This is the story behind the granite boulder that sits along Oxbow Road, about a quarter mile north of the Hamlet of Peterboro in the Town of Smithfield, Madison County, New York. Dedicated on August 17, 1929 by the New York Holstein-Friesian Association, the historical marker honors Gerrit Smith Miller, grandson of the famous abolitionist and reformer Gerrit Smith, for his pioneer work as a breeder of purebred Holstein cattle.

Abolitionists met on October 21, 1835, in Utica, NY, to form The New York State Anti-Slavery Society. Rioters forced them to go to Peterboro, New York, where Gerrit Smith welcomed them. This book tells the story of the Utica and Peterboro conventions and reproduces the Minutes of this historic event.

Confined to a nursing home in Iowa in 1960, a time-worn horseman seeks to educate his grandson about the great transformation in American agriculture when horse power gave way to tractor power (1910-1950). Walt Decker spent nearly four decades as the chief national defender for the continued use of draft horses on the farm, especially Percherons. His grandson Jethro is a student in agricultural engineering at Iowa State University and does not understand the significance of the shift from equine power to tractor power. Grandfather Decker seeks to teach him with seven historical lessons that...

This is the story of the era when the premier cheesemaking region of the United States was in Central New York, chiefly in the Mohawk Valley. Here it was that Jesse Williams set up the first cheese factory in 1851 in Oneida County. Here too, Prof. Xerxes A. Willard championed the cause of higher standards in cheesemaking and became the nation's most respected spokesman for the "associated dairies" concept. This book includes reproductions of three rare primary documents about the history of cheesemaking in New York State in the 19th century. Many illustrations help tell the story. A list of...

Dr. Milton C. Sernett is a historian who grew up in the tall corn state of Iowa. He taught at Syracuse University for three decades and then retired to pursue a lifelong interest in agricultural history. He has authored fifteen books, including ones on the transition from horse to tractor farming, the history of cheesemaking in New York State, and the origin of the Holstein breed of dairy cattle in the United States. Known as "the Sage of Lawyersville," Jared van Wagenen, Jr. (1871-1960) lived at Hillside Farm in Schoharie County in eastern New York State. A graduate of Cornell University...