Farming Diversifies in Waterford—Including Now!

 The Caledonian-Record, our regional newspaper, printed an article about the recent changes to the Gingue farm, a multigenerational farm in the region of town once known as Waterford Hollow. Although the end of profitable dairying came with sorrow for this family, they quickly began to diversify their products and processes. Enjoy reading this agricultural success story -- and for follow-up, why not subscribe to the newspaper yourself? (The online access is terrific—another example of adapting, for a paper that began in 1837.) https://www.caledonianrecord.com

Sheep in Waterford, Vermont: A Preview and a Farmer's Talk

photo by Linda Kenney from United Kingdom (Baaaaa!) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The Waterford (Vermont) Historical Society welcomes farmer Elizabeth Everts on Wednesday March 23 to talk about the history of sheep in our region. The Everts family owns Too Little Farm in Barnet, Vt., where they raise sheep, as well as market vegetables and fruit. The talk is at the Davies Memorial Library in Lower Waterford at 6:30 p.m. Please join us if you can!

As a preview, the sheep face here belongs to a Cotswold, one of the popular breeds in town in the 1880s. Here is a short general description of sheep in Vermont, from the Billings Farm website:

Vermont was a sheep state before it was a dairy state. Through much of the 19th century, sheep dominated the livestock interests here, outnumbering both cows and people. The first important breed in Vermont was the Merino, whose numbers exceeded 1.6 million by 1840. The Merino was known for producing fine wool and its desirability helped Vermont's woolen mill industry to prosper. By 1870, Vermont still had well over 500,000 sheep – and just under 200,000 cattle. As the demand for Merino wool declined however, Vermont's sheep population also declined and the conversion to dairy cattle was underway. Today, there are an estimated 25,000 sheep in Vermont.
     Frederick Billings began importing Southdown sheep from several of the best flocks in Britain during the 1870s – about the time that sheep farming started to decline in Vermont. He selected this breed for its excellent meat and wool - believing that introducing a dual-purpose breed might help slow the decline of sheep farming. Billings's flock of Southdowns quickly became one of the best in the state. By the early 20th century, there were several hundred sheep at Billings Farm.

Local Waterford details on sheep in Child's Gazetteer of 1887 show a dozen local farmers with sheep, most with 20 or 30 sheep, one with 50, and George C. Lawrence, co-owner with George G. Winslow, held 100 Cotswold sheep.

The Lawrence/Winslow farm was also known for Mr. Winslow's breeding and dealing with the Costwolds.

Now, aren't you curious to learn more? Come to the talk!

Barn Survey Continues: Remick/Green Barns

Many thanks to Mary Florio for sharing so much information about the barns built by Lorenzo Green, eventually becoming part of the Rufus W., Harry E., and then Henry E. Remick dairy farm. A lot of the information on these barns will be in the 2013 Waterford Town Report, as part of a longer exploration of the barn survey by local historian Helen-Chantal Pike. For now, I'll just mention a small story that goes with the farm:

Teachers at the neighboring Green School (named for the Green family) usually boarded at the farmhouse. In the farm's earliest years, several of the seven Green sons married teachers because of this. Teacher spouses also abound in the Remick family, and today the farm owner has retired from the Waterford School, after a career as an actively teaching librarian. (Do you think it's something in the water? Smile.)

REMINDER: Waterford Historical Group meets on the 4th Wed. of each month, at the Davies Mem. Library, 6 pm; as I write this, that's TOMORROW. Come talk barns.

Barn Survey: Waterford Historical Starts New Project

At right, speaker Joshua Phillips.

Attentive audience!

Joshua Phillips brought his Vermont barn expertise to the October meeting of the Waterford Historical group, and taught about English-style barns, bank barns, roofs, why round barns were designed, and much more. Handouts on barn details and terminology and a dynamic "PowerPoint" slide show kept us all eager and the conversations afterward were full of enthusiasm.

So -- it looks like our Nov 28 meeting (at the Davies Memorial Library, 6 pm) will focus on who's going to survey which structures (or areas), and setting some priorities. Mr. Phillips suggested that November and April are the best months for taking unobstructed photos of all four sides of a barn or other farm-related building (yes, sugarhouses count!).

For copies of the handouts, look here:

http://www.uvm.edu/~barn/get_ready.html

And if you can't be at the November meeting but you're interested in working on this, or want to suggest some agricultural buildings in town, please do leave a message at the library and one of us will get back to you.

Oh yes -- why do this? Because it will help preserve our barns! The Barn Census is step one in making sure that state and private preservation groups pay attention, and direct some funds, toward the fascinating structures and history that we have right here.