ABERNETHY, Sask. – It was literally a field trip.
Students and staff from Regina’s Cochrane High School recently got down in the dirt in a Motherwell Homestead field to measure a project begun last fall.
The oat seeds they found proved their success. Moments earlier, four horses had pulled an 1897 Cockshutt Plow Company hoe drill over the field to plant the oats.
Last fall, the hoe drill was a rusting, worn-out piece of equipment last used almost 50 years ago.
“Eli Jacobs of the Kamsack area bought it in 1910 and used it for a number of years,” said Duane Rose, Cochrane’s mechanics teacher.
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Grade 10-12 students in the mechanics, autobody, sheet metal, welding, wood construction and graphic arts classes spent the past school year restoring the antique.
Eli’s son, Bill Jacobs of Togo, Sask., said they did a “pretty good job.” He got the hoe drill from his father and used it until 1953 when he bought a new disc drill.
He spent the day at Motherwell Homestead answering the students’ questions and setting the drill.
“They asked pretty near anything you could think of,” said the 82-year-old farmer.
It was Rose’s idea to restore a piece of machinery. He attended a threshing bee last September at the Motherwell Homestead, a national historic site that recreates an early 20th century farm.
“I went there with the idea that maybe I could do something as a volunteer in terms of their operation.”
He left with permission to take the hoe drill to Regina.
“Overall, it’s in pretty good condition considering it’s 103 years old,” Rose said last November.
The drill arrived with the original seed box and a bunch of parts, some of them from another machine.
The students rebuilt the seed box, fixed the seeding system and hitch, and returned the axles to working condition.
Rose said the students and staff were conscious of the debate over restoration. Some people believe old machinery should not be restored; others think only existing parts should be used.
He said Cochrane’s philosophy was somewhere in the middle.
“We want to keep it as original as we can, but we’re not going to the end of the world to find parts.”
The wooden wheels were rebuilt in Winnipeg.
One of the hardest parts of the job was matching original paint colors, but it looked as good as new when it hit the field earlier in May.
Tara Walker, acting site manager at Motherwell Homestead, was pleased with the project and the partnership with the students. She said the hoe drill moves the farm’s demonstration program a step ahead.
William Richard Motherwell was Saskatchewan’s first agriculture minister, and also served as the federal agriculture minister from 1922-25 and 1926-30.
Parks Canada has been working since 1966 to restore the farm to what it was like before the First World War.
The partnership with Cochrane will continue. Next fall, students will begin work on a hay rake.
