January 12th, 1911
Langbank, Saskatchewan
Dear Uncle Ben
It is always in order at this time in the year to wish you all a “Happy New Year”. Alice got cousin May’s letter a few days ago and we were glad to hear that you were all well as this leaves us at present. We have had a pretty cold spell for the last 3 weeks, but it seems to have about come to the change now and we are hoping for warmer weather. I heard a man the other day saying that “It was so cold that his words broke off in chunks like icicles and fell to the ground.” It is wonderful how cold it can be out here and yet the people don’t mind it much.
It has been 40 degrees below zero off and on for the last 2 weeks. Tonight it is 22 degrees below zero perfectly calm and you would never think it was so cold unless you looked at the glass. The air is very dry and not so piercingly chilly as it is near the ocean or a large body of water when it is so cold, unless there is some strong reason, the farmers don’t travel much, but just do the horses around home, attending the stock and having an easy time of it. The very cold weather seldom lasts more than 3 or 4 weeks of the winter.
You will think it very strange but out here the young horses are turned out on the prairie at the beginning of winter and are not housed or fed at all. As there is little or no rain in the fall, the long grass dries up with all its substance in it and is just like cured hay and the horses paw the snow and get this cured grass for themselves.
Young colts 6 months old are stabled and fed the first winter but after that, they are never touched till they are old enough to be put to work as work horses. This is a very cheap way of raising horses and there is lots of money in horses these days. A team of horses weighing perhaps 1300 lbs. each will bring about 400 dollars cash, and when the horses come home in the spring they are about as fat as the ones that have been fed in the stable all winter, they don’t mind the cold as their hair grows extra long and thick to protect them. Our little bunch is increasing slowly now we have 29 altogether. We will have 3 new young ones to break in next spring, this is not a formidable undertaking, as they are perfectly quiet and are accustomed to being handled more or less. We find it a good plan to take a few handfulls of oats quite often out to the horses and let them eat them from our hands in this way they are not afraid of us and it is quite easy to handle them.
It is quite a different story to break in a wild pony that has hardly ever seen the face of a man. I bought one once and it was quite a task to get her so that we could work her. First of all I got a man who knew all about these things and we put the bunch of horses into a corral and he threw a lasso over her head
and then she tried to get away, but the rope was around her neck and was fastened to the saddle of the trainer and she pulled till she choked and fell down on her knees, then he put a strong halter on her while she was half choked and tied her solid to a strong post, she pulled and struggled and squealed but she could not break the rope so she had to stand. We left her this way for a few days, feeding and carrying water to her and then the man undertook to get on her back. What a time he had she started off with a wild jump, a western saddle a cowboy saddle is not like an English saddle. The horn or pommel is perhaps 8 inches high and is strong enough to hold the biggest steer that is caught, the rope is wound around this upright horn and the hind part of the saddle is deep, a man sits in the saddle in a deep hollow having the pommel in front and a rise of a few inches behind him. Well when this mare started off, she jumped and kicked and squealed and bucked. When a horse bucked he puts his nose down between his forelegs and kicks upward with his hinder parts. She did everything she knew how to do, but he managed to stay on and she was conquered. She was doing finely after that, we managed to get her into nearly all kinds of work. The first time I put her in the cutter I had a very quiet horse with her and when passing a house 3 or 4 dogs came out barking and one bit her heels of course she kicked at him and in doing this she kicked her foot over the outside trace, the dog was still trying to bite her and she was trying to kick the dog. At last I got her quieted but if the other horse had not been so quiet I could never have held her, here I am writing all about this nonsense but it is the rarest of fun and sport, the breaking in of the new horses.
I give the boys the biggest part of the work to do and they enjoy it as it suits them so well. I wish Norman and Jack were here to see the fun with the horses, as to ourselves we are all as usual. Benjamin Robert is going to school in Whitewood 20 miles away studying for a second class teachers license. Amy is in Manitoba College in her third year, John and Tom are the farmers. Janet (Mrs. Dickey) is Happy in her home with her 4 months old baby Susan Margaret.
Mama is busy with her knitting, I think she sends to Head & Son of London about every week for yarn.
We have 2 carloads of wheat and ship 2000 bushels but will not begin for a month or so yet. Is it not strange we pay about as much for our flour here where the wheat is grown as you do in Liverpool. We pay 12/6 for 100 lbs. of good flour and we pay 14 shillings for 100 lbs. of oatmeal and the price of oats is only about 1 shilling a bushel more than wheat. White sugar is threepence a pound by the bag of 100 lbs. Pork is fivepence per pound and beef is fourpence by the carcass (for both). The other day I bought 25 lbs. of barley flakes it is barley hulled and rolled as thin as paper we like it very well and it is 2 pence per lb.
Alice says to me you must get us some herring, good Labrador herring 20/10 per 100 lbs. Last night Tom shot a jackrabbit (the same as an English hare) and we will have him for dinner tomorrow. Tell the girls that I don’t know it from chicken I like it so well, and they will remember the joke when I was in Liverpool. Americans don’t fancy rabbits and rabbits we were having for dinner at Hoylake and I remarked they tasted like chicken (which was satisfactory to us).
I was at a curling match the other night, it is well called (the roaring game of curling).
With love to you all in which Alice joins me, I remain
Your affectionate Nephew
J.A. Cairns