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Harvesting Mangels on the Steves' Farm1900
Lulu Island
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HARVESTING MANGELS ON STEVES FARMHere Long Red Mammoth mangels are being loaded into a wagon. These beet-like root crops could produce about 130,000 pounds per acre as each weighed about 10 pounds. Both the roots and the tops of the plants were fed to cattle. Mangel roots produced about 3,000 pounds of seed per acre. Steves usually grew about 2 acres of mangel seed selling for 75 cents a pound. In 1889 W. H. Steves offered a prize of a Steveston town lot to the person who grew the largest mangel from his seed. Mr. T.J. Tully won with a mangel weighing 63 pounds.
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Growing Turnip Seed on the Steves' Farm1900
Lulu Island
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GROWING TURNIP SEEDCharlie Crabb and John York are hoeing turnip plants on the Steves' farm. It took 2 years for root crops like mangels, beets, turnips and carrots to produce seed. W. H. Steves sold hundreds of kinds of vegetable and flower seeds in the 1880's but his brother, Joseph, specialized in seed from root crops. He selected only the best plants to produce seed and chopped the rest for cattle feed. Joseph also grew about 20 acres of cannery peas each year. He developed 80 varieties of sweet pea seed and 200 varieties of gladiola bulbs.
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Plowing a Field with Suffolk Punch Horses1908
Lulu Island
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PLOWING with SUFFOLK PUNCH HORSESIn 1888 Manoah Steves imported his first Suffolk Punch horses including prize-winning stallion Suffolk Prince. These hard-working, quiet horses had been bred in England since 1500 to work on farms, pulling plows, harrows, and seed drills, and walking on treadmills to provide power for hay lifts, water pumps, root cutters and threshing machines. A team of 2 horses and a plowman could plow an acre in 6-8 hours. By 1908, Steves owned 16 registered Suffolk Punch horses to cultivate 258 acres of land.
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Seeding Oats1908
Lulu Island
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SEEDING OATSAfter a field was plowed and disked to loosen the top foot of soil, a team of horses was harnessed to an elaborate seeder. Seeds were placed in the eight-foot long wooden bin above the wheel axle. The seeds would drop down tubes placed 6 inches apart at the bottom of the seed bin to make continuous rows. As the seeder moved forward, a disc-opener at the bottom of each tube would open a shallow trough for the seeds, and cover them once planted at a rate of 75 pounds per acre. Seed drills were used for planting most cereal grains.
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Harvesting Oats1908
Lulu Island
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HARVESTING OATSAt harvest time in early September, the oats were mowed by a binder with a cutter bar in front. The rotating wooden spindle pushed the oat stalks into the blade. The machine cut the stalks and tied them into bundles called sheaves. Farm workers stood several sheaves on end together in piles called stooks so the sun could dry the stalks for several days before the threshing crew arrived. After the oat stalks were threshed, the seed would be stored in sacks and fed to horses and cattle through the winter. The straw would be used for animal bedding.
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The Ketcheson Outfit Threshing Oats1908
Lulu Island
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KETCHISON'S OUTFIT THRESHING OATSIn 1908 there were 2 threshing crews in Richmond. Each crew of about a dozen men traveled with its steam engine and threshing machine to individual farms. Steam engines were not commonly used on farms in Canada until the 1890's. The steam engine converted water into steam which turned a flywheel. A long belt powered the thresher which separated the grains of oats from the straw or chaff. The steam engine and thresher remained stationary so a supply of sheaves had to be carried to the machine.
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Ketcheson's Threshing Crew1908
Lulu Island
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KETCHISON'S THRESHING CREWThreshing required a lot of men. Farm hands with pitchforks threw the sheaves onto the wagons. After the teamsters drove the loaded wagons to the thresher, men forked the sheaves into the machine to be separated into grain and straw. Two men packed the oat grains into burlap sacks. A specially qualified engineer ran the steam engine and another kept the threshing machine operating. While the crew was at a farm, the farmer's wife was responsible for providing all their meals.
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