Rural Heritage

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Reading Room – Current issue

Vol 50, No 1
2025 February/March

Rural Heritage is a bimonthly journal in support of farming and logging with draft horses, mules, and oxen. The 2025 February/March issue was mailed to subscribers on Jan 24, 2025. Below is this issue’s annotated Table of Contents, with a link to a full feature article to showcase the good reading delivered to your door every other month when you
Subscribe to Rural Heritage.

If, in your reading, you run across a drafty word you don’t recognize, consult our online Draft Dictionary.

Table of Contents

Departments

Publishers Post

Joe Mischka had a thoughtful conversation with Gerald Schmidt about how his farming operation changed when the economy changed for small dairy farmers.

J C Allen Archives

Vintage photos of rural life by renouned photographer JC Allen including photos of a pea viner in action, picking tomatoes, feeding cows, a boy and his team, picking blackberries, boys with chickens and ducks.

Business spotlight: Schrock’s Harness Supply

An overview of the 72-year history of Schrock’s Harness Supply in Medford, Wis.

Selections from our extensive catalog of books and videos on draft animal farming, logging, self-sufficient living and much more.
Associations and Breeders Directory

(contacts for breed registries and regional draft clubs)

Events Calendar

(frequently updated online)

Our Advertiser Directory

(please tell ‘em you saw it in Rural Heritage)

Features

Donn Hewes with (right to left) Lucy, Max, Ethel, and George

Why One Horse is Always in Front of the Other

Donn Hewes discusses why horses don’t often work at the same pace and explains ways to compensate for it.

Part of Ralph’s makeover included these box stalls.

Farmstead Makeover

As his life plans change, so does Ralph Rice’s farmstead. Here, Ralph details several changes he made to outbuildings to accommodate his Suffolk breeding operation.

Building a Breed− − − click on title to read this story in full.
The American Brabant Association has been developing a breed using European Belgian and American breeding stock. In this first of a two-part article, we learn about the conformation characteristics of the new breed.
Karen Gruner takes a turn on a White Horse Plow behind three American Brabants owned by Jason Julian at the 2023 ABA Rendezvous held at the Jordan Ranch in West Virginia. Joshua Julian walks along behind.

On the Horns of Honor

Dick Courteau recounts the time he put life and limb on the line in order to maintain his honor and pay back a bet.

Tales from Carter County: Greek Alphabet

Jerry Hicks describes the time he got into a bit of trouble with the law, but talked his way out of it with the help of a lesson he learned in grade school.

Born too Late?

Philip Henderson muses about the advantages of living in the 1800s … and some of the drawbacks.
Patches and Freckles in 2014.

Ode to the Bitternut Hickory

Donn Hewes recounts his quest to identify some prolific saplings in the woods near his central New York home … and how that lead to some introspection on future generations.

Cinder Ridge Harvest Day

Joe Mischka includes information and pictures about the Cinder Ridge Harvest Day, that was started by Joe Snow of Thurmond, N.C., to bring farm history to life and to showcase is Appalachian farmstead, complete with historical buildings.
A harnessed light horse provided the power for the cane press that usually presses sorghum but, on this day, was pressing sugar cane.

Planning the Farmstead Layout

Reprinted from Farm Knowledge Vol III: Farm Implements and Construction, 1919 H.H. Newman takes the reader through several considerations when planning a farmstead, including: local factors like climate, type of farming, topography. He then discusses the buildings that may be involved: such as the general purpose barn, granary, dairy barn, poultry house, and more.
farmstead layout

Powercart Makeover

Ralph Rice how he had a powercart built for him in 2010, and how (and why) he recently had it rebuilt.
The new powercart featuring all the modifications and enhancements Ralph had been thinking about for the past 10 years.

Forney to Montgomery

Joe Mischka talks with John Coley about how the Forney, Ala., to Montgomery, Ala., wagon train got started and what it’s like today.
The original five riders to complete the Forney to Monytgomery ride in 1975
Back issues for sale

The Reading Room is updated with each new issue. If you wish to be notified by email when new contents are posted, please Contact Us. If you wish to receive Rural Heritage in your mailbox every other month, please Subscribe.