Blogs

Harvesting with a cart: Pliny’s vallus and Palladius’ vehiculum

An on-going saga in agricultural innovation. How can you harvest with a cart pushed backwards? This idea proposed by farmers in northern Gaul is original and unparalleled in the Roman era: it suffices to combine two implements, a cart (vehiculum) and a hand tool for cutting or stripping-off. The idea seems simple enough, but the… Continue reading Harvesting with a cart: Pliny’s vallus and Palladius’ vehiculum

The Amazing Impact of Furry and Feathered Interpreters

Jeannette Beranger joins us again for an article on her experiences in the United States in using animals as the star performers in audience contact. For nearly 20 years, I was in charge of a Heritage breed farmyard exhibit within a facility that enjoyed over a million visitors a year. It never ceased to amaze… Continue reading The Amazing Impact of Furry and Feathered Interpreters

The Ethnology of the Old Ways

Travels in Scotland c. 1720-1830. The Hunterian Museum in the University of Glasgow organized an exhibition in the summer of 2020, under the title ‘Old Ways and New Roads: Travels in Scotland c. 1720-1830’, presenting the results of a lengthy research project based in Glasgow University under the leadership of Professor Nigel Leask, Dr John… Continue reading The Ethnology of the Old Ways

How Much is a Banker Horse Worth?

Jeannette Beranger points out that a sad incident led to precise evaluation of the “value” of the Banker horses that attract millions of visitors a year to the islands off the eastern coast of the United States. American Livestock Breeds Conservancy staffers Alison Martin, Steve Moize, and Jeannette Beranger headed to the North Carolina (United… Continue reading How Much is a Banker Horse Worth?

“The Wagon Walk”

“The Wagon Walk” at the Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) in Reading. Wagon enthusiasts will have much to see and enjoy at The MERL. The strength of collections, whether objects, books, records or photographic archives, is outstanding, fully deserving of their Designated Status. Very rarely do objects and related archives come together quite so… Continue reading “The Wagon Walk”

Donkeys, The Helpmeet Of Humankind In Pharaonic Egypt

Donkeys had long been domesticated in ancient Egypt and may have come from the family of Equus africanus known in Nubia. An illustration painted on a pre-dynastic (ca. 3000 BCE) schist plaque shows a donkey among the booty taken in Libya. The Egyptians used donkeys as pack animals and they were among the livestock of… Continue reading Donkeys, The Helpmeet Of Humankind In Pharaonic Egypt

The Learning Curve At Lauresham Open-Air Laboratory

– from oxen to old swine breed. Preparing the field for winter crops. A team of two Raetian Grey Oxen at the Lauresham Open Air Laboratory in Germany is ploughing one of the fields with a (re)constructed Early Medieval ard. In Lauresham various medieval field types (e.g. ridge and furrow) and systems (e.g. three-field crop rotation)… Continue reading The Learning Curve At Lauresham Open-Air Laboratory

Animal Draft And Its Multiple Heritage: A French Problem?

Utilitarian harnessing methods are invariably the pertinent expression of an activity (agricultural, industrial, commercial) in a particular environment (that may be economic, geographic, technical and cultural, all at the same time). Innovation has been a permanent feature over the last 2500 years and applies to material (harness, vehicles, tools), zootechnics, architecture, urbanism, agronomy… Over the… Continue reading Animal Draft And Its Multiple Heritage: A French Problem?

Small is beautiful

Model farm vehicles from the collections of the COMPA Chartres, France. The COMPA (Conservatoire de l’agriculture) has a very large collection of model farm vehicles and implements created in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as well as their archive collection of photographs and postcards, to share with us. With thanks to Élodie Massouline, Chargée… Continue reading Small is beautiful

Carts And Wagons In The Bulskampveld Collection

Since the beginning of 2018, the Centre for Agrarian History (CAG) Leuven, Belgium, has been responsible for the management and public valorization of the ‘Collection Bulskampveld’, owned by the Flemish government. The collection counts more than 8500 artefacts and consists among other things of carts, wagons, agricultural tools and material for crafts such as wheelwright,… Continue reading Carts And Wagons In The Bulskampveld Collection

The Hermaphrodite Cart

The Hermaphrodite Cart is a type of cart ~ waggon that was used in the eastern counties of England, for example Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, from the 1800s until the mid-1900s. In farm parlance, it was often called a “mophrey” and was created, primarily in hay or harvest time, by extending a two-wheeled cart through the… Continue reading The Hermaphrodite Cart