Walnut Acres’ transition from horsepower to machinery

Meet The Horses

This Belgian team of horses was the original source of power on the farm. Their mighty strength allowed various machinery to be pushed and pulled, thus allowing for clean, self-sufficient farming.

One of the horses enjoying a snack of dried corn from Ruth Carol

Molly and Prince

Paul Keene purchased these horses for about five hundred dollars. Afterward, Molly and Prince repaid Keene with years of loyal service that helped kickstart the success of the farm. They were a prime model of sustainability, living off the abundance of Walnut Acres’s fields alone.
Corn Production

The horses aided the production of corn by pulling the old cultivator. Their strength, combined with a little help from the farmworkers, allowed hundreds of rows of corn to be cultivated effectively.
Vegetable Cultivation

The cultivator was also needed for the many rows of beets and carrots. Thus, the horses’ service came in handy and were most favorable in working in the stony soils.
Reaper-Binder

Two horses were required to pull the reaper-binder. Their combined efforts enabled ripened grains’ sheaves to be collected.

The Transition to the Tractor

Massey Ferguson 50

In 1958, Paul Keene switched out his horses for a Massey Ferguson 50 tractor. The tractor allowed for a multitude of new possibilities, from hulling large carts of peas to sawing wood in the winter. Learn more about the particular model that helped reinvent Walnut Acres.

Learn More

“The years went by. Soon there were three children. Then two teams of horses. Then the horses left and a tractor came.”

Although the tractor expanded the success of the farm, Paul Keene still held a special fondness for the original team of horses. The following quotes from Fear Not To Sow Because of the Birds recount his bittersweet feelings on the farm’s production evolution.

Fun Fact: Paul Keene is not riding the Massey Ferguson 50 tractor, but rather a tractor referred to as ‘The Spider.’ Keene would often use this tractor as a mode of relaxation, singing songs as he rode along the rows of the farm.

“We did much of our work with horses and by hand. We learned the cycles of the soil and its life. The hardships and the penury ran off our young shoulders.” (146)

“Occasionally we look back, perhaps even wistfully, to the relative quiet and simplicity of our woodburning, horse-drawn days. But we have really had the best of two worlds, and we would not want to have missed any part of either.” (149)

“We’ve wondered sometimes about growth. We would not want to grow so large as to limit our ability to apply idealism fully to all proportions of our work. We do not think we have done so; we don’t know how large we could grow and remain sound. We feel of late that we have come close to a size that seems ideal.” (150)