Reliving old crop production methods

result in more profits.

Each year, the cereal variety zones on the provincial map were revaluated to ensure their accuracy.

Many changes were recommended, “That the entire settled portion of the province be considered as one oats zone.” tors and weeders also included the use of a triple gang of seven to eight horses to reduce the cost of ploughing. ered over without loosening the soil too much.

They also wanted to reduce the number of wheat, barley and oats varieties to eight with only three varieties of any crop per zone.

Fanning mills were used to remove chaff, coarse materials and weed seeds from the grain; this implement also graded the grain by its size.

It served its purpose, however, there was a need for a more durable grain cleaner with a larger capacity.

The most popular size was a 14-foot, 28-run horse-drawn drill. The shorter units of 10 or 12-foot drills could be run by tractors.

In the late 1920s, farmers were showing dissatisfaction with the available tillage and seeding machinery.

In 1932 a report titled, Guide to Crop Production in Saskatchewan was published by the Minister of Agriculture and made available to Saskatchewan farmers. This information was compiled from five years of research, presented at conferences and came from various sources, “… on the subjects of cereal varieties, farm machinery, forage crops and cropping systems, soil drifting, weed control and fertilizers…”

The quality of cereal crops was compromised by growing too many varieties. There were more than 100 varieties on record with at least 50 of these being wheat. This increased the likelihood of accidental impurities by using the same machinery, and cleaning process, and also by natural means of wind, rain, birds and animals.

The market value could be reduced as the characteristics of each raw material were different. Choosing fewer varieties provincially would force higher quality crops, decrease production costs and

Proven wheat varieties included Marquis, Reward, Ceres, Mindum, Garnet and Reliance. The two leading varieties of oats were Banner and Victory.

Varieties of barley, rye, peas and beans were also mentioned.

Tillage, seeding, haying and harvesting machinery were listed according to their performance quality.

The pros and cons of using different ploughs, discs, harrows, cultiva -

A different class of seed-cleaning machinery was often owned by the municipality and moved from farm to farm.

This was a tandem scalper, grader and disc combination. Using this machinery resulted in efficiently cleaning and grading the grain by handling it only once.

The provincial standard drill was the double disc. Once the furrow was opened, the seed was placed at a uniform depth and cov-

For some, the result was using a combination of seeding with a ploughing, discing or cultivation implement in one operation. The furrow seeder was a new piece of machinery in Saskatchewan.

Harvesting machines were gradually being developed to increase efficiency.

Binders, combines and various combinations were used; some of which were handmade. On the open Saskatchewan plains, grain growing was the dominant form of farming for our resourceful pioneers.