Just out–the brand new 2012 edition of Journal of York County Heritage, a popular periodical published annually by York County Heritage Trust. The new edition offers five well-researched articles on a variety of events from the 19th and 20th centuries. They include: “The Cartridge Box: The Inside-Out Newspaper of the
Thanks to June Evans for sharing the history of the Horn Farm Center for Educational Agriculture with me, as well as these old photographs of the site. See the captions for more identification and attribution. A portion of the eastern part of the present farm goes back to Christian Crowl
I started out writing about a little tidbit tacked to an article about the York Imperial apple in the August 13, 1920 York Gazette and Daily. The subject was timothy grass–you know–the plant that is mown, along with clover, for hay, and how timothy came to York County, along with
Windmills–we might think of the sleek white blades of giant windmills generating electricity or those with huge canvas sails that we associate with Holland. Some of you might remember the iron frame windmills once used on many farms to pump water. Those seem to have come into use about 1850.
While looking for illustrations for my PowerPoint presentation on York County agriculture next Saturday at York County Heritage Trust, I came across the Lewis Miller drawing above. I think it’s a pretty amusing example of what might be called “York County attitude.” Jacob Buser’s cow had wandered into Abraham Greenawalt’s
Reapers, cutting grain or hay with scythes or sickles, were followed by young women and boys raking and stacking the harvest. York artist Henry Barratt captured Pennsylvania German life of the first half of the 19th century in the illustrations he did for Yorker Henry Lee Fisher’s narrative Pennsylvania Dutch
I suppose it’s human nature to look back to the “good old days.” They might not have been so great, but time makes them seem so. I was reminded of this when I stopped to take the above photo of freshly harvested straw bales in a field near my house.
Lucky canning house, probably 1930s My 96-year-old mother-in-law remembers picking string beans at farms in Chanceford Township when she was 10 or so in the 1920s. She says she picked beans during the day and then helped snip them at the Lucky canning house in the evening. I purchased a
Apple developed by James Hersh of neighboring Adams County, c.1880 Over the years, York area people have taken pride in their fruit and vegetables, growing gigantic specimens or even developing new strains. Click on these links for previous posts on the York Imperial Apple and York Imperial Cherry. Mr. Cicero
The York Imperial apple won’t win any beauty contests. I have several in my fruit bowl right now and they all look different. They come in various shadings of red and green with brown freckles. Shape isn’t uniform either–one is round, one is lopsided and one is…well, a kind of