ABSTRACT
This chapter explains about means of travel used in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan before 1950; equally, it is about a social system which minimised travel by keeping important destinations near at hand and making many kinds of travel unnecessary. The 'physical and social environment' supported conservative travel behaviour until the end of the Second World War, despite the availability of the automobile. The wind concentrates Saskatchewan's meager snow cover, stripping all but a thin crust off open fields and depositing deep powder or brittle streamlined drifts wherever it encounters the slightest resistance. The caboose is one example of an 'appropriate technology' adapted to the sleigh trail. Another is a propeller-driven sled called a 'snow–plane'. The most tangible means by which the travel needs of farm households were reduces were by a variety of institutions which brought services to the farm. The economic pressures to increase the productivity of the farms were the first to influence farmers' travel needs.
