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State Museum Launches "Audio Video Barn"
The Illinois State Museum has launched a new Web site called the "Audio-Video Barn." That barn is full of stories, gleaned from dozens of interviews with Illinois farmers. The museum staff used a $530,000 federal grant over the last three years to interview farmers and agriculture specialists, and added interviews done in years past that were kept at Northern Illinois University and the University of Illinois at Springfield.

Together, those interviews offer first-hand explanations of farming from the 1880s to now, and specifically on the use of horses in the fields, fish farming, orchard fruit growing, and how the rough farming years in the 1980s led to so many family farmers either going out of business or developing specialty crops.

Ray Ackerman, now 91, is one of the stars, reminiscing about the Ackerman Farms in Tazewell County . The farms are now run by his nephew, John Ackerman, who added pumpkins and agri-tainment to the list in order to make a better income.

Among the stories is a transcript of Oba Hershberger, an Amish farmer from Moultrie County. Besides explaining farm life on his farms, he recounts the accident that mauled his son, Samuel, which attracted international media attention. The elder Hershberger shares how he looks for a good horse, among other tasks.

The Audio-Video Barn Web site is available by CLICKING HERE.

(Illinois Radio Network)
11 04 09 by Newsroom
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