Life on a farm before the advent of tractors relied on horse-drawn equipment and the skills and labor of many people, as the detailed drawings in this fascinating book reveal. Accurately rendered by A. G. Smith, 43 ready-to-color illustrations depict a wide variety of farm activities in mid-nineteenth-century America.
Based on scenes re-created on the Firestone Farm at historic Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan, the drawings include authentically detailed views of kitchen chores (churning butter, preparing foods); seasonal occupations (shearing sheep, mowing hay, gathering pumpkins, “harvesting” and “sugaring off” maple syrup), as well as plowing, planting, caring for livestock, splitting firewood, raising a barn, and many other activities.
Peter H. Cousins, Curator of Agriculture at Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village, has written an informative introduction and provided fact-filled captions for this entertaining and educational view of life in bygone rural America.