Up to the mid-1960's, all farmers on P.E.I. harvested their grain (oats, wheat, and barley crops) with a binder. This machine cut the grain, and tied it into bundles, called "sheaves". This was always done in August.

Potatoes have always been a main crop on P.E.I. Before mechanical harvesters and trucks were used, all these potatoes were picked by hand. Every farm grew two or three acres.

The Valleyfield area was settled largely by Scots many of whom shared the same last name. The 1880 atlas shows that 13 of the first 32 properties were owned by MacLeods. They also tended to have a limited number of first names. It's not

Last week, we looked at some of the large mammals that once roamed PEI, including Black Bears, Lynx, Walrus, and Caribou. You may think these were the animals that threatened early settlers the most, but the truly fearsome creatures were much smaller. (courtesy Kate MacQuarrie)

Before the practice of snowplowing roads in the winter, PEI residents used many shortcuts across the countryside to make travelling easier in the wintertime...

Back in the 1930's and 40's, a lot of island travel was done by train, especially in winter. Cars were not plentiful, the roads were poorly maintained, and a train station was always relatively close by. My uncle worked for CNR and married a Lavers gal from Georgetown...

In the late 1890's, a farmer in Victoria Cross discovered a tiger in his barn, threatening his animals. The nearest weapon was a pitchfork, and acting instinctively, the farmer ...

When I was ten or eleven, an aeroplane landed in the field behind our barns around noon, and all the school kids from Victoria Cross ...