Farming Innovation
Although much of Cooper’s fortune was made through bootlegging, he was also one of the leading innovators of farming in southern Ontario. In 1918, Cooper bought 105 acres (0.42 km2) of farmland near Belle River. He initiated the widespread practice of deep ploughing and tilled the acreage so that spring crops could be ready approximately two weeks sooner. He installed a new style of field draining that used clay tiles. Tiling was an expensive and unknown method at the time. The successful experiment was quickly noticed by neighbouring farms and word spread rapidly through southern Ontario. Cooper constructed a tiling factory on his own farm, and was soon producing 10,000 tiles and 20,000 bricks per day. Cooper also built the Belle River Seed and Grain Company.
James Scott Cooper built several structures, including a mansion in Walkerville that has since been torn down, and a two-story building in Belle River. Formally the Cooper Hotel, the Cooper Court was constructed in 1920 at a cost of $40,000. This local bar is still open for business. He was one of the few wealthy men in the late 1920s and 1930s to keep his wealth through the 1929 Stock Market Crash, as he did not invest in the stock market.
Read more about this topic: James Scott Cooper
Famous quotes containing the words farming and/or innovation:
“The measure discriminates definitely against products which make up what has been universally considered a program of safe farming. The bill upholds as ideals of American farming the men who grow cotton, corn, rice, swine, tobacco, or wheat and nothing else. These are to be given special favors at the expense of the farmer who has toiled for years to build up a constructive farming enterprise to include a variety of crops and livestock.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“Both cultures encourage innovation and experimentation, but are likely to reject the innovator if his innovation is not accepted by audiences. High culture experiments that are rejected by audiences in the creator’s lifetime may, however, become classics in another era, whereas popular culture experiments are forgotten if not immediately successful. Even so, in both cultures innovation is rare, although in high culture it is celebrated and in popular culture it is taken for granted.”
—Herbert J. Gans (b. 1927)