LEARNING ABOUT LIFE ON THE FARM
Farmers say museum will acquaint city-dwellers with Ohio's heritage.
A Sun News article by Joanne Berger DuMound
Staff Writer
August 5, 1999
What state in the nation ranks first in egg production, yielding 7 billion eggs per year, while taking second for processed tomatoes, harvesting $24.3 million worth of fresh vegetables in 1998?
Would you believe Ohio?
These little-known agricultural facts do not surprise area part-time and former farmers like Steve Mattes, Bruce Kucharski, Tim Fowler and Joe Stack, all North Royalton residents.
What does amaze them is the lack of knowledge even many college-educated graduates have about agriculture and farming.
"I overheard one teacher talking to a group of her students at the fair. They were in the chicken barn and the teacher was explaining that there was a hen with the chicks. She said the mother hen hovered over the chicks and the chicks nursed. She was wrong. Chicks scratch and eat grain the day they are born," said Kucharski. "Children also have the misconception that milk is produced through a process rather than coming from a cow. They do not know our agricultural heritage."
That is the main reason these local residents donated farming equipment to the Cuyahoga County Farm Bureau Museum, Barn 23, at the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds in Berea. The museum will be open during the Cuyahoga County Fair, which starts Monday and ends Aug. 15, 1999.
"Agriculture is the largest industry in Ohio. Every person in the state needs agriculture," said Fowler who, like Kucharski, is a Cuyahoga County Agricultural Society director. "The museum is a vital link to what was done years ago and what we are doing now." The museum has more than 100 pieces of farming equipment and aids. Fowler made one of the most ingenious devices in the window-shuttered barn - a lamb feeder. Fowler made it some 45 years ago when he was a young boy helping work his family's acreage. Orphaned lambs need milk. Fowler put nipples on glass pop bottles and hung them from the bottom of the contraption in which he also installed a light bulb. "I tried to put the bottles in as natural a position as possible for the lambs. The light bulb kept the milk warm," said Fowler. "It was homemade and handy. I used it at our Bennett and Drake farm."
Anita Cook, the Cuyahoga County Farm Bureau's organization director, said the museum began about five years ago in the new building. Prior to that the museum had only a small booth at the fair. Cook said they began asking for donations in a newsletter and at the fair.
The Steve Novak family of Broadview Heights saw the museum notice and offered any equipment found on its old dairy farm.
"We went into the fields and the barn that was leaning. They were a treasure chest of agricultural history," said Cook. "A bunch of people came with their trucks and trailers. We pulled out a hay rake, mower, potato digger, plows, saw blades, potato planters and many other items."
Steve Mattes, a part-time farmer who is a custodian at North Royalton HIgh School, donated several pieces including a horse-drawn hay mower, corn sheller, corn planter and sheep feeder trough and sheers. He was born and raised on a Polk, Ohio farm. His family headed to Ohio's northeastern area to continue its agricultural heritage. In 1070 he and his wife bought their Royalwood Road farm from her family. They riased cows and continued to tend sheep and grow hay on the 12 acres.
He explained how the milking equipment, including a pulsator at the museum, attached to a vacuum pump. "It probably takes about 15 minutes to milk a cow by hand. If you have four or five cows, you're talking an hour in the barn," said Mattes. "This equipment made it faster. Now you have fiberglass tubing in this process where the milk goes directly into the truck."
A culipacker, a roller attachment that broke down clumps of dirt in the field before planting, has a local connection. The Durham Company of Berea, a leader in the industry of farm implements, manufactured the equipment. The company closed its doors in 1956.
A big drawing card to the museum was its first tractor. This year about 30 tractors will be parked under a nearby tent. Joe Stack, president of the Agricultural Preservation Association of Cuyahoga County - better known as the Tractor Club - said the oldest one was built around 1932. They range from the 1930 to 1960 versions. "We have many different ones, Allis-Chalmers, Fords, Farmalls, depending upon which ones they grew up with or liked," said Stack, a Cady Road resident. "We have about 40 members, our youngest being 12 years old. He got interested in it and picked up a tractor he hopes to display at the fair."
The Tractor Club built the corn crib, pulley system and stalls in the front portion of the museum's barn. The museum will also have a Safety Fair exhibit on the riding lawn mower, an urban piece of equipment, which, if not used properly, can seriously injure children.
Visitors will also be able to guess the function of a mystery machine as well as help clean corn using a sheller and other hands-on-exhibits.
Following a recent fairground event, several Irishmen strolled into the museum and noted the similarities between the American farming equipment and items used in their Celtic fields. "I have one just like this plow back home but it is black, not red. Actually I ride it for fun because we have more modern ones now," said the young Phillip O'Brien, a farmer in County Roscommon, Ireland. "All the equipment is the basically same, except ours is made in England. They all use the same principles needed in farming. It is very nice to see it here."
Agriculture adds $67 billion into Ohio's economy. Once a booming greenhouse location, floraculture is the biggest agricultural product in Cuyahoga County.
Mattes said you do not find too many second- and third-generation farmers in Cuyahoga County. "They have gone in other directions to find an easier life," he said. "It might not be better but it is easier."
Fair hours and museum information may be obtained by calling (440) 243-0090 or on the Web site: www.cuyfair.com
© 1999 Sun Newspapers
*reprinted from Sun News 1999 archives*
Farmers say museum will acquaint city-dwellers with Ohio's heritage.
A Sun News article by Joanne Berger DuMound
Staff Writer
August 5, 1999
What state in the nation ranks first in egg production, yielding 7 billion eggs per year, while taking second for processed tomatoes, harvesting $24.3 million worth of fresh vegetables in 1998?
Would you believe Ohio?
These little-known agricultural facts do not surprise area part-time and former farmers like Steve Mattes, Bruce Kucharski, Tim Fowler and Joe Stack, all North Royalton residents.
What does amaze them is the lack of knowledge even many college-educated graduates have about agriculture and farming.
That is the main reason these local residents donated farming equipment to the Cuyahoga County Farm Bureau Museum, Barn 23, at the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds in Berea. The museum will be open during the Cuyahoga County Fair, which starts Monday and ends Aug. 15, 1999.
"Agriculture is the largest industry in Ohio. Every person in the state needs agriculture," said Fowler who, like Kucharski, is a Cuyahoga County Agricultural Society director. "The museum is a vital link to what was done years ago and what we are doing now." The museum has more than 100 pieces of farming equipment and aids. Fowler made one of the most ingenious devices in the window-shuttered barn - a lamb feeder. Fowler made it some 45 years ago when he was a young boy helping work his family's acreage. Orphaned lambs need milk. Fowler put nipples on glass pop bottles and hung them from the bottom of the contraption in which he also installed a light bulb. "I tried to put the bottles in as natural a position as possible for the lambs. The light bulb kept the milk warm," said Fowler. "It was homemade and handy. I used it at our Bennett and Drake farm."
Anita Cook, the Cuyahoga County Farm Bureau's organization director, said the museum began about five years ago in the new building. Prior to that the museum had only a small booth at the fair. Cook said they began asking for donations in a newsletter and at the fair.
The Steve Novak family of Broadview Heights saw the museum notice and offered any equipment found on its old dairy farm.
"We went into the fields and the barn that was leaning. They were a treasure chest of agricultural history," said Cook. "A bunch of people came with their trucks and trailers. We pulled out a hay rake, mower, potato digger, plows, saw blades, potato planters and many other items."
Steve Mattes, a part-time farmer who is a custodian at North Royalton HIgh School, donated several pieces including a horse-drawn hay mower, corn sheller, corn planter and sheep feeder trough and sheers. He was born and raised on a Polk, Ohio farm. His family headed to Ohio's northeastern area to continue its agricultural heritage. In 1070 he and his wife bought their Royalwood Road farm from her family. They riased cows and continued to tend sheep and grow hay on the 12 acres.
He explained how the milking equipment, including a pulsator at the museum, attached to a vacuum pump. "It probably takes about 15 minutes to milk a cow by hand. If you have four or five cows, you're talking an hour in the barn," said Mattes. "This equipment made it faster. Now you have fiberglass tubing in this process where the milk goes directly into the truck."
A culipacker, a roller attachment that broke down clumps of dirt in the field before planting, has a local connection. The Durham Company of Berea, a leader in the industry of farm implements, manufactured the equipment. The company closed its doors in 1956.
A big drawing card to the museum was its first tractor. This year about 30 tractors will be parked under a nearby tent. Joe Stack, president of the Agricultural Preservation Association of Cuyahoga County - better known as the Tractor Club - said the oldest one was built around 1932. They range from the 1930 to 1960 versions. "We have many different ones, Allis-Chalmers, Fords, Farmalls, depending upon which ones they grew up with or liked," said Stack, a Cady Road resident. "We have about 40 members, our youngest being 12 years old. He got interested in it and picked up a tractor he hopes to display at the fair."
The Tractor Club built the corn crib, pulley system and stalls in the front portion of the museum's barn. The museum will also have a Safety Fair exhibit on the riding lawn mower, an urban piece of equipment, which, if not used properly, can seriously injure children.
Visitors will also be able to guess the function of a mystery machine as well as help clean corn using a sheller and other hands-on-exhibits.
Following a recent fairground event, several Irishmen strolled into the museum and noted the similarities between the American farming equipment and items used in their Celtic fields. "I have one just like this plow back home but it is black, not red. Actually I ride it for fun because we have more modern ones now," said the young Phillip O'Brien, a farmer in County Roscommon, Ireland. "All the equipment is the basically same, except ours is made in England. They all use the same principles needed in farming. It is very nice to see it here."
Agriculture adds $67 billion into Ohio's economy. Once a booming greenhouse location, floraculture is the biggest agricultural product in Cuyahoga County.
Mattes said you do not find too many second- and third-generation farmers in Cuyahoga County. "They have gone in other directions to find an easier life," he said. "It might not be better but it is easier."
Fair hours and museum information may be obtained by calling (440) 243-0090 or on the Web site: www.cuyfair.com
© 1999 Sun Newspapers
*reprinted from Sun News 1999 archives*
NOTE: The 112th Cuyahoga County Fair will be held August 4 thru 10, 2008.
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