Re: Story, “Blueberry cannon regulations adequate: BCBC.”
The whole problem of blueberry cannons is such a no-brainer.
Such a blatantly outrageous practice really should not even be a topic for argument. Like what part of not wanting to be blasted by a cannon every three to five minutes all summer don’t the blueberry farmers understand?
The whole practice is so absurd it is hard to believe it was even allowed in the first place.
I mean, how can there be laws against barking dogs and booming stereos, but at the same time it’s perfectly okay to blast the smithereens out of the entire neighbourhood with a stupid cannon all summer long?
Perhaps if the cannons actually worked there might be the slimmest argument for their use, but from our vantage point, completely surrounded by blueberry fields, we see fewer starlings in the fields with no cannons.
It’s almost as though the cannons were an attractant to starlings rather than a deterrent.
In our area, cannon use was previously extremely loud and prevalent. Now, however, it appears as though the neighbouring blueberry farmers have realized that the cannons are really not necessary and have reduced their usage dramatically. Some don’t use them at all and never did. They all seem to be very successful farms.
I can only hope that sanity will soon prevail and we will look back in disbelief at these archaic blasts from the past.
B. and I. Lee