The Woodruff Barn Farm Museum

The Woodruff Barn Farm Museum showcase much of Guilford's agricultural history through donations made to the Agricultural Society.  Being a shoreline community, salt haying was a common part of Guilford's agricultural past.  Look for more information about Salt Haying and more at this year's fair in the museum.

On the cover of the Exhibitor Guide:  Charles D. Hubbard’s pen & ink rendering of “The Salt Meadows” is a classic scene of salt hay harvest in Guilford long ago. Salt hay grasses were prized by the farmers for livestock bedding or mulch, harvested from the tidal wetlands. The chore of salt-haying involved hard manual labor, but the hay became a precious commodity that could also be sold or bartered.

Ironically, while Charles Hubbard sometimes criticized the camera for recording only what it saw through the lens, he toted a camera all over Guilford to record the seasonal functions of farmers. Many of his drawings are based on actual photographs, such as this one. The farmer with straw hat and pole is Robert Davis of Nut Plains District, leading his double team of cattle off the east Creek Meadows, which are located behind today’s Calvin M. Leete Elementary School. Hubbard’s photograph of this idyllic scene, circa 1905, is owned by The Guilford Keeping Society.

--Joel Helander
Town Historian
 

It is the practice of the Agricultural Society to each year chose another of Charles Hubbard's prints for the front of the Exhibitor Guide since Mr. Hubbard so eloquently depicts Guilford's agricultural roots through these prints.  This year's use of the Salt Meadows print is no exception.

Have you seen the Woodruff Barn Farm Museum at the Guilford Fair?
 

Look for the Museum to be open throughout the summer 
during special town wide events.

  Donations to the museum, especially old farming 
equipment, are always welcome.  If anyone has 
any antique agricultural items they would like to 
donate call John Hammarlund at (203) 458-1539.