The University of Massachusetts Amherst
Robert S. Cox Special Collections & University Archives Research Center
CredoResearch digital collections in Credo

Collecting area: Agriculture

Montague, Holland

Holland Montague Diary

1857-1877
1 vol. 0.15 linear feet
Call no.: MS 257 bd

A lifelong diarist, Granby farmer Holland Montague wrote chiefly about life on the farm where he made a comfortable living supplying produce to surrounding towns. While most of his entries are bland accounts of the weather and agricultural duties, Montague occasionally offers a glimpse into his personal life, especially on the diary’s endpapers, where he records medicinal remedies for humans and livestock, purchases made and payments received, as well as a valuation of his property in 1872. Very few references are made to political events of the day, including the Civil War, although he does note on April 16, 1865 that President Lincoln is dead.

Laid into the volume is a manuscript copy of the 1826 document listing depositions to be taken from individuals in the petition of the town of Granby against the town of South Hadley relating to a dispute over the boundary line between the two towns.

Transferred from Dartmouth College Special Collections, July 1989

Subjects

Farmers--Massachusetts--GranbyGranby (Mass.)--History

Types of material

Diaries
Mosher, Harold E.

Harold E. Mosher Papers

1942-2001
18 boxes 27 linear feet
Call no.: FS 196

A landscape architect and extension horticulturist, Hal Mosher was born in Sterling, Mass., in August 1920. Mosher started his undergraduate studies at Mass. State College in the fall of 1942, but after an interruption while he fulfilled his military obligations, he completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees after the war. Beginning his academic career at the University of Missouri, Mosher returned home to Massachusetts in 1960 as an associate Extension Professor of Horticulture, joining the Department of Landscape Architecture in 1969. He was an enormously popular instructor, known particularly for his introduction to landscape ecology, nicknamed by students ‘Hiking with Hal.’ Mosher retired to emeritus status in 1987 and remained in Amherst until his death on October 3, 2019, aged 99.

Documenting the career of a popular faculty member and distinguished landscape architect, this collection contains materials from throughout Mosher’s career, with an emphasis on the years 1960 through 1987. Volumetrically, almost half of the collection consists of 35mm slides taken during Mosher’s numerous travel throughout the United States and Europe, but there is a good cross-section of materials relating to his teaching, landscape projects, and research, and small number of photographs and ephemeral items from his undergraduate years.

Subjects

Landscape design--Study and teachingUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst--FacultyUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst. Department of Landscape Design and Regional Planning

Types of material

Photographs
Natural Farmer

The Natural Farmer

1999-2005
26 items (digital)
Call no.: Digital

Published quarterly by the Northeast Organic Farming Association, The Natural Farmer is a widely circulated newspaper devoted to the support of organic farming. These files are made available courtesy of the editors, Jack Kittredge and Julie Rawson of NOFA Massachusetts.

Subjects

Farming--United StatesOrganic farmersOrganic farming

Contributors

Northeast Organic Farming Association
New England Agricultural Economics Council

New England Agricultural Economics Council Records

1955-1966
2 boxes 1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 031

After dissolution of the New England Research Council on Marketing and Food Supply in 1955, a group of agricultural economists from the six state universities in New England formed the New England Agricultural Economics Council to carry on with the mission of promoting education and research on economics and the social problems relating to the production, marketing, and consumption of agricultural products.

Concentrated on the first ten years of the NEAEC, the collection include organizational materials, correspondence, minutes and proceedings, financial records, and newsletters.

Subjects

Agricultural economics--New EnglandDairy products--Marketing--New EnglandFood industry and trade--New EnglandFood--Marketing--New England

Contributors

New England Research Council on Marketing and Food Supply

Types of material

Newsletters
New England Federation of Agricultural Students

New England Federation of Agricultural Students Records

1907-1915
1 box 0.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 333

The New England Federation of Agricultural Students was organized in 1907 for the purpose of bringing together agricultural students of New England colleges for the study and advancement of agriculture and allied sciences and to learn about each others’ work. The Federation organized annual contests in fruit grading and packing, poultry, field crops, and stock.

Correspondence (1915), minutes (1915), constitution, treasurer’s report (1914-1915), records of the secretary and treasurer (1907-1915), contest scores and results (1914), and judging regulations (1913-1916).

Subjects

Agricultural education--New England--Societies, etc.--HistoryAgricultural students--New England--HistoryAgriculture--Competitions--New England--History

Contributors

New England Federation of Agricultural Students
New England Homestead

New England Homestead Farm Accounts Collection

1883-1884
2 vols. 0.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 113

The New England Homestead, a magazine published in Springfield, Massachusetts from 1842 to 1969, conducted a contest in 1884 to which farmers submitted notebooks recording their farm accounts for the one year period, April 1, 1883 to March 31, 1884.

The collection includes bound and unbound farm accounts submitted as entries to the contest contest. The Library holds The New England Homestead, 1842-1850 on microfilm, and 1894-1968 in bound volumes.

Subjects

Agriculture--Accounting--Competitions--New EnglandAgriculture--Economic aspects--New England--History--19th centuryAgriculture--New England--Accounting--History--19th centuryContests--New EnglandFarm management--Competitions--New EnglandFarm management--New England--History--19th centuryFarmers--Competitions--New EnglandFarmers--New England--Economic conditions--19th centuryNew England--Economic conditions--19th century

Contributors

New England Homestead
New England Post-War Marketing

New England Post-War Marketing Plans Collection

1937-1950
1 box 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 083

Includes reports, addresses, articles, proposals, memos, and correspondence regarding post-war marketing plans in New England for agricultural products in general, and for dairy products in particular, including the Every Other Day Milk Delivery campaign.

Subjects

Agriculture--Economic aspects--New England--20th centuryDairy products--New England--Marketing--History--20th centuryFarm produce--New England--Marketing--History--20th centuryNew England--Economic conditions--20th century
New England Research Council on Marketing and Food Supply

New England Research Council on Marketing and Food Supply Records

1922-1955
3 boxes 1.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 028

The New England Research Council on Marketing and Food Supply was established after a 1922 meeting in which Lloyd Tenny of the Agricultural Economics Bureau disclosed that federal money was available for research in marketing. He requested that an advisory council be organized to prevent the duplication of research. The group’s charge was to stimulate and coordinate the studies of economic problems connected with the supply of foods and other agricultural products of New England. Membership of the council was comprised of representatives from institutions and agencies actively involved in prosecuting such economic studies. A number of faculty at the Massachusetts Agricultural College helped to shape the council in its early years, including Kenyon Butterfield and Alexander Cance. The council dissolved in 1955, and the New England Agricultural Economics Council was formed in its place.

The collection contains the records of the NERC from its formation in 1922 until its dissolution in 1955. Included are the council’s constitution adopted in 1922 and unaltered throughout the life of the organization, proceedings of annual meetings, publications, and reports on such topics as milk marketing and fruit and vegetable marketing.

Subjects

Agricultural economics--New EnglandDairy products--Marketing--New EnglandFood industry and trade--New EnglandFood--Marketing--New England

Contributors

Butterfield, Kenyon L. (Kenyon Leech), 1868-1935Cance, Alexander ENew England Research Council on Marketing and Food Supply
New York Farm Bureau

New York Farm Bureau Photograph Collection

1915-1916
5 images 0.1 linear feet
Call no.: PH 053
Depiction of Ilion, N.Y. detail)
Ilion, N.Y. detail)

Founded as a non-governmental, volunteer organization in 1911, the New York Farm Bureau offers resources to support and enrich rural life and encourages farmers to work collaboratively for better marketing and production.

This small collection of photographs documents inspection tours conducted by the New York Farm Bureau of farms, apparently in the Mohawk River Valley, in 1915-1916. The intent, as the caption of one photograph suggests, was to bring “science into the field.”

Subjects

Automobiles--PhotographsFort Plain (N.Y.)--PhotographsIlion (N.Y.)--PhotographsStreet-railroads--New York (State)--Photographs

Types of material

Photographs
Newland, Jacob and John E.

Jacob and John E. Newland Account Book

1798-1849
1 vol. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 197 bd

Jacob Newland and his son John Everit Newland were farmers in Mansfield, Mass., during the earlynational period. A Revolutionary War veteran, Jacob died in 1823, leaving much of his operation to John, his second son.

The account book kept by Jacob Newland and later John E. Newland of Mansfield, Massachusetts, details much about the work of these farmers and their interaction with neighbors in eastern Mansfield during the early nineteenth century. The customers, most of whom seem to have been fellow farmers, made frequent use of the Newlands’ animals and animal-drawn vehicles (carriage, “waggon,” “slay”) for riding and work, in addition to purchasing products, using the Newlands’ labor, and leasing pasture land. The book also served as a leaf press and scrapbook for newspaper items bearing upon the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, mention of social events and anniversaries, children’s sayings, short romantic fiction, and as a copybook for poetry.

Acquired from Charles Apfelbaum, 1987

Subjects

Farmers--Massachusetts--Mansfield

Contributors

Newland, John E. (John Everit)

Types of material

Account books