The industrialisation that sweeps through the West starting in the
second half of the 19th Century also affects the agricultural world.
From the 1870s on, various technical innovations are introduced
to the prairies with the goal of increasing the cultivated land
area and work productivity. Even though this is a gradual and uneven
process in time and space, the trend toward using mechanized implements
is irreversible.
Mechanization specifically affects work that is traditionally the
most labour intensive, for instance ploughing and, perhaps even
more so, threshing. Steam-powered machines also make their appearance
in rural Manitoba in the last third of the 19th Century. These steam
engines are either stationary and are used to operate separators
and conveyors or they are wheeled vehicles, a precursor to the tractor,
and pull the ploughs, cultivators, harrows, and combines.
Farm mechanization supports the wheat boom in the West at the turn
of the 20th Century and is behind the sharp increase in agricultural
production during the two world wars. In a region where salaried
workers are rather uncommon, farm machines ensure both gains in
productivity and the preservation of the family farm.
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