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Description
The International Plowing Match and Rural Exhibition is an event organized yearly by the Ontario's Plowmen association. It has many facets including mechanized and horse drawn plowing contests, artisans' displays, quilting bees and many more.
Plowing Matches have been part of the agricultural history in Ontario for well over a century. In the early days they were sponsored by Agricultural Societies, the first farm groups to be established.
History records that in 1846 when the first provincial exhibition was held in the city of Toronto, a special feature of the event was a plowing match. It took place on a farm on Young Street in the vicinity of St. Claire Avenue.
These matches not only gave farmers an opportunity to display their skill in the handling of a walking plow, but to show their fine teams of horses, many of which were imported or were from imported stock.