A Fourth Dimension

Seriously...why do so many people know nothing about Daylight Saving Time? And, more importantly, why do they THINK that they DO know?

Well, I guess most people really don't care. But I have heard too many people be wrong lately, so if you read this post, at least YOU won't annoy me with your ignorance any longer.

Daylight Saving Time was absolutely NOT made for farmers. I don't know how many times I have heard this blatant lie. "Yeah, it's for the farmers so they have another hour of sunlight to work the fields." B.S. As if a farmer cares when he gets his sunlight. Daylight Saving Time doesn't add an hour of sunlight, it just makes more sunlight in the evening instead of the morning. A farmer just gets up with the sun. Or maybe he gets up later and uses lights on the combine, since it's the 21st century. But anyway, farmers (in very general terms) would be OPPOSED to DST. Read :

Another complaint is sometimes put forth by people who wake at dawn, or whose schedules are otherwise tied to sunrise, such as farmers. Farmers often dislike the clocks changing mid year. Canadian poultry producer Marty Notenbomer notes, "The chickens do not adapt to the changed clock until several weeks have gone by so the first week of April and the last week of October are very frustrating for us." - source

Ok? So stop trying to make fun of me when I tell you that Saskatchewan didn't adapt DST because of its agriculturally-based economy. Even today, despite the fact that the urban municipalities there voted to change to DST, all rural areas voted against it so they continue with one time throughout the year. There is always disagreement about which time zone they would adapt, Mountain or Central, since the time zone line would run nearly straight down the middle of the province.

DST was developed not too long after time zones were created. Time zones were actually made by the railroads (Canadian Sanford Fleming). It started when it was realized that people's schedules were such that, in the summer they would be awakening after the sun was up, and staying up after it had gone down. By a simple move of the clock, it could be made such that there was an extra hour of sun in the evening, so people could enjoy the summer and use less electricity. It wasn't adopted with any sort of a standard (sometimes even across counties in the UK, nevermind over countries) for a long time. In WWI, its energy-savings potential was realzied and many countries throughout the world adopted it, starting with Germany and Austria. Shortly thereafter, many European countries follwed, along with some notables such as Manitoba and Nova Scotia. During WWII, the US actually institued DST (called "War Time") for more than 3 straight years.

So now you know. It is to save energy. Not for farmers. That's all.