The Klarenbach Report, Oct 4
On June 11, 1945, two University of Saskatchewan professors, Evan Hardy and Hal Lewis, drove from Saskatoon to Kindersley, a small town in the western part of the province.
Lewis had been consulting with Kindersley area inventors about their effort to build a new tillage implement better adapted for the Canadian plains than commercially available.
The field day was a success, with five machines and more than 500 spectators in attendance marking the big swing toward discers starting in Saskatchewan.
The Agriculture Engineering Department at the University of Saskatchewan was well respected, with folk inventors bringing their problems to Hardy and Lewis. One of the most persistent was R. A. Johnson of Beedle.
R.A. Johnson wanted to attach a number of disc-harrow disc gangs to a one-way type frame with flexible mountings, thus letting the gangs rise and fall independently with the surface of the ground. Johnson collaborated with locals, blacksmith Dave Johnston, and welder M.G. Cressman to refine the design for tillage. This activity got the attention of Les Wyman, the local Massey-Harris dealer.
As mentioned, the June 11, 1945 field day demonstrated five machines. Cressman brought Dave Johnston’s, Johnson his own, S. L. Whatley brought his purchased from Wyman and Wyman brought two.
Cressman surprised the U of S engineers by mounting a drill box atop his discer, building a working seeder.
The Kindersley field day proved to be a significant event as the key principles of the discer had finally fallen into place.
The first reason is the machine could achieve a consistent medium-dept cut of two to three inches, covering some trash but leaving some exposed an anchored by exposed soil.
The second reason, farmers and shopmen throughout the province were inspired to build more machines. Wyman and others intended to manufacture them for sale or tack them to major implement manufacturing firms. Canadian Cooperative Implements Limited (CCIL) named the implement, “discer”.
The third reason is the major equipment manufacturers recognized the worth of discer and quickly put them on the market. Cockshut and Massey-Harris first, then International Harvestor and John Deere.
The fourth reason, Canadian farmers, purchased the new product and incorporated it into their tillage practices. Unexpectedly, except perhaps to M. G. Cressman, seeding proved to be the most popular use of the discer.
Small towns are amazing.
Reference: Isern, T. D. (1988). The Discer: Tillage for the Canadian Plains. Agricultural History, Vol. 62(No. 2), 79-97. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3743285
Trent Klarenbach, BSA AgEc, publishes the Klarenbach Grain Report and the Klarenbach Special Crops Report, which can be read at https://www.klarenbach.ca/