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Canadian Bull tractor pulling a two-furrow, Powerlift “Enicar” made by J.I. Case Plow Works, Racine, Wis.
Country Crossroads, Our History

The three-wheel tractor craze

A move to smaller less expensive tractors fuelled interest in these designs

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The images of the 1916 Brandon Light Tractor Plowing Demonstration demonstrate a significant craze in tractor design which was sweeping North America at the time. By 1916 the day of the Prairie-style gas tractor was coming to an end. Designers and manufacturers realized they needed tractors which were suitable for smaller farms and for jobs
Goold Shapley & Muir (GS&M) is important as it was a very early Canadian manufacturer of tractors. GS&M was formed in 1892 from Goold and Company, a manufacturer of beekeeper supplies and refrigerators. The new company diversified and began to manufacture windmills, gasoline engines and other machinery. Manufacturing gas engines resulted in GS&M getting into the tractor business. In 1907, the company introduced the “Ideal” tractor line which consisted of two models the 18-35 and 25-50. GS&M went on to produce the “Ideal Junior” a 15-25 tractor. The Ideal Junior used a hopper-cooled two-cylinder opposed engine. GS&M tractors are rare today, however, they apparently were a decent tractor at the time.
Machinery

The Brandon Light Tractor Plowing Demonstration of 1916

This event, was the first up-close look many farmers had at a tractor

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While the Winnipeg Tractor Trials had come to an end in 1913, E.W. Hamilton, the editor of the Canadian Thresherman and Farmer magazine, remained interested in promoting tractors. More importantly, the farming public remained very interested in tractors with their promise of being able to perform more work at a lower cost than horses. Hamilton
La Compa, France’s best-known agricultural museum, is displaying a Massey Sawyer that was better suited for Prairie fields.
Local news

A Prairie tractor makes a long trip to France

A request from a French agriculture museum reveals an interesting tale of a tractor

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The Conservatory of Agriculture, the premier agricultural museum of France, recently contacted the Manitoba Agricultural Museum. It was seeking a digital copy of a Sawyer Massey tractor advertisement we were using on our web page on the Sawyer Massey 25-45 tractor in our collection. The Conservatory of Agriculture, better known as Le Compa, has a
Winnipeg pioneered scientific tractor testing in the early part of the 20th century. Seen here is a Flour City tractor on a drawbar test.
Country Crossroads

When Manitoba set the standard for tractors

A forgotten Manitoba competition tested early tractors for prospective buyers


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Little known today, either in Manitoba or outside the province, the Winnipeg Light Agricultural Motor Contests were on the cutting edge of the new technology of the tractor. In fact, the tractor was so new in 1908 that the word tractor had not even been invented. The Winnipeg contests were the first effort to scientifically
The Black family in the field with their Steward Sheaf Loader. For some reason a number of ladies has come out to the field. Perhaps the loader was new and they wanted to see it in operation? They are not likely there to deliver a meal as that many would not have been needed to take refreshments.
Country Crossroads

Farm machinery of the past

Steward Sheaf Loader offered ability to load 
sheaves faster and with less physical labour

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Bruce Black of the Brandon area has allowed the Manitoba Agricultural Museum to copy negatives of photographs taken around 1920 on the farms operated by the Black family. The photo above shows a sheaf loader. The handling of sheaves was a large enough problem that a number of pieces of equipment were developed to ease
More than 760 registered threshing team members and 139 threshing outfits are the new world record holders for the largest threshing event in history. Harvesting Hope at the annual threshing event in Austin was a fundraiser for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.
Local news

Threshers break world record at Austin


Thousands of spectators at the Manitoba Agricultural Museum July 31 
witnessed threshing outfits from across Canada and the northern 
U.S. stage the world’s largest threshing bee

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Hundreds of volunteers donned overalls and heaved sheaves on Sunday to re-enact a Prairie harvest scene on the grandest scale the world has ever seen. More than 148 antique threshing outfits rattled, hissed and ‘chuff-chuff-chuffed,’ tended by 700 participants, in the Guinness World Record attempt at the Manitoba Agricultural Museum for the most threshers operating
Helmut Neufeld (l) and Garth Crooks.
Local news

VIDEO: Threshermen on the threshold of a Guinness World Record

From the Manitoba Agricultural Museum, Harvesting Hope: A World Record to Help the Hungry

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With the help of a wooden Nichols & Shepard thresher and a 1912 Rumely tractor, Helmut Neufeld, Garth Crooks and their team of threshermen get ready to lend their efforts to break the Guinness World Record for the “most threshing machines operating simultaneously.” In this video, get an up-close look at each machine as the
threshing in action in Austin, Manitoba
Local news

VIDEO: Harvesting hope and harnessing agricultural spirit

From the Manitoba Agricultural Museum, Harvesting Hope: A World Record to Help the Hungry

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What does it take to put on the world’s largest pioneer harvest? According to Elliot Sims, one of the co-chairs and organizers of Harvesting Hope: A World Record to Help the Hungry, start with tens of thousands of man-hours, over 800 volunteers, nearly 150 machines and you’re on the right track. The range of antique
Threshing outfit of Mr. Geo. Kent, Shoal Lake Man., consisting of 22-hp waterous double-cylinder traction engine with 35x50 McCloskey separator.
Country Crossroads

The George Kent outfit

A chance find in an old magazine shows a Manitoba threshing crew in action

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While researching the Winnipeg Tractor Trials we reviewed copies of the Canadian Threshermen and Farmer and in a 1904 edition, came across this image of the George Kent outfit, which consisted of a Waterous 22 horsepower steam engine and a 35×50 McCloskey separator. George Kent farmed somewhere around Shoal Lake. The photo contains a wealth
An aerial photo shows 25 to 30 of the antique threshing machines at the July 31 Harvesting Hope world record attempt at the Manitoba Agricultural Museum. (Shaylyn McMahon photo courtesy Harvesting Hope)
Crops

Manitoba threshing bee yields new world record

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Owners and operators of antique threshing machines unofficially cracked the world record for a threshing bee at a fundraising event Sunday for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank and Manitoba Agricultural Museum. The Harvesting Hope event, held at the museum site at Austin, about 45 km west of Portage la Prairie, saw 139 threshing machines run simultaneously

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