06/03/2026
It has been a quiet day at the market, and that seems like a good opportunity for another farm history post.
We last were in the 1930s on our farm history journey. Building on the progress made in the 30s, we enter the 1940s with the purchase of another farm bringing total acreage to more than 400 acres. During this decade, a new crop was introduced: canning factory peas. Just as the name suggests, these peas were specifically cultivated to be processed and canned.
Commitment to Soil Health and Conservation
Soil health has always been a core value on our farm. In 1935, the Soil Conservation Act was passed to protect land resources from erosion and to preserve natural resources. The act encouraged farmers to implement soil-preserving practices and laid the groundwork for modern soil and water conservation in the United States. Throughout the 1940s, our farm adopted several soil conservation methods, including strip-cropping with open ditches, open terrace farming, and installing drainage tile.
Technological Innovation
Alongside advancements in soil health, Hervey Sr. embraced cutting edge agricultural technology. He became the first farmer in Onondaga County to own a Case combine and the first to acquire a pickup baler. The pickup baler revolutionized the hay and straw baling process by picking up and automatically tying bales, transforming what was traditionally a three-person job into a task managed by a single operator.
Farm Workforce
Returning to the accounting journals from the 1940s, we see some well-known local names of people who worked on the farm including the Buttons, the Campbell boys, and F Foster (likely Fred Foster). Additionally, the journals show a fairly large payment to the “Italian Women”. I’ve learned that Hervey would drive to Solvay to bring a group of women to the farm, where they helped with picking potatoes.
Family History and Milestones
On the personal side, Hervey Jr.’s draft classification card identified him as 4-H, a category for men who were past military age. He was 40 years old at the time. Following the abolition of the 4-H classification a few months later, he would have been reassigned, likely to an agricultural class. The family archives also include gas ration cards from 1944-1945, reflecting the wartime conditions of the era. And as we move through the generations on the farm, Hervey III graduated from Elbridge Central School in 1945 serving as President of the Sr. Class and as Valedictorian. Hervey Jr. and Leila’s other 2 children graduated in the 1950s.
Aerial View and Lasting Legacy
The final artifact from the 1940s is an aerial photograph of the original Hervey Sr. farmstead, located on Rt 321 between Bennetts Corners and Forward Road on the west side of the road. The house, built in the 1880s, and the barn closest to the road still stand, and the 5th generation of Forward family lives there today. Over the years, the rear barn was lost to an accidental fire in the 1970s, and the middle barn was damaged beyond repair in a violent wind storm some time after that.
