The Collins Farm: Grassland Management, Shepherding, and Textile Production in Nova Scotia, 1767-1829
Date
2023-07-27
Authors
Jones, Sarah-Jean
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Abstract
Louisa Collins, the daughter of a farmer living in rural Nova Scotia at the turn of the 19th-century, kept a diary during the summer, fall and winter of 1815 to 1816, which gives a window into the world of pre-industrial, colonial sheep farmers and wool workers in the region. Specifically, the analysis of Louisa’s diary provides ample data to assess the regenerative nature of past agricultural practices. Farm profiling of the selected historical sites, including the Collins farm, amplifies the work of rural women in the domestic sphere and the fluidity between indoor and outdoor farmstead boundaries within site-specific ecologies.
Description
A rigorous analysis of large and small historical sheep operations in the region suggests that family farms, such as the Collins’, functioning at a subsistence level were, by necessity, working within the modern definition of regenerative agriculture. A diverse collection of sources are used to support this research, where the deconstruction of breed-specific garments aids in this storytelling, by elevating quotidian tasks to foundational aspects of settler survival. An example from this work involves the analysis done on an 1800 coverlet, where the accumulative data regarding land use and breed specifics, grounded in Louisa’s agricultural observations, allows for an estimate of the time and resources required by a person(s) to make such an object from raw, on-farm materials. This thesis utilises a variety of methodologies, including the interrogation of material cultural objects and the hands- on experimental approach, where I, a textile maker and sheep farmer, engage with objects, materials, and my own landscape to re-enact historical processes featured in this work. Lastly, this thesis provides a blueprint of historical grazing animal methods that can assist modern farmers looking to transition into regenerative practices, by offering examples of successes and failures revolving around closed energy cycles implemented by farming families from the pre- industrial era.
Keywords
Agriculture, Material Culture, Atlantic History, Subsistence Farming, Textiles, Animal Husbandry, Wool, Craft, Gender