Harvest Building

 

You can find the whole history of harvesting equipment at Farmtown Park, not only for harvesting grain, but also for making hay and straw.

Hay is dried grass, which farmers now put into bales to feed to the animals in winter. Before machines for making bales were invented, the farmers used to put the hay loose on to wagons and take it to the barn to be stored. They lifted the hay using a hessian sling and swung it into the hayloft. Once balers were introduced farmers could bale the hay in the field and because the hay in bales is compacted farmers can store more of it.

You can see all sorts of balers in the Harvest Building including a straw packer for making bales of straw. Straw is the stalk of the grain once the grain has been removed and is used for bedding for the animals.There are threshing machines . Each summer there are demonstrations using the equipment at the Hastings County Farm Show and Plowing Match.

Update on Thursday, September 6, 2012 at 10:25PM by Margaret Grotek

Roy Rogers from Loyalist Township, Ontario, demonstrates threshing oats with his circa 1870 ground hog threshing machine  built by the Desjardins Company of Saint-André-de-Kamouraska. He was at the Hastings County Farm Show and Plowing Match 2012. He is a member of the Quinte Antique Tractor Club, which based at Farmtown Park home of the Hastings County Museum of Agricultural Heritage.

Tillage Building

In the Tillage Building at Farmtown Park you can find out about the importance of the fertile soils of Hastings County, the different crops farmers grow and how they cultivate the land, plant seed and tend crops. There are wonderful murals on the walls of horses plowing and scenes of the rural countryside of Hastings County.

The Hastings County Plowmen’s Association sponsors the displays. Each year one can watch farmers from Ontario and Quebec compete in the horse tractor and tractor plowing competitions at the Hastings County Farm Show and Plowing Match.

George V School House

The George V School House is set up as a one room school dating from the 1930s. Small schools were common in the rural area until the mid sixies. At Grand Parents Day in September children can experience what it was like to go to a one room school house.

More and more schools are taking advantage of the wonderful learning environment found at Hastings County Museum of Agricultural Heritage. With your help we can design a program to meet the educational needs of your students. Grade Four students are invited to Agribition in early October to learn about our agricultural heritage and where our food comes from. They milk the cow, make butter and try other hands on excercises.

If you are interested in bringing your class to Farmtown Park for a visit please contact Sandy Donnan or Margaret Grotek at (613) 395-0015 or info@agmuseum.ca

Discovery Centre

The new interactive children's Discovery Centre was opened by Roy Bonisteel at the Strawberry Social on June 2011. It is home to the amazing Jack Ward Collection of die-cast toy tractors and trucks, and the diorama of Stirling and area where everything is in miniature. Watch the new All is Silence video for children and remember our veterans.

We are looking for antique toys for the new Toy Shop. Please contact Edith Ray or Sandra Lindsay at the museum if you have toys you would like to donate (613) 395-0015.