12498 232 ST HANEY, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA
This year in July I visited the Exhibition and didn’t see
much of it as I was more interested in the Pioneer Days and had the
pleasure of driving the Queen of the Show, a 1915 cross compound
40-120 HP Reeves plow engine, as well as a 25-75 HP tandem compound
Sawyer-Massey around the arena. The weather was warm and sunny and
there was a good crowd.
The first thing on the program was a parade of steam and gas
tractors around the arena which included the two above mentioned
engines as well as 15-45 Case steamer, Sawyer-Massey, 25-75 Case,
Rumely 40-120 New Giant, return flue.
In the Gas Tractors division were the following: 10-20 Titan, 2
cylinder; 10-20 McCormick Deering, 30-60 Aultman Taylor, 40-65 HP
Reeves 4 cylinder; Minneapolis 15-30; 15-30 and 24-40 Oil Pull,
20-40 Case 2 cylinder opposed, 28-50 Hart Parr, 16-30 Eagle, 10-20
hopper cooled Mogul and a traction steam well driller.
After the parade was the story of threshing. First there were
two men beating out the grain with flails, next two men turning the
hand cranks on a small machine. This was followed by eight horses
on a sweep power hooked up by flat belt to a hand feed and slat
straw carrier, followed by a 30-60 Oil Pull and finally a 10 ft.
self-propelled New Holland combine and 5-ton G.M.C. truck.
Next was the parade of antique cars and horses – a 6-horse team
and grain wagon, a 4-horse team on a wagon, 2-horse team on a
bundle rack. The cars were 490 Chev. 1925 Overland, 1924 Ford Star
touring McLaughlin and Maxwell.
The threshing contest followed. Sixty sheaves were laid in a
row. There were two rows, one was for Alberta using a Case steam
outfit, and the other an Aultman Taylor 30-60 4-cylinder gas
tractor. The idea was to see which team could pick up the sixty
sheaves, make 10 stooks out of them, then throw the sheaves on the
bundle rack pulled by a lovely pair of Belgium horses, go to the
separator, throw the sheaves on the feeder and get the grain in the
grain wagon. All this was done at a walking speed. The men and the
horses were not allowed to run. The Alberta outfit with the Case
steamer won, doing the whole job in just over fifteen minutes.
There was a lot of applause for the teams of men doing this job.
The team of Belgiums was driven by a lady.
The next item was the saw circle. A team of Clydes hauled the
log and loaded them by means of a tripod onto a sleigh and then
drawn to the sawmill by a steam caterpillar type tractor. This
tractor had a 2-cylinder engine on each side of the baler to drive
the track. The slabs and boards passed on to a planer mill operated
by a 25-45 HP Avery double cylinder undermounted steam tractor.
A Case 40 HP portable steam engine was driving a shingle mill
and the small 18 HP Case portable engine was cutting up the cast
off slabs with a 30′ circular buzz saw. It was used to fire up
the other engines.
(Mr. Somerville had quite a description of the Boom Town also,
but since George Shepherd has an article in on the Museum,
we’ll not run the report on it at this time).
