MP-0000.25.435 | Tractor pulling ten ploughs on the Prairies, MB, about 1922
Tractor pulling ten ploughs on the Prairies, MB, about 1922
W. J. Oliver
About 1922, 20th century
Silver salts and transparent ink on glass - Gelatin dry plate process
8 x 10 cm
Gift of Mr. Stanley G. Triggs
MP-0000.25.435
© McCord Museum
Description
Keywords: farming (278) , Industry (942) , Machine (63) , Photograph (77678)
Keys to History
Steam power, and later gasoline power, revolutionized prairie agriculture. This large steam tractor could do the work of 10 teams of horses and was a huge labour-saving device for a farmer who could afford to own or hire one. They were so big and expensive that farmers usually hired a man with a tractor to plough their fields. Over time the machinery became more efficient, and in the 20th century the gasoline tractor, which was smaller and cheaper, became affordable for the average farmer.
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What
A large steam driven tractor is pulling 10 ploughs through the prairie soil.
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Where
The tractor is ploughing a field in Manitoba, perhaps one of the "mile long furrows" that prairie boosters liked to boast about.
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When
This picture was taken in 1922. Thirty years earlier the farmer would have been ploughing with a team of horses, and ten years later he probably would have been using a gasoline tractor.
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Who
Hundreds of these tractors were used by farmers and professional ploughmen all over the Prairies during this period.
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