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Hand Methods of Harvesting Hay
Title
Hand Methods of Harvesting Hay
Date Created
1940's
Description
This film is one of three produced In the 1940’s by Robert M. Carter and the University of Vermont Agricultural Expriment Station, as part of a study of hay harvesting techniques and costs in Vermont. This film documents hand methods of harvesting hay. Preservation and digitization of this film...
Show moreThis film is one of three produced In the 1940’s by Robert M. Carter and the University of Vermont Agricultural Expriment Station, as part of a study of hay harvesting techniques and costs in Vermont. This film documents hand methods of harvesting hay. Preservation and digitization of this film was made possible through a generous grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation.
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Hay Harvesting in the 1940's
Title
Hay Harvesting in the 1940's
Date Created
1940's
Description
In the 1940’s, Robert M. Carter, of the University of Vermont Agricultural Experiment Station, conducted a study of hay harvesting techniques and costs in Vermont. This collection documents that work which resulted in several published studies and three films showing different hay harvesting...
Show moreIn the 1940’s, Robert M. Carter, of the University of Vermont Agricultural Experiment Station, conducted a study of hay harvesting techniques and costs in Vermont. This collection documents that work which resulted in several published studies and three films showing different hay harvesting techniques. The films capture hay harvesting at a time when there was an increasing use of power machinery, and they show a range of techniques including older methods of hand harvesting, as well as newer tractor driven methods. In Carter’s study he writes, “While nearly half of all farmers contacted relied upon horses for handling some field equipment, combinations of horse- and motor-operated equipment were frequent. Forty-one percent of the farmers owned tractors, and 21 percent had trucks.” These films capture hay harvesting right in the middle of the transition from horse to machine driven equipment. Vermont was still a predominantly agricultural state in the 1940’s and dairy was the largest agricultural sector, so hay harvesting was a subject of significant interest in the state. It was also a subject of importance outside of Vermont. Between 1946 and 1948, at least 28 studies on hay harvesting methods and costs were published (Vermont, Nebraska, Iowa, North Dakota, United States Department of Agriculture, New York, Maine, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, California, New Zealand, Colorado, Nevada, Washington, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Connecticut). The large number of studies demonstrates clearly that the point in time that these films capture was critical in terms of the development of hay harvesting. It captures an agricultural sector in a period of intense study and change. In Vermont, the cost of dairy farming was increasing which resulted in fewer and larger farms. The increased size of dairy herds led to greater requirements for feeding them. In the recently published history of the State of Vermont, the authors note, “Wheat, buckwheat, and oats all but disappeared as cash crops for regional or national markets while farmers focused on raising hay, field corn, and other silage crops.” The authors also note that the greater focus on feed forced farmers to examine productivity and to adopt more mechanized and machine driven techniques. Again, the films document this transitional phase while simultaneously serving as evidence of the increased attention paid to issues of labor and cost-saving techniques. Robert Carter was a rural sociologist interested in labor saving techniques and systems. He studied the different ways that farmers harvested hay because “harvesting the hay crop is hard, tedious, expensive work.” His study investigated the efficiency of various hay harvesting methods. He looked at the following hay harvesting tasks: cutting grass, raking hay, bunching hay, loading hay, necessary travel carrying hay between field and barn, unloading hay, and mowing-away hay. He looked at the time spent on each task, the cost of the equipment used, crew size, idle time, time spent making repairs to equipment, the interrelationships between jobs, and the production yield. His study is thorough and provided benchmarks for farmers to measure their performance against as well as strategies for improving efficiency.
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Maple Research Collection
Title
Maple Research Collection
Date Created
1890-1988
Description
This collection documents the history of maple research at the University of Vermont. Included in the collection is a selection of photographs from the archives of the Proctor Maple of Vermont (UVM), and the first permanent maple research facility in the United States. The photographs, taken...
Show moreThis collection documents the history of maple research at the University of Vermont. Included in the collection is a selection of photographs from the archives of the Proctor Maple of Vermont (UVM), and the first permanent maple research facility in the United States. The photographs, taken between 1948-1957, document the construction of the field station’s first sugarhouse, as well as the PMRC sugar bush and early maple experiments. Also included in the collection are the published University of Vermont Agricultural Extension bulletins on maple research (1890-1988), taken from both the Proctor Maple Research Center archive and the University of Vermont Libraries Department of Special Collections.

Maple research in Vermont has a long history, dating back to the early 1890s, when C. H. (Charles Howard) Jones, head of the UVM Agricultural Experiment Station and a prominent early maple sugar chemist, conducted seminal research on the biology of maple trees to better understand the sap flow mechanism and its dependence on meteorological changes, as well as the considerable variance in sap sugar content.

In 1946, James Marvin and Fred Taylor founded the Proctor Maple Research Center with a donation by Governor Mortimer Proctor of the former “Harvey Farm” in Underhill Center, Vermont, to UVM. For the first year of operation, research on sap flow, maple tree physiology, and the economics of maple production were conducted in an 8’ x 12’ shed. In 1948, the first sugarhouse was constructed to allow research on syrup production techniques, followed several years later by the C.H. Jones Laboratory (which served as the primary research laboratory until it burned down in 1998).

Through the years, the PMRC has had its fair share of prominent maple researchers, scientists and educators, including Frederick Laing, whose research helped develop and improve methods of installing plastic tubing and directed improvements in using vacuum pumps to increase sap yields, and Mariafranca Morselli, who brought a greater understanding to the role of microorganisms in determining syrup grade, as well as developing methods to detect adulteration of maple syrup by adding other sugars.

In 1999, the PMRC was named to the National Register of Historic Places, and today houses facilities that include an 8,000 square foot laboratory and a demonstration and research sugarhouse, as well as the original research shed.


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The Buck Rake, Wind Stackers, and Field Chopper in Use
Title
The Buck Rake, Wind Stackers, and Field Chopper in Use
Date Created
1940's
Description
This film is one of three produced In the 1940’s by Robert M. Carter and the University of Vermont Agricultural Expriment Station, as part of a study of hay harvesting techniques and costs in Vermont. This film documents use of the buck rake, wind stalkers, and field chopper.Preservation and...
Show moreThis film is one of three produced In the 1940’s by Robert M. Carter and the University of Vermont Agricultural Expriment Station, as part of a study of hay harvesting techniques and costs in Vermont. This film documents use of the buck rake, wind stalkers, and field chopper.Preservation and digitization of this film was made possible through a generous grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation.
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Using the One-Man Pick-Up Baler
Title
Using the One-Man Pick-Up Baler
Date Created
1940's
Description
This film is one of three produced In the 1940’s by Robert M. Carter and the University of Vermont Agricultural Expriment Station, as part of a study of hay harvesting techniques and costs in Vermont. This film documents use of the one-man pick-up baler.Preservation and digitization of this film...
Show moreThis film is one of three produced In the 1940’s by Robert M. Carter and the University of Vermont Agricultural Expriment Station, as part of a study of hay harvesting techniques and costs in Vermont. This film documents use of the one-man pick-up baler.Preservation and digitization of this film was made possible through a generous grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation.
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