Pete Watson, director of the Howell Living History Farm, explains that on the farm they do things the way they were done one hundred years ago. Before there were gasoline engines, horses provided the power for much of the farm equipment.
Watson explains that visitors are encouraged to help with the work. We visit Howell Farm when they are shearing the sheep. One of the staff demonstrates how shearing has changed. In colonial days farmers used hand shears; in the late nineteenth century they used hand-cranked mechanical shears; today they use electric shears. Visitors help wash and card the wool. Midge Guerrara, the series host, explains that in colonial days people carded the wool, spun it into thread, and wove it into cloth at home, but in the late nineteenth century they took it to mills in Trenton for carding, spinning, and weaving.
Farms a hundred years ago had many different crops and animals, unlike modern specialized farms that raise only one or two products, such as apples, peaches, dairy cows, or grain crops. Horses were especially important, because they provided transportation to markets, power for farm equipment, and manure for fertilizer.
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