Horsepower

By 1900, mechanization had come to the farm, making plowing, planting, and harvesting more productive, but before the gas engine it was the horse that supplied the power to run the machines. A McCormick grain binder cut and bound grain, doing work once done by hand with a scythe and rake. A corn husker-shredder removed and husked corn ears from the stalk while shredding the stalks for feed and bedding, and a corn binder could cut, bind, and load corn at once. Drawn by horses, a walk-behind plow could turn over 1-1½ acres of land on a good day. The Babcock Farm was built in 1848 by Jeptha Babcock, a farmer and politician who became a State Assemblyman in 1851, and agriculture has been an important part of coastal culture along the Seaway Trail.

Somerset, New York · United States