The Two-Holer Textbook

Carolyn Bett was President, CEBET Bibliographies.

Why do Saskatchewanians think they are the only Canadians who have even seen or used outhouses, be they one, two, or multi-holers? Who do they think they are one-upping?

Having passed that bit of silliness, this book is a compendium of trivia, not all of it related exclusively to the prairies. The breezy line drawings reflect the chatty tone of the text, but the reader often wishes for more precision, particularly in the diagrams of machinery. The text itself is often cryptic. The “Easterner” who seeks an explanation of “summerfallow” in relation to the known term “fallow” will find the answer in a dictionary, not in this book.

However, the book does capture the diversity of knowledge necessary to a farmer and the closeness to the elements characteristic of prairie living. The incidents described will trigger pleasant memories for anyone who has spent some time in rural living.