Singing a new song
RD: Greatly enjoyed your latest magazine. The new song mentioned in your editorial (“Changing our tune,” RD June 2021, page 6,) has arrived in Linwood along with the White-throated sparrow. (It was here last year, too, but I didn’t know what bird it was.) Its descending three-note song ends in doublets, but they are difficult to distinguish, probably since I am expecting to hear triplets.
Last week, 50 kilometres away on the other side of Antigonish County, I only heard the (previously) regular ascending two-note song ending in a series of triplets, but there was a lot of uncertainty in the singing, and song endings kept getting dropped completely.
Richard Gilbert
Linwood, N.S.

Sunflower remediation
RD: I would like to compliment Rural Delivery staff and writers for another fine issue of your magazine (RD June 2021). It was very interesting to read about the three different approaches to profitability and quality of life in the dairy industry – quality of life for both humans and cows.
Two animal rights issues that concern me as a dairy consumer are whether cows have access to pasture (i.e., some kind of natural life as an animal); and how, when, and under what conditions cows and calves are separated after birth. I wonder if you could address some of these no-doubt contentious issues in a future issue?
In Micheal Magnini’s informative article about sunflowers, “A beacon for bees,” in the same issue (page 14), he makes the claim that sunflowers can “neutralize radionuclides from water” and are used at Chernobyl and Fukushima to remove cesium-137 and strontium-90 from contaminated areas. I wonder what happens with the sunflowers? Is there some alchemy within the sunflower that transforms these contaminants to harmless fibre, or do the plant stems, etc., need to be disposed of after having drawn in the radioactive contaminants?
Thanks for the thoughtful writing that makes for thoughtful reading.
David Boehm
Truro, N.S.

(Thanks, David. We’ll keep those dairy-related topics in mind. It seems likely that a sense of collegiality among farmers dampens open discussion of such matters, even if their practices vary quite widely. In any case, all the milk is going into the same bucket – unless it’s being direct marketed, which potentially allows for more meaningful engagement between producers and consumers, with regards to these and other farm management issues. As for sunflowers, our in-house nuclear physicist informs us that there is no alchemy involved, and thus the radioactive plant material must be processed by pyrolysis, and the remaining heavy metals stored somewhere safe for all eternity – or very nearly. Still, it makes sense, right? Maybe bio-remediation of contaminated sites is another topic to add to our list. DL)

Natural inspiration
RD: I was really pleased to see the article about Gary Schneider and his Nature Inspiration Award from the Canadian Museum of Nature (“Leading the way in forest restoration,” RD June 2021, page 28). Gary has been doing such inspiring and important work in ecological forestry over the last 30 years, and his award is well deserved!
I also thought that the team at Rural Delivery would appreciate that I traded my April issue of the magazine to a neighbour last month, in exchange for her help in neutering my new buckling. The rural economy at its best!
Megan de Graaf
Anagance, N.B.

Potatomania
RD: Your piece on potatoes (“This spud’s for you,” RD May 2021, page 6,) got me remembering that in my dusty pile was a scholarly article by a Cape Breton professor that had intrigued me a long time ago. “Poverty, wretchedness, and misery: The Great Famine in Cape Breton,” by Robert J. Morgan, is about the great Cape Breton potato famine that occurred at the same time as the Irish one, in which potatomania – and the authorities’ difficulties in getting people to grow other things – led to misery and starvation.
The article is from the 1986, Volume 6, Number 1 issue of the (I believe now-defunct) Nova Scotia Historical Review. I’m sending it along on the assumption that (if you’re not already familiar with it) it will stir up your juices on one of my favourite subjects.
Although the article is about Cape Breton, I believe something similar was happening on the mainland – the eastern mainland, in particular, although perhaps less extreme. I’m a bit familiar with the history of Chezzetcook, where I know there was a food and potato crisis at the same time.
In your article, I was hoping you’d have found something on Maritimers’ consumption of potatoes – my understanding being that we were the biggest eaters of them in North America. But of course, that was a while ago. We’ve no doubt all “modernized.” Maybe it’s just us old-timers who either grow or buy them by the 50-pound bag, while youngsters are eating – what?
By the way, being in the same racket, and with a trail of defunct publications behind me, I’ve always admired what seems to be your quietly applied success, completely away from the urban hurly-burly. (Perhaps that’s your secret.)
Ralph Surette
Tusket, N.S.

No more steel guitar shaming
RD: I was fascinated by your photo of the Golden Valley Boys (RD June 2021, “Echoes – A Maritime jamboree,” page 38). Bert Williams Estabrooks is holding a small instrument you describe as an “electric Hawaiian (steel) guitar.” I have a small, wood Jantz electric Hawaiian steel guitar which is similar but without the curvy guitar shape, and I am constantly being told I do not have a steel guitar because it has no pedals, has no banks of strings, and is not large enough. But I know what I own. Even the strings I order are labelled electric Hawaiian steel guitar. It was refreshing to see this photo and a fellow small steel/Hawaiian player. I will carry the photo around and flash it at my critics.
D. Simpson
McBride, B.C.

(As a fellow steel/Hawaiian player, I feel your pain. In the June 2018 issue of Rural Delivery, Fred Isenor wrote a brief history of the Hawaiian steel guitar (“What’s in a name?” page 51). The lap steel, such as in the photo with Mr. Estabrooks, was the original incarnation of the steel guitar, played on the lap and with a steel bar. Multiple strings beyond the original six (seven, eight, and sometimes 10), along with additional necks or string banks (consoles) for different tunings, were added to increase chordal possibilities, as unlike on a standard Spanish guitar, the steel bar is the only thing “fretting” the strings, and mostly only in a line – straight or slanted. Pedals were later added to enable changing between tunings on a single- or sometimes double- neck instrument, eliminating the need for multi-neck (sometimes four!) guitars that were heavy and cumbersome. The bending of the strings when the pedals were depressed while playing (either pushing or pulling various strings sharp or flat) gave the instrument its “crying” sound of harmonies moving in different directions simultaneously. This sound caught on, leading to the modern pedal steel. No matter the configuration, they’re all steel guitars, requiring mastery of mostly the same skills, but some different ones as well. There’s no limit to the type of music that can be made on any of them, be it Hawaiian, jazz, country, classical, etc. All that matters is the beauty of your playing. “A rose is a rose is a rose,” unless your playing happens to smell like mine. MB)