32

Farmers often derive a good deal of their living directly from the farm. The
additions to living so obtained include mainly farm-produced food, fuel and the
free use of the farm house. These perquisites in the Prince George-Smithers
area were quite important as contributions to family living. Table 21 indicates
that food and fuel produced and consumed on the farm and valued at current farm
prices amounted to $342 per farm. An arbitrary rental value of the farm house
calculated at 15 per cent of its value amounted to $119 per farm. The total
value of non-cash benefits was, therefore, $461 per farm.

TABLE 21.—FARM PERQUISITES PER FARM, PRINCE GEORGE-SMITHERS AREA,

1943-45
Item Unit Amount Value
$

ON BY Ree pastel er AP RO at ao RRR Cie IRI ote Ae lao incerta gals. 270 32
LO dst eetares eam een reais eRe Gn Ot Aaa nnane ono noes qts. 79 24
“BLINKS iene Rae or Saree MARE RE GRATE GAMA Ed Hon SEGA OAM lb. 95 28
LOPS SRS MERI RU Sts apathy MATA DIA Maa IARI USE How Moda aie Bee doz. 160 40
Wild sfrulit esata i eerareeele/cicmrac cis ose OE pete oe qts. 56 17
Wame fruits Repent oes eaten ae eee ae EIS ar re qts 14 4
Rotatoes is. ksi ispecies a Re bu 20 22
Gere ern estates aia! tin Suave toretages teserel eae eee a SEaT Sea ELO ESET TARTS STET eT ee Tce Se RASC | Nees PNR 49
Meat Seen cae ah aturet eee ieyes rarer Ge iapaere ae ee CHT EES enTs lb. 391 59
NOLS (oYoye Iprepreaee eaten al Sa Tse EIS esis Sci Sas USE ee et er AMEE a a 275

DUG) a pe rr SRE ei eeniciol rei RRMA mea oat Bry Acie aC BESSA cords 10 67
Houserentalival ween meni vac since sienna ene en oe Bastanrinicod loanaaoae cna. 119
D May 0 Cares eee mith ar ea Mn Sane cra oo nn ON ee Seon aaetioe optics ebauensnon 461

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The value of food consumed on farms in the area, then, amounted to $601
per farm ($326 purchased plus $275 produced on the farm). That is, nearly one-
half of the food came from the farm itself. Moreover, the food produced at
home were the highly nutritious garden, dairy and poultry products. This
emphasized further that in respect to food and nutrition the level of living was
probably quite satisfactory and could remain so even with a very drastic reduction
in cash farm income. It was the expenditure on non-food items that seemed too
small to attain minimum standards in such things as housing, insurance protection
and education.

SOCIAL FACILITIES

The area was provided with schools, churches and medical facilities. How-
ever, presence of these facilities did not necessarily mean that they were readily
accessible to all and settlers in the outlying districts often found it difficult to
avail themselves of these services to the fullest extent.

There were school buildings in the area located at an average distance of
2-8 miles from the farm dwellings (Table 22). Seventy-two per cent of the farms
were within three miles and nearly all (94 per cent) were within six miles of a
school. However, at the time of the survey a number of the public schools were
temporarily closed because there was an insufficient number of pupils or because
teachers were not available. The high schools were located only in the larger
centres and 70 per cent of the farms were more than six miles from the nearest
one. For a majority of the rural youth, it would be necessary to leave home
and incur considerable expense if they wished to obtain the benefits of a high
school training, and family expenditures on education indicated that this was
seldom the case.

Other social facilities were also far removed from many of the settlers.
One half of the farmers were more than six miles from their church and about
one-third were situated similarly with respect to a community hall. The
average distance was eight miles and six miles from church and community hall,
respectively.