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This place is a sty
Country Crossroads

This place is a sty

It may look like an unassuming haystack, but this pioneer photo reveals an early livestock shelter

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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
A diagram of the plank drag Seager Wheeler was using on his farm in 1919. This drag had evolved significantly from the first drag he used when homesteading in Saskatchewan in the 1890s. His first drag consisted of two poplar logs pegged together. The bottom of the logs were cut flat probably using an adze.
Country Crossroads, Other

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

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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
While the exact time of the year this photo was taken is unknown, according to Seager Wheeler, if the backsetting process was to be done properly, the shallow first plowing should take place in May or early June
with the deeper second plowing taking place before early July. The timing of these operations should, in theory, result in sufficient soil moisture to rot the turned-down vegetation. While Seager Wheeler is advising
that the farmer needs to take care that the sod produced by the first plowing lays flat, this is a lot easier said than done. As can be seen here, the first plowing, which can be seen in the foreground of the photo, did not quite result in the sod laying flat. There are places visible where the vegetation being turned over was sufficiently tall enough that it prevented the sod from laying over completely as the vegetation when turning fell
onto the previously turned sod.
Country Crossroads, Other

Backsetting revisited

The ‘Wheat Wizard of Rosthern’ wrote about this pioneer practice in detail

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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
Lori and Art Gibson of Neepawa take a packed sleigh for a spin through the homesteaders’ village at the Manitoba Agricultural Museum Dec. 14.
Local news, News

PHOTOS: A pioneer Christmas

The Manitoba Agricultural Museum hosts this annual event

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The Manitoba Agricultural Museum has been celebrating the Christmas season with its annual Christmas Homesteaders’ Village event at Austin. For more than five years the group celebrates the season with the annual event to give attendees a glimpse into the lives of the early rural pioneers on the weekends leading up to Christmas. For many
An 1890’s Sawyer Massey threshing outfit
Country Crossroads, Other

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

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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
A group portrait of the Dickson threshing gang taken in 1910. Some of the people in the photo are numbered and on the back of the photo is a key matching the name of the person with their number. 1) W.G. Dickson, 2) Mrs. Ben Dickson, 3) Joyce Dickson (Dring), 4) Claude Dickson, 5) Laura Taylor, 6) Mrs. Cavers, 7) Joe Blacklock, 8) Michael O’Keefe. The back of the photo also identifies the person on the upper left outside as Norman Burke.
Country Crossroads, Other

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

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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’
Country Crossroads, Other

Uncovering ‘backsetting’

This lost agricultural practice was key to breaking the prairie to the plow

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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
Open Farm Day participants shear a sheep during a visit to Hunter Family Farm 
near Rapid City on September 17, 2017.
Local news, News, Other

Ticking down to Open Farm Day 2018

Open Farm Day has become one of Manitoba’s largest agricultural outreach efforts, with locations across Manitoba and thousands of visitors, including many who would ordinarily never set foot on a farm

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Rural Manitoba has once again been getting ready for its close-up. The occasion is the annual Open Farm Day slated for this Sunday, Sept. 16. Forty-two sites are preparing to open their doors to the public this weekend, slightly down from last year’s 46, although co-ordinator Wendy Bulloch says she is still happy with the
This photo of Brandon in 1912 reveals many details about the early economy of the Wheat City.
Country Crossroads, Local news, Other

The Maple Leaf Flour Mill in Brandon

There were many early mills in Manitoba, but they didn’t last

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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
On August 25 at Austin, visitors will have a rare opportunity to see vintage combines and swathers in operation alongside the old threshing machines in the museum’s collection. Pictured is an early 1950s Minneapolis-Moline G4 combine pulled by a 1952 Minneapolis-Moline U tractor.
Country Crossroads, Local news, Other

First-ever Western Canada Heritage Harvest this weekend

Rarely operated vintage combines and swathers will be in operation August 25 at the Manitoba Agricultural Museum ground near Austin

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This will be a harvest you don’t see every day — or haven’t in decades. Seventy acres of wheat will be harvested with antique threshing machines and vintage combines and swathers spanning six decades at a new growing project for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank on August 25. This is the inaugural Western Canada Heritage Harvest,

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