RECORDED: [location unknown], 1965-10-28 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mrs. Mary Baker discusses her father, Henry Steffans, who was from Switzerland and had a store in Lytton, then went to farm in the Nicola Valley; Mary's visits to an aunt and uncle Charlie McGillivray on the Cariboo Road; the Lytton Hotel and store fire; anecdotes about characters around Lytton; the Lorings. TRACK 2: Mrs. Baker discusses other settlers around Lytton; life on her father's Nicola Valley ranch; Ashcroft from 1907 to 1914; her husband Fred Baker, who came to Canada from England and ran a freighting business.

CALL NUMBER: T1072:0001 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1963-02-28 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Ronald Helmer talks about agriculture and life in the Okanagan, 1900 to 1910. He explains how he came to Canada; incidents on the train; his arrival in the Okanagan; his impressions of ;the valley and of the people and the economic situation; cooperatives; the Combines Act; why he came to BC; his arrival in Vernon and going to see W.C. Ricardo; fruit growing at that time; odd jobs; Coldstream Ranch; the Indian hop pickers; an incident with an Indian in a store; and how people were trustworthy. TRACK 2: Mr. Helmer offers an anecdote about two men in Kamloops; banquets at bull sales in Kamloops; an anecdote about the bull sale committee; the development of irrigation; financial problems over irrigation; irrigation districts; irrigation systems; a man shot over stealing irrigation water in 1913 or 1915; remittance men in general, and a story about one in particular.

CALL NUMBER: T1072:0002 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1963-02-28 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Helmer discusses early jobs; working on CPR lots at Summerland; working for fruit farmer R.H. Agur at Summerland; work with the government fruit inspector; he became the first superintendent; the Summerland Dominion Experimental Farm in 1914; a story of a trip to Penticton by wagon; work at an experimental farm working on tomato growing and fruit experiments; World War I and seed production; the importance of the experimental farm to the valley; and the Okanagan Horticultural Club. TRACK 2: Mr. Helmer discusses the organization of Chautauquas; a discussion of varieties of apples; the development of strains of apples including Delicious and McIntosh; grape growing; varieties; illustration farms; cover crops; vegetable growing; tomatoes; big influx of people from 1900 to 1910; other fruit experiments.

CALL NUMBER: T1072:0003 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1963-02-28 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Helmer compares fruit to vegetable growing; and discusses fertilizer salesmen; cover crops; ploughing; the people who came out to grow fruit; types of fruit grown in various parts of the Okanagan; winter kill; a story about the Bank of Montreal in Vernon and banker G.A. Henderson; steamboats on Okanagan Lake; how Mr. Helmer left the experimental farm; work on a stock farm at Nicola; running for office for Kamloops and Yale and losing. [TRACK 2: blank.]