Hardman's Dairy Barn

Hardman's Dairy Barn. Hardman Farm Historic Site. Dr. Lamartine Hardman already owned several farms when he invested in the Nacoochee Valley property. His concept for the north Georgia farm centered around creating an idyllic summer home for his family and using the property for dairying operations. Hardman approached dairy farming in a scientific manner. He purchased registered Jersey cows and a bull and began an extensive breeding program., In 1910, Dr. Hardman built the large dairy barn that would become the centerpiece of the Nacoochee Dairy. Workmen constructed a two-story wood frame structure, clad in clapboards, and topped by an expansive gable roof. Double-hung wood windows allowed for cross ventilation. Farm workers reached the second story by crossing a short wooden walkway or bridge from the east farm road., Within the dairy barn, a large number of cows could be milked at one time in the milking parlor. Automated systems dispersed food and a spring-fed stream could be diverted to clean waste from the troughs in the floor. Local African-American men and a few women from nearby Bean Creek arrived at the farm each day to milk the cows and carry out other dairying operations., The Nacoochee Dairy , The Nacoochee Dairy milked each of the cows twice a day by hand. Milking apparatus such as the 1920s-era surge bucket milkers were not used. The Minish family performed these chores by hand beginning in the 1920s and had to complete the morning milking of about 65 cows before the children had to be at school at 8:30 a.m. Josephine Hardman remembered that the cows all know their stanchion and would bump one another if a cow accidentally went to the wrong stanchion. Each stanchion was marked with the name and registration of each cow. , With the milking completed, the milk was placed into a small cart which held four 10 gallon milk cans and pushed to the creamery or dairy for processing. The family repeated the process in the late afternoon every day of the year., Dr. Hardman's dairy barn did have some modern features. The upper loft or story allowed the cows to be fed through a system of pulleys and large movable buckets that lowered feed and hay to the lower story and ran the length of the stanchions. Portions of this system can be seen today., (captions) , Jersey Cow , Circa 1919 photograph of Jersey cows in milking stanchions , Circa 1919 photograph of barn showing silo , Interior of barn, 2009 , circa 1919 photograph of South end of dairy barn , One of the feed buckets hangs from the pulley system at the front of the barn. The wall to was a later addition and has since been removed.