Down on the Farm

Part of 19th-Century America in Art & Literature

Students will explore life on a nineteenth-century farm by analyzing a painting of Mahantango Valley farm and researching the Manual of Agriculture (1862). They will then write a journal entry of a day in the life of a young person on this farm.

We look down at a cluster of three farm buildings and across grassy fields that stretch into the distance in this horizontal landscape painting. A parchment-yellow road angles from the lower center of the composition into the upper right corner, where it meets the horizon line just below the upper edge of the painting. Closest to us, the buildings flank the road, with two barns to our left and a house to our right. The buildings all have burgundy-red roofs. The barns have brown siding, and the house has paler, tan siding. The buildings are surrounded by blue or red fences. The barns to our left have large doors and two windows are visible on one of the sides facing us. A two-story, turquoise-blue bird house is affixed to the side of the barn closer to us. To our right, the house has windows piercing both levels, and a porch facing the road, to our left. Birds gather on the roof of the house, and an American flag flies beyond the back corner of the house. A black horse and two red horses, four cows and bulls, two dogs, a dozen chickens, and two pigs occupy different areas of the fenced-in spaces around the buildings. A man stands near the dogs next to the house, and a person wearing a red-edged black garment and a red cap stands on the road between the structures. In the fields beyond, people ride horses or hunt, horses graze, and a cow frolics with a dog. More buildings dot the landscape, which is farther divided into plots of land by stone walls, black fences, and more roads. Rows of stylized trees grow in straight lines in a grove to our left. Birds and deer walk or stand among the trees, and two people stand nearby, holding rifles. The slopes of indigo-blue hills rise along the horizon, at the top of the painting. The sky to the left of blue hills is mauve pink, streaked with black clouds. The rest of the sky is pale shell pink and ivory. Many of the animals and the architectural elements are outlined in black and filled in with flat areas of color. The weave of the window shade on which this is painted is visible in many areas. — American 19th Century, Mahantango Valley Farm, late 19th century, oil on window shade, Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, 1953.5.93

Materials

Computers with internet access for student research
Writing materials

Warm-Up Question

What activities are taking place on this farm?

Background

A complete farm ought to have woodland, pasture land, meadow or grassland, arable land, an orchard, a garden spot, and space for roads.

It should have a farmer’s house, a barn or stable for horses, oxen, sheep, and swine, and for crops, a tool house, a dairy, fences, walls or hedges, and wells or springs.

It would be desirable to have a stream running through it or by it, and to have a pond or swamp connected with or belonging to it.

A husbandman^* also wants capital^** to stock his farm with cattle and other animals, and to furnish it with carts, wagons, ploughs, and other tools.

To carry on a farm successfully, a good deal of knowledge and a high degree of intelligence are necessary. . .

^*farmer
^**money

George B. Emerson and Charles L. Flint, Manual of Agriculture, for the School, the Farm, and the Fireside (Boston, 1862), ii, 1-2. Courtesy of the University of Michigan University Library, and the Making of America project.

In the nineteenth century, many farms were located in river valleys where nutrients from rivers made the soil fertile and where the proximity to water meant easier irrigation and transportation of crops and livestock. The valley depicted in Mahantango Valley Farm is located in central Pennsylvania and was settled mostly by Germans. The area produced primarily wheat, corn, and fruit, as well as livestock. The Mahantango River runs into the Susquehanna River, making the area a good location for the shipment of produce and other goods to and from large cities, such as nearby Harrisburg, the state capital.

Occasionally, a farmer wanted a record of what a lifetime of hard work had achieved. He or she would commission an artist to record the farm, including its property, buildings, livestock, and workers. The artist would give the maximum amount of information in the clearest manner possible. In Mahantango Valley Farm, the artist used an aerial viewpoint to capture receding rows of harvested fields as well as descriptive three-quarter views of the various farm buildings. There are great disparities of scale; huge cows and a bull dominate the yard of the farmhouse, and large birds, presumably pigeons roost on its roof. The artist included a number of details that describe the farm and life at the time. It seems to be an expansive property, with wooden fences and stonewalls separating the fields, and various outbuildings delineating its boundaries. The harvested fields indicate that the farm was largely devoted to raising crops, though it did produce livestock. While men hunt and ride horses, children play a game of hoop and stick. Paintings such as Mahantango Valley Farm became records of daily activities and familiar places and embodied a sense of celebration about the productivity of the land and its seemingly boundless expanse and beauty.

Betty Jean Davis, Pennsylvania German Chest, 1935/1942, watercolor and graphite on paper, Index of American Design, 1943.8.17161

Showing resourcefulness in the face of scarce or expensive materials, this artist worked with materials at hand. In this case, the farm scene was painted on a fabric window shade. While the artist remains unknown, he or she used primarily bright green and brick red colors that are similar to those in Pennsylvania German painted furniture (see depiction at right). It is possible, then, that the painter was of German descent.

Guided Practice

What are the geographical features of the area portrayed in Mahantango Valley Farm? What makes it a good spot for a farm?
Why would an artist choose to do a bird’s-eye view of a place? (To include all the details of the farm from both near [farm buildings, people, and animals] and far [fields, forest, and distant mountains].)
What was probably growing in this location before the farm was established? What would people have to do to prepare the land for farming? (Clear thick forest, remove stones from the field areas.) Why would they keep wooded areas? Why did they need fenced-in areas?
In the nineteenth century, large grocery stores did not exist. Where did the food for the people on the farm come from? What did the painter tell you about what they ate? (Crops, deer, wild fowl, chicken, eggs, pigs—bacon and pork, milk.)
Where did their water come from? What technology was used to access it? (Pump.) In what ways would this natural resource be used on the farm?
What have Mahantango Valley Farm and the Manual of Agriculture taught you about the nineteenth century?

Activity

Some farmers kept a reference manual on hand to help when years of farming experience and advice from neighboring farmers failed. One such text was the 1862 Manual of Agriculture, for the School, the Farm, and the Fireside. The book, meant as both a reference for farmers and an educational text for students, lauds the vocation of farming:

Without agriculture there can be no commerce or manufactures, no population or prosperity. Every one, of whatever vocation, is interested in its welfare, and every man, woman and child, should have some knowledge of the fundamental principles of this most useful art.

Part of the manual’s purpose, was “to implant in the minds of youth an abiding love for this honorable employment.” At a time in which some young people were beginning to turn away from farm life in favor of city living, the text was also meant as a rally cry for farming. Its 306 pages described the location, equipment, crops, and livestock of the ideal farm. It had a subject index that allowed a farmer or student to access information such as how to ripen apples, manage the dairy, prepare bedding for cattle, and included additional information on such topics as plant diseases and uses for hay.

Students will now use the online version of the Manual of Agriculture to answer the following questions:

What should a good farm have?
What items listed in the manual can be seen on Mahantango farm?
What does the farm lack based on what the manual says it should have?

Extension

Students will write a journal entry imagining they live on this farm. What daily tasks and chores would you help with on a farm? How would you dress? What would you eat? What would you do for fun? How would you get around?

National Core Arts Standards

VA:Cn11.1.6 Analyze how art reflects changing times, traditions, resources, and cultural uses.

VA:Re7.1.6 Identify and interpret works of art or design that reveal how people live around the world and what they value.

VA:Re8.1.6 Interpret art by distinguishing between relevant and non-relevant contextual information and analyzing subject matter, characteristics of form and structure, and use of media to identify ideas and mood conveyed.