Producer cars were popular with farmers in the early days of the grain trade. They could receive better prices by avoiding elevation charges and having grain weighed by Board of Grain Commissioners employees. However, there were downsides. Producers had to have sufficient grain of one type and grade to load a car. While they could
When loading a producer car was a lot more work
Loading 1,800 bushels within 24 hours meant several trips by horse and wagon at 100 bushels at a time
When you needed a hammer and nails to load a car
Until the 1970s, all grain was shipped in boxcars which needed a wooden door
Copies of photos donated by the Dickson and Henderson families of Boissevain have proven a treasure trove for the Manitoba Agricultural Museum. This photo depicts a portable elevator filling a CPR wooden boxcar, probably sometime in the 1930s. The man in the photo cannot be identified — it’s believed he is not a member of
This place is a sty
It may look like an unassuming haystack, but this pioneer photo reveals an early livestock shelter
Looking through photographs recently donated to the Manitoba Agricultural Museum, the interpretation committee became interested in a photograph of a straw stack. This photo appears to be fairly old, probably pre-First World War so it was taken at a time when photos were expensive which led to the question, why would the photographer have taken
The plank drag was an effective field tool in its day
The goal was a smooth field that would allow easy operation of horse-drawn implements
In the recent Manitoba Agricultural Museum article on the practice of backsetting, which was sometimes carried out when breaking virgin sod, the use of a plank drag in subsequent field operations was mentioned. A plank drag was somewhat more complicated than merely dragging a plank across the field and so deserves some further explanation. Seager
Backsetting revisited
The ‘Wheat Wizard of Rosthern’ wrote about this pioneer practice in detail
In 2018, the Manitoba Agricultural Museum wrote on the backsetting method of breaking virgin sod. A reader, Mr. Bollman, contacted us to inform the museum that there is more information on backsetting in the book Profitable Grain Growing, written in 1919 by Seager Wheeler, a noted agronomist and grain grower of the time, known as
An 1890’s Sawyer Massey threshing outfit
A photo of one of the earlier Manitoba threshing operations taken just years after the land was put to the plow
Recently the Manitoba Agricultural Museum was the recipient of a collection of agricultural photos collected over the years. The donor of the photos wishes to remain anonymous at this time. Unfortunately the photographs had no further information with them. Many photos taken of pioneer agricultural activities have information written on the photos containing such information
The Ben Dickson threshing gang 1910
This photo reveals a young workforce, some dressed in their Sunday best for the rarity of appearing in a photograph
The Dickson-Henderson family of Boissevain graciously donated to the Manitoba Agricultural Museum a number of photographs taken on their farms near Boissevain. One photo is a group portrait of the Dickson threshing gang taken in 1910. The photo was taken by Osborne Photo which appears to have been a professional photographer active in the Boissevain
Uncovering ‘backsetting’
This lost agricultural practice was key to breaking the prairie to the plow
In a number of accounts of homesteading there is mention of the practice of backsetting which was carried out when breaking sod. Just what backsetting actually involved was unknown to the interpretation committee at the Manitoba Agricultural Museum (MAM) until the committee obtained a book on the history of the Red River Valley. The book
The Maple Leaf Flour Mill in Brandon
There were many early mills in Manitoba, but they didn’t last
One of the photos in the Manitoba Agricultural Museum’s photo collection is a 1912 view of Pacific Avenue in Brandon, looking to the east. It appears to have been taken off the roof of the International Harvester Corporation (IHC) warehouse which still stands at the northeast quadrant of the intersection of 18th Street and Pacific
The Great North West Central Railway
This colonization railway has a colourful history but is all but forgotten today
In the early 1880s, the Government of Canada put in place a policy of granting land subsidies to small railway companies in the hope these companies would build rail lines into areas of the Prairies distant from the Canadian Pacific main line and so open these areas to homesteaders. One of these so-called “colonization” railways
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
