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Tag Archives Tractors

The Canadian-made Sawyer Massey kerosene-burning tractor, pulling a five-bottom 14-inch Powerlift Cockshutt engine plow at the 1916 light tractor demonstration in Brandon.
Country Crossroads

Winners and losers: The Brandon light tractor plowing demonstrations of 1916

Canadian manufacturers always struggled to maintain relevance with their smaller market

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There’s little doubt the 1916 Brandon light tractor plowing demonstrations were important in their day and perhaps nothing underlines this than the fact it’s taken three instalments to fully examine them. Sawyer Massey (SM) entered its 16-32 tractor. It was a major Canadian manufacturer of steam engines, threshing machines and other implements and got into
Pioneer sale offers historical insight
Country Crossroads, Our History

Pioneer sale offers historical insight

Farmer and politician William D. Staples sold up in 1916 due to the war

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The ad seen here appeared in a fall 1916 edition of the Canadian Thresherman and Farmer magazine. William Staples, Dominion grain commissioner, was selling his farm equipment as his son was on active service with the Canadian military. Staples senior therefore needed to discontinue his farming operation. William Staples was born at Fleetwood, Ontario on
Deere & Co. is managing the agriculture downturn more effectively but there’s still storm clouds overhead.
Machinery, News

Deere earnings beat estimates but outlook downbeat

Global farm recession blamed for ongoing challenges but losses were smaller than predicted

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Deere & Co. reported a much smaller-than-expected decline in quarterly earnings Nov. 22, after it cut costs and raised prices to compensate for sluggish demand for its agricultural and construction equipment, and its shares jumped more than 10 per cent. The company forecast revenue for the new fiscal year would fall about one per cent
Early tractors like this Waterloo Boy 12-24 attracted plenty of interest at the 1916 Brandon tractor demonstrations.
Country Crossroads, Our History

Conventional tractors attracted attention too

Success or failure in Western Canada for early tractor makers appears to be linked to their distribution networks

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The 1916 Brandon tractor demonstrations attracted a lot of conventional tractors along with the three wheelers. Minneapolis Steel & Machinery Company (MS&MC) brought its Twin City 15-30 tractor. MS&MC started operations by providing structural steel in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Between 1909 and the mid-teens MS&MC supplied tractor engines to Reeves & Company, manufactured the 30-60 Case
A class at the Manitoba Agricultural College (MAC) posing with a 30-horsepower Big Four tractor. One of the college’s engineering courses trained people in the operation of steam and gas engines. There was a great demand for trained operators at this time. The photo also demonstrates how large a tractor the Big Fours were. The rear wheels dwarf the students standing beside them and one of these students, the man on the ground at the rear of the wheel, is over six feet tall. If you recognize any of the men in this photo, the museum would like to get their names and any history you are able to provide.
Country Crossroads, Our History

Agriculture engineers in the early years

The Manitoba Agricultural College was the first of its kind in Western Canada 
and aimed to equip farmers with the latest knowledge

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The Manitoba Agricultural Museum holds in its collection the photo seen here, which is thought to show the students of an engineering course at the Manitoba Agricultural College. Manitoba’s rapid growth at the turn of the century prompted the provincial government to support agricultural research and education. The Manitoba Agricultural College (MAC) was established in
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
(Mahindra.com)
Crops

Ottawa to back new tractor plant in Quebec

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A federal fund to help communities diversify from the asbestos business will help finance a major tractor manufacturer’s first facilities in Canada. Navdeep Bains, the minister responsible for Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions (CED), on Tuesday announced a “repayable contribution” of $350,000 for Mahindra Canada-Est to put up a 22,000-square foot industrial building at Adstock,
What’s new in tractors

What’s new in tractors

A roundup of the recent tractor introductions and updates making news this fall

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There’s been no shortage of news this season when it comes to new tractor model unveilings and improvements to existing machines. Virtually every brand had something new to show off this year on that front. Many of those new machines debuted at the U.S. Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa, in August. To help you
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

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