Oliver Township near Newport in Perry County, Pennsylvania — The American Northeast (Mid-Atlantic)

The 20th Century Perry County Farm

Perry County Bicentennial

— 1820 - 2020 —

The 20th Century Perry County Farm Marker image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Devry Becker Jones (CC0), February 23, 2024

1. The 20th Century Perry County Farm Marker

Inscription.
As the century began almost all farms had a flock of chickens usually tended by women. Young chicks grew up in a brooder house kept warm by a stove on cool nights. When older, the chicks moved into the chicken house. Every day eggs were collected, stored approximately and picked-up weekly. When sold, the farmer was paid in cash.

Many farms either raised enough grain for a cash crop or milked five to ten cows by hand for income. Milk cans were placed in the spring or pump house to cool milk before collection by a milkman.

Farmers who had purchased a tractor often still used their horses or mules for planting because they did not compact the soil as much. Farmers worked hard, plowing, mowing, raking hay, shocking wheat and oats, and cutting corn. Harvesting corn required several hands. Laborers walked along the corn rows, husking the stalks and throwing ears in a corn wagon. Sometimes the ears were left on shocked corn stalks in the field, and pulled when animals needed to be fed.

Soaring Productivity and Specialization As the century progressed advances in genetics and nutrition enabled more rapid livestock

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maturation and greater productivity. Many hog and poultry growers no longer processed their own products but contracted with large, centralized companies Beef and dairy production often remained independent.

Dairy continued a major agricultural activity in western Perry County. Advances in equipment allowed dairy farmers to cut, chop and store corn and silage with fully self-propelled equipment, tripling mid-1920s forage production. Dairy farmers often have herds well over 80 cows, compared to 5-10 in the 1920s.

1840
Number of farmers: 3,600
Livestock inventory: 53,000
Grains (bushels): 720,000
Forage (tons): N/A
Production power: 4,000 horses
2012
Number of farmers: 890
Livestock inventory: 337,000
Grains (bushels): 2,480,000
Forage (tons): 220,000
Production power: 2,000 tractors

The 1927 census reported on 1,951 Perry county farms
which averaged 100 acres in size. Conveniences included: • 213 with running water in the kitchen
• 84 with furnace heating systems
• 21 with milking machines in use
• 1,447 with automobiles
• 184 with trucks
• 212 with tractors
• 515 with phones
• 212 with radios

Photographed by Devry Becker Jones (CC0), February 23, 2024

2. Set of markers at Perry County Fairgrounds
• 233 with silos
• 74 with electricity from own plant
• 80 with electricity from a power station

[Captions:]
Milking the old-fashioned way at a competition at the Perry County Fair during the 1980s.

Mules pulling a hay rake which would have piled the cut hay into windrows for loading. The tractor and wagon would have straddled the rows. Behind the wagon is a hay loader which conveyed the hay onto the wagon. Men on the wagon spread the hay around evenly. The tractor is probably an Oliver. Photo ca. 1942. Location - Greenwood Township.

Building wheat or barley shocks in the field. Later they would be taken to a stationary thresher to separate the wheat from the straw.

Filling an Ontario grain drill with wheat or barley seed in the 1940s. Location - Northeast Madison Township.

A 2016 milking parlor where cows are milked three times a day and computers at each station monitor the cow's production at each milking. Milk is stored in a large chilled tank and picked up every day. On some Perry County dairy farms, robots have replaced humans and milk the cows five times daily. Location - Southwest Madison Township.

Feeder pigs. 2016 Oliver Township.

Cows in western Perry County in 2016.

Erected 2020

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by Historical Society of Perry County.

Topics and series. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Agriculture • Animals • Industry & Commerce. In addition, it is included in the Pennsylvania, Perry County Heritage Trail series list. A significant historical year for this entry is 1840.

Location. 40° 29.486′ N, 77° 8.588′ W. Marker is near Newport, Pennsylvania, in Perry County. It is in Oliver Township. It is on Fairground Road west of Sheck Drive, on the right when traveling west. The marker stands on Perry County Fairgrounds. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 885 Sheck Dr, Newport PA 17074, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker is in South-Central Pennsylvania, in the Susquehanna Valley,

and in Greater Harrisburg.

It is also in the American Northeast,

in the Mid-Atlantic,

in Appalachia,

and specifically in Northern Appalachia. Globally, it is in North America,

the Western Hemisphere,

the Western World,

and the Anglosphere.

Historically, it finds itself in what was once the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy

and also one of the original Thirteen Colonies.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker: Enter the 21st Century (here, next to this marker); Perry County Agriculture (here, next to this marker); Agricultural Fairs in Perry County (within shouting distance of this marker); The Newport Public Library (approx. 0.8 miles away); Billy Cox (approx. 0.9 miles away); Newport and World War I (approx. 0.9 miles away); The Bechtel Tannery (approx. 0.9 miles away); Veterans Memorial Park (approx. 0.9 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Newport.

Credits. This page was last revised on March 28, 2024. It was originally submitted on February 25, 2024, by Devry Becker Jones of Washington, District of Columbia. This page has been viewed 238 times since then and 26 times this year. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on February 25, 2024, by Devry Becker Jones of Washington, District of Columbia.