Wawanesa: A Prairie Heritage - Agricultural History IV

New methods continued to replace the old. Just as horses had replaced oxen, the horses were gradually replaced by tractors. The first tractors were steam powered affairs. They were used sparingly because fuelling them required a lot of labour.
The use of tractors became more common with the advent of fossil fuel engines. Tractors burned various types of fuel from kerosene, gasoline, and distillate and water, to the diesel fuel used today. A popular early tractor was the Oil Pull Tractor shown here.

The Oil Pull was a popular early combustion engine tractor.

Tractors became extremely useful. They could haul wagons and farm implements and their engines were also used to run other machines. As more powerful tractors became available, larger implements could be towed around the field. The larger cultivators, harrows, and binders allowed farmers to cover far more ground and therefore farm much more land.

One of the new heavy machines that required powerful tractors combined the functions of the threshing machine and the binder into one. This machine, creatively called a combine, could be pulled through the field, cutting, gathering, and threshing the grain all at the same time. Threshing outfits required up to twenty people. Combining required two or three.

An early combine pulled by a tractor

The innovations in agricultural technology allowed a single farmer to use far more land and employ far fewer people to do so. The effects of modernization are reflected in the existence of fewer and fewer small farms. Farmers with money and larger operations expanded, buying up surrounding land. The size of the average farm has increased dramatically in the last century while the number of independent farmers has drastically decreased.
Wawanesa may have far fewer farmers than it did at the turn of the century but it is still a farming community. Townspeople watch the weather with concern for the harvest even if they are not directly involved. Everyone knows that agriculture remains crucial to the success of Wawanesa and area.

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			New methods continued to replace the old. Just as horses had replaced oxen, the horses were gradually replaced by tractors. The first tractors were steam powered affairs. They were used sparingly because fuelling them required a lot of labour. The use of tractors became more common with the advent of fossil fuel engines. Tractors burned various types of fuel from kerosene, gasoline, and distillate and water, to the diesel fuel used today. A popular early tractor was the Oil Pull Tractor shown here.





The Oil Pull was a popular early combustion engine tractor.
The Oil Pull was a popular early combustion engine tractor.
Tractors became extremely useful. They could haul wagons and farm implements and their engines were also used to run other machines. As more powerful tractors became available, larger implements could be towed around the field. The larger cultivators, harrows, and binders allowed farmers to cover far more ground and therefore farm much more land. One of the new heavy machines that required powerful tractors combined the functions of the threshing machine and the binder into one. This machine, creatively called a combine, could be pulled through the field, cutting, gathering, and threshing the grain all at the same time. Threshing outfits required up to twenty people. Combining required two or three.

		An early combine pulled by a tractor
The innovations in agricultural technology allowed a single farmer to use far more land and employ far fewer people to do so. The effects of modernization are reflected in the existence of fewer and fewer small farms. Farmers with money and larger operations expanded, buying up surrounding land. The size of the average farm has increased dramatically in the last century while the number of independent farmers has drastically decreased. Wawanesa may have far fewer farmers than it did at the turn of the century but it is still a farming community. Townspeople watch the weather with concern for the harvest even if they are not directly involved. Everyone knows that agriculture remains crucial to the success of Wawanesa and area.

	The History \| The Gallery \| People \| Mutual Insurance \| The Community Neighbouring Communities \| The Museum \| About Us \| Home