| No. 3 | October 2007 |
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The two-wheel horse truck shown in the photo on the right was one of the
Island - made implements used on farms in Kings County in the late 1800's
and early 1900's. This implement is owned by Preston Robertson of Murray
Harbour and is on display at The Log Cabin Museum, a private museum owned
and operated by Mr. Robertson.
The horse truck was used to transport hay and sheaves of grain and at other times was carefully stored away to protect it from the elements. Building the load was a literally a balancing act - the load had to be distributed over the axle so that there would some weight to the front of the cart , but not too much for the horse to support. Mr. Robertson believes this wagon was made by his father, James Robertson, who was born in 1859 and farmed in Murray Harbour until his passing in 1941. The metal parts would have been made by a local blacksmith, Wesley Roberts, who served the community from a site at the intersection of what is now Route 18A and the Mill Road. The pieces that form the frame and shafts are cut from single pieces of wood and measure over 20 feet in length. Preston tells how his father, in place of a chalk line, would take an alder stick, blacken the end in a fire, and use it to mark out the line to follow in cutting a piece such as those in the horse truck. The bed of the cart is just over 14 feet long and 3 feet 8 inches wide. The side boards were used to keep the load away from the wheels. |
A view of one of the metal pieces used in construction of the horse truck. The Agricultural Heritage Newsletter is an informal newsletter published electrically with the assistance of The Community Foundation of Prince Edward Island and edited by Charley Coles, Don Glendenning, and Tom Hall. Feel free to forward it to a friend. To be added to or removed from the mailing list, or to suggest ideas for future newsletters, please contact charlescoles@eastlink.ca |