspersion of legumes and other forbs...
.
Community growth
By 1948 96 farms had been taken up and the settlement was formally named Cormack, after the well-known NewfoundlandDominion of Newfoundland
The Dominion of Newfoundland was a British Dominion from 1907 to 1949 . The Dominion of Newfoundland was situated in northeastern North America along the Atlantic coast and comprised the island of Newfoundland and Labrador on the continental mainland...
explorer William Epps Cormack
William Cormack
William Epps Cormack was a Scottish explorer, philanthropist, agriculturalist and author, born St. John’s, Newfoundland. Cormack was the first European to journey across the interior of the island....
. There was a short period of growth in the 1950s but in the 1960s the settlement declined. According to the 1971 Census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
, of a labour force of 130, 38% were involved in agriculture and fishery
Fishery
Generally, a fishery is an entity engaged in raising or harvesting fish which is determined by some authority to be a fishery. According to the FAO, a fishery is typically defined in terms of the "people involved, species or type of fish, area of water or seabed, method of fishing, class of boats,...
, 33% in construction
Construction
In the fields of architecture and civil engineering, construction is a process that consists of the building or assembling of infrastructure. Far from being a single activity, large scale construction is a feat of human multitasking...
and industry
Industry
Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...
and 29% in transportation and administration
Public administration
Public Administration houses the implementation of government policy and an academic discipline that studies this implementation and that prepares civil servants for this work. As a "field of inquiry with a diverse scope" its "fundamental goal.....
. Nine years later the majority of the citizens of Cormack were still employed outside the community; and in the 1976 Census only twenty farms are listed for Cormack. The community has become largely a dormitory
Dormitory
A dormitory, often shortened to dorm, in the United States is a residence hall consisting of sleeping quarters or entire buildings primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people, often boarding school, college or university students...
for nearby Deer Lake
Deer Lake
-Canada:*Deer Lake *Deer Lake , a large lake in western Newfoundland** Deer Lake, Newfoundland and Labrador, a town located on Deer Lake** Deer Lake Regional Airport, an airport located in the town of Deer Lake*Deer Lake, Ontario...
and even for Corner Brook. Prices for land are low, there have been few building restrictions and the community itself has favoured development
Subdivision (land)
Subdivision is the act of dividing land into pieces that are easier to sell or otherwise develop, usually via a plat. The former single piece as a whole is then known in the United States as a subdivision...
. The Newfoundland Government has, however, renewed its interest in the community and in the latter half of the 1970s prepared inventories of good available agricultural land with a view to establishing controls to ensure that such lands be reserved for farm use. Early in 1980 the government issued an invitation for public applications to develop five new farm units covering a total of 405 ha (1,000 acres) in the area.
The first attempts at farming in Cormack were abandoned mainly because of limited access to markets and competition from mainland farmers. Both still presented problems in the late 1970s. A report in The Rounder (Nov. 1977) stated that high costs of feed, fertilizer
Fertilizer
Fertilizer is any organic or inorganic material of natural or synthetic origin that is added to a soil to supply one or more plant nutrients essential to the growth of plants. A recent assessment found that about 40 to 60% of crop yields are attributable to commercial fertilizer use...
, machinery and transportation, and a small market base contributed to keeping many farmers from growing large enough crops
Crop (agriculture)
A crop is a non-animal species or variety that is grown to be harvested as food, livestock fodder, fuel or for any other economic purpose. Major world crops include maize , wheat, rice, soybeans, hay, potatoes and cotton. While the term "crop" most commonly refers to plants, it can also include...
to compete outside the Province. Small farmers who do not sell to wholesalers have to truck their produce
Produce
Produce is a generalized term for a group of farm-produced goods and, not limited to fruits and vegetables . More specifically, the term "produce" often implies that the products are fresh and generally in the same state as where they were harvested. In supermarkets the term is also used to refer...
about locally and that has increased transportation costs. Another problem has been the dumping
Dumping
Dumping may refer to a subject......in computing:*Recording the contents of memory after application or operating system failure, or by operator request, in a core dump for use in subsequent problem analysis.*Recording a file or medium as a backup....
, mainly of potatoes, by mainland producers, thus flooding the market and causing prices to drop. In 1977 the Vegetable Marketing Associates Limited (VMAL) was formed to help combat these problems and to coördinate marketing efforts. Several of the larger vegetable producers from Cormack joined and in 1979 the Department of Rural, Agricultural and Northern Development built and equipped a centralized processing building at Cormack.
See also
- List of cities and towns in Newfoundland and Labrador
- Great Northern PeninsulaGreat Northern PeninsulaThe Great Northern Peninsula is the largest and longest peninsula of the island of Newfoundland, Canada, approximately 225 km long and 80 km wide at its widest point and encompassing an area of 17,483 km²...
- Dominion of NewfoundlandDominion of NewfoundlandThe Dominion of Newfoundland was a British Dominion from 1907 to 1949 . The Dominion of Newfoundland was situated in northeastern North America along the Atlantic coast and comprised the island of Newfoundland and Labrador on the continental mainland...