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Agriculture

Although we are going to follow the development of agriculture in the Mission area by looking at it through the development of the Conley farm along with comments made by Annie Hill in her book "People Places and Things", we will also be looking at some of the other farms in the area.

Annie Hill (nee Law),who was born in 1892, wrote in her book, "People, Places, Things", her childhood recollections near the turn of the century in Silverdale (part of Mission district).
-"People Places and Things", Hill, Annie. 1980. Carlton Press, Inc. New York, New York.

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Conley Farm
July, 2003
Conley Farm, Silverdale Flats, Mission, BC

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The Conley family, immigrated to Canada from the British Isles, comming to Silverdale in 1886 after spending twenty years in the United States and Ontario. They travelled up the Fraser by steamboat and found mainly untouched bush land in the area that would become known as Silverdale. Milton Conley, grandson of the first Conleys to arrive in the area, describes that first encounter with the land: "they just walked up to a piece of bush land with a couple of pole sheds and said 'this is going to be our home'".

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Annie Hill
1940
Mission, BC

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Annie Hill recalls milking near the turn of the century in Silverdale.

Learning to milk at twelve years, I was most proficient, and could beat both my parents. Then mother was able to discontinue going to the barn. The time of rising in the morning was conditional on when the milk was picked up at the station, and as time had to be allowed for cooling and shipping, this meant a five thirty rising, and one summer, it meant four thirty.

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Conley and Law families.
1920
Silverdale - Mission, BC

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Conley and Law families, about 1920.

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New 1997 and old 1890 at the Conley Farm.
1997
Conley Farm, Silverdale Flats, Mission, BC

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This picture, along with the next one show some of the original buildings that were put up on the Conley farm. The older barn having been built in 1890, while the new one was built in 1977. The old shed with it's tower was built at about the same time as the barn.

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Orginal water tower building at Conley's Farm.
July, 2003
Conley Farm, Silverdale Flats, Mission, BC

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Calf Club.
1920
Hatzic Prairie, Mission, BC

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The dairy industry in Mission began on a small scale, with most of the activity in the outlying areas rather than Mission City proper. Though dairying did not require intensive land cultivation like crops did, the land still had to be made suitable for the erection of farm buildings and the safe keeping of the herds.

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The Conleys began with five cows, each milked by hand. Then they started shipping milk, and the herd grew to 35. In 1928, the family acquired their first gas-powered vacuum pump "that seemed like heaven".

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Milking Parlour.
July, 2003
Conley Farm, Silverdale Flats, Mission, BC