Built in Canada for Canadians

Ontario, Quebec, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick all had firms that manufactured threshing machines. Although assembled in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, no threshing machine was wholly manufactured in the West.

Pitt’s Thrashing Machine offered by L.D. Sawyer & Company of Hamilton, Ontario

Even though most of the earliest machines built in Canada were based on the designs of American manufacturers, the Canadian patent record for this period is full of illustrations of machines showing “improvements” on the original American design. Some machines such as the Pitt’s Thrashing Machine offered by L.D. Sawyer & Company of Hamilton, Ontario were produced under licence to patentees John and Hiram Pitts of Albany, New York.

In the period immediately following 1840, when mechanical threshing technology was still fairly new and the Canadian agricultural implement industry was still in its infancy, threshing machines were manufactured by many of the small entrepreneurs springing up in central Canada and the Atlantic provinces. As the complexity of the technology and the scale of production increased, the manufacture of threshing technology became concentrated within a smaller circle of firms. This change was also a function of growing specialization within the agricultural manufacturing industry. Instead of offering a full line of equipment, companies began to limit themselves to a single type of agricultural technology.

Waterloo Manufacturing Company’s Manitoba Champion 40-62 Separator

This reflected a change in market focus: the development of a rail network meant that a firm situated in Waterloo, Ontario could service eastern Canada and the prairie provinces. Firms no longer had to supply an entire range of equipment to a small regional clientèle. Now, rather than relying on copy advertisements in local papers, manufacturers serviced their potential markets through advertisements in agricultural newspapers and colour catalogues. Turn-of-the-century agricultural papers like the Nor’West Farmer were full of large advertisements for threshing equipment built by Canadian and American manufacturers. In the 1914 edition of their “Western Edition”catalogue, the Waterloo Manufacturing Company of Waterloo, Ontario offered a wide range of machines, including a Manitoba Champion machine with a threshing capacity of 40-62.

Some companies also established a network of branches across Canada. For instance, the same “Western Edition” of the Waterloo Manufacturing Company’s catalogue lists Portage la Prairie, Manitoba as their “Western Head Office” and Regina, Saskatchewan as a western wareroom. These regional facilities served as parts depots and as headquarters for sales personnel who, in addition to servicing the needs of a network of independent dealerships, also demonstrated equipment at provincial fairs and industrial expositions. Others, like John Goodison Threshing Machine Company of Sarnia, Ontario, chose to be represented by large networks such as the International Harvester Company, and many manufacturers began using promotional tools like free almanacs and watch fobs to reinforce their marketing messages.