On Ben's Farm

Methods Class Reaching out to farmers with the latest ideas By Mylinda Woodward '97

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Jaws dropped in amazement as the spectators watched 19-year-old Helen Bernaby '30 rhythmically swing her scythe through the alfalfa field, leaving long swaths of hay and the 11 male competitors behind her to win the first hand-mowing competition held at the 1926 Farmers' and Home-Makers' Week in Durham. Her victory garnered her national attention, with newspapers from the New York Times to the Miami Herald running the story of the "hayfield heroine," and it gave her a certain amount of celebrity status at UNH when she began her freshman year that fall.

Helen's feat was probably not very surprising to her parents and three younger siblings. Like most of the participants in the annual Farmer's Week, the Bernaby's farm in North Danville, N.H., was both their home and their livelihood. Everyone in the family was expected to help with the chores, so it was not unusual to find Helen haying the fields that would feed their cows (albeit with a mowing machine, not a scythe). She was also a star athlete, having captained the best girls' basketball team in the history of her high school, Sanborn Seminary. On her college application, Helen wrote that the reason she wanted to go to college was "to train for extension work [and] to be able to help people."

In the most basic terms, "helping people" is the mandate of UNH; as one of the land-grant colleges founded by the Morrill Act of 1862, they are charged by Congress to conduct resident instruction, research and outreach to people beyond the classroom.

In the 1880s, short non-resident courses, exhibits at fairs and lectures given at local granges were some of the earliest outreach efforts by the college. The N.H. Agricultural Experiment Station, established as a department of the college in 1887, began issuing research bulletins as their programs got under way. These bulletins were available to anyone who requested one. However, the average farmer, though literate, had difficulty connecting what they read in these scholarly reports to their daily farm routines.

John C. Kendall, Class of 1902, was appointed director of the Experiment Station in 1910 and director of Extension the following year. In his first report to President Gibbs, he wrote, "Seeing is believing with the average farmer, but when once convinced, experience teaches, he will gladly put into execution such methods and practices as have been shown to bring in the best results in his own neighborhood on his own or similar soils." Demonstrations became the preferred method by which experiment station findings were delivered.

The college hosted the first Farmers' Institute "One-Week Course" during the school's winter break in 1909. It was designed to "meet the needs of the everyday practical farmer and his wife who cannot leave home for a long time, but who wish to get some new ideas concerning the latest and most approved methods of farming operations and household work." Those who could not come for the entire week were encouraged to come for a day or two. The only cost to the participant was lodging if needed; and, they were assured, no exams! The institute combined lectures, demonstrations and exhibits presented by specialists from the college as well as visiting experts. Eighty people attended the first year. A woman's session was added the following year and attendance jumped to 200.

Anna Barrows of Columbia University gave the first lectures on home economics. Her topics—food for school children, keeping down the grocery bill and using meat substitutes—are as relevant today as they were 100 years ago.

For the next 10 years the program expanded in the effort to reach the entire rural community, including teachers and clergy. Perhaps one of the most important of these groups was the future farmers of the state. In 1913, Kendall added Boys' and Girls' Club work to his annual appeal to the state for more funds for extension work, saying, "Steps should be taken to interest boys in agriculture early before they become discouraged and turn away from the farm." Some state funding was granted, but it was the Smith-Lever Act, passed by Congress in 1914, that provided much needed federal funds to expand the cooperative extension statewide.

These clubs (now 4-H) were popular with both sexes. The boys competed against each other to see who could grow the most corn and potatoes. County winners attended the Farmers' One Week course at Durham, where the state winners were determined. The prize for the champion was a four-year scholarship at the college. The girls grew tomatoes and string beans, some of which were marketed; the surplus was canned.

The last mid-winter Farmers' Week was held in 1918 with the theme "Agriculture Must Help Win the War." The program's "Who's Who" list of presenters included 53 names. The following year, the program was moved to August "when it was thought to offer the greatest number an opportunity to attend if only for a day." Unhampered by the weather (except for rain) the college's own livestock, fields, orchards and woodlots were used for demonstrations. Spectators could see all the latest labor-saving devices from the newest tractors, to ditch blasting with dynamite to electric washing machines.

But it was not all work. From the beginning the program organizers realized that for many farm families a week such as this might be their only opportunity for a few days' vacation. The practice of reserving Friday afternoon and evenings for entertainment, such as singing, spelling bees, storytelling and, beginning in 1916, moving pictures, was established early on. Once the program moved to August, the recreational activities expanded to include picnics, parades, one-act play competitions, horseshoe pitching tournaments, baseball games and swimming. About 5,000 people attended the "Farm Follies" of 1925.

The last Farm and Home days was held in 1953. In the 45 years since its beginning, the demographics and self-image of the state had changed. New Hampshire was now heavily industrialized and no longer was primarily an agricultural state.

When Benjamin Thompson willed his Durham farmland to New Hampshire for an agricultural school, there were more than 30,000 farms in the state. Today there are less than 5,000. The work done to support and promote agriculture in the state by the College of Life Sciences and Agriculture, the Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension may be more important today than it was decades earlier. In the words of a bumper sticker seen on campus lately: "No Farms, No Food". ~