“In early spring, farmers were on the land with the first disappearance of the snow cover. Prior to planting, they cleaned the grain, soaked it and loaded it in wagons for transport to the fields. They cleared the land and plowed it and their main enemies were a late winter with a lasting ground cover, or water on the fields resulting from heavy rains or floods. In some years, crops were in the ground in the middle of March; in others, planting was not finished until late May or early June. The work was done with teams of horses or oxen and it was labour-intensive. Men such as William Brown, with several sons, used family labour extensively and they hired other men at time of peak load such as the harvest. Spring was also a time for cleaning up around the byres, cleaning the chicken coop and the root-cellar, and preparing the planting of vegetables. Generally, they planted the kinds of grains noted earlier plus potatoes, cauliflower, mangle, peas, turnip, squash, onion, tomatoes, fruit trees and berry bushes.

They also attended to the stock, including putting the newly-delivered mares to studs owned by themselves or by their neighbours. William Brown Jr., for example, owned a bull. His neighbours would pay a fee ($1.00) to service one of their cows. The service of a stallion was more dear, ranging in price from $5.00 to $10.00 and, as a consequence, many of these men would offer up to $500.00 for a good stallion.”¹

John Taylor of Headingley recorded the following spring activities in his journals:

• “The men commenced sowing and harrowing in the wheat. Willie ran the seeder & Thom and Alixis the harness. Alixis commenced work today. I sowed and plowed the two sack of peas.” (April 19, 1887)
• “Willie sent a cow to the bull and paid #3.00 for those put to the bull. We had our big cow to the bull.” (July 6, 1888)
• “Still snowing and storming and continued so all night. We have more snow lying on the ground than we had all winter. It cleared up in the afternoon.” (May 3, 1878)
• “The ice appears to have all passed down. The weather cloudy. I went to town with John Brown and Sandy Murray each had a team for lumber for a ferry boat. It was sundown at Gowler’s on our way back. Ploughing today.” (April 2, 1878)
• “Commenced building the ferry boat today….Sandy Cameron went to town for the tar and pitch for the boat.” (April 4, 1878)
• Calving cows; “Two cows calved. One the white cow we had to take the calf from her, it was dead and came the hind part first. I had to send for old Stevenson to assist me taking the calf from the cow.” (April 17, 1883)

¹ B.G. Hunter-Eastwood, “Report on the William Brown Heritage House,” Prepared for the Historical Museum of St. James-Assiniboia, Winnipeg, 1988, p. 64.