Agricultural and Farm Scenes

Very early real photo postcard posted at Winnipeg on December 14, 1904 and received on December 29 by the addressee, Mrs Ball, 4 Manor Street, Nottingham, England. There is no indication of the exact location but it is likely near to Winnipeg. The image is very clear and shows the machinery quite nicely. The card is on the usual early Canadian Velox back. 1904 is the year in which RPPC begin to appear in southern Manitoba. The earliest image that I can date on such a postcard in my collection is around the beginning of May 1904. This one would have been taken in September or October of that year. It's quite a good image for the 1904-06 period -- many of the cards from that era have condition problems, primarily fading and silvering.

Another in the "Government Agent" series, this one happily has a postmark: Oxford, May 9, 1906. Very often these cards weren't actually mailed. The card is addressed to Miss A. A. Pasten, Carlingford, Sidcup and has the message: "Thank you so much for your kind invite. Shan't be able to accept now as I am off to Canada for a 3 months trip the end of the month - Else I had hoped to descend upon you for a night or two! Love from H.G.L."

This is almost certainly a C.S. Co. card, although it is marked only with the distributor initials "L.R. 1475". Souch's C.S. Co. booklet records an "L.R." in Moose Jaw and while card 1475 is not recorded, card 1476 *is* in the list and is also an "L.R." from Moose Jaw. Presumably "L.R." is "Lewis Rice". The postcard has a Moose Jaw & Calgary R.P.O. postmark dated June 9, 1909 and is addressed to someone whose name looks like Mr. Lee Silliman Jr. of Toulon, Illinois, which is over by the Iowa border. It reads: "Moose Jaw - Dear Nephew, I remember once upon a [time] you wrote me a letter and I will now send you a card from the fields of Canada. There is just lots of beautiful prairie and it looks like a good chance for a young man to raise wheat in [?] a good time, Your aunt, Sarah."

This postcard is unused but is addressed to Vinnie Binkley, Brookville, Ohio. On the front is a faint stamp: "B. F. Kiester, Dist. Mgr., 102 Salem Ave. Dayton, O." This card is #2 in a series of immigration-promoting cards issued (one assumes) by a land company.

Unused Valentine & Sons card, no. 100,391 and likely dating to about 1905 (as the reference to "Assiniboia" suggests).

Unused postcard, divided back and numbered 201347 without publisher identification. The C.P.R. may have sponsored this.

This card was postmarked on August 24, 1927 at Fort William, Ont. (now part of Thunder Bay). It is addressed to Simeon Régnier, L'Acadie, Comté St-Jean, P. Q. and has a short message in French that is hard to read but is from Mr. Régnier's son. The numbering on the front of the card suggests that it was originally produced around 1908-10 by Valentine & Sons (no. 105,276) but in fact this particular printing of the card is likely a late reprint from the 1920s as it is identified on the reverse as having been published by Valentine Edy Co. of Winnipeg (one of the several North American Valentine subsidiaries that became independent of the Scottish parent company in the 1920s). It is noteworthy for showing a "Deering" plough (if that's what that is).

This is a later version of the emigration "propaganda" card (later than the Government Agent series, that is). This one is stated on the back to have been issued by the Canadian Department of Emigration, 1, Regent Street, London, S.W. 1. It is unused. I don't know where the school depicted was.

One of the less interesting looking "Government Agent" cards, showing the successful farm of Benjamin Holden at Indian Head, circa 1905. The card is unused.

Lithographed card by Lewis Rice of Moose Jaw, Sask., with 1909 copyright date. Same image as used on his 'ploughing and disking and breaking' card, but in much better condition.

One of two 1909 cards by Lewis Rice of Moose Jaw, Sask. Very nice image of horses in the rolling countryside out there. Unused.

A Macfarlane card, B.381. Doesn't seem to be in the Smith guidebook.

Used but not mailed, with what appears to be the conclusion of a multi-card message written across the entire back: "...some one who will lend me a little. I haven't got much room in this letter with these post cards that is the way me and Pearl is going to our honest end I will have to rite you a longer letter next time I rite I will conclude with best love from your Loving Brother & Sister." The author doesn't actually capitalize the word "I". This is another nice example of Lewis Rice's work.

I believe there are two scenes of this farm in the Government Agent series. Deleau is on Highway 2, about 15 miles west of Souris.

A lively and orderly looking farm at Glencross (misspelled on the card), a post office that closed in 1909 but which is still on maps on 25W-8N about four miles southwest of the City of Winkler, Manitoba.

Number 16 in the monochrome Russell, Lang & Co. series. This was mailed October 21, 1906 in Winnipeg to Miss Mary Simpson, Burnbank Cottages, Langloan, Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, Scotland, from a J.L. c//o Mrs M. Rowden, 295 Isabel Str., Winnipeg, who wrote: "You will be thinking I have forgot you all together allways getting word from A. Getting along all right up here. Not as nice as Ontario. This is one of our harvesting scenes. Hoping this finds you all well."

An unused Russell Lang & Co. card (no. 154) on an undivided "Canadian Souvenir Post Card" back. This is for those with an interest in the Brandon Experimental Farm.

Unrecorded C.S. Co. card no. 566. Unused.