Getting the tractor running on a New England farm has always required an unofficial degree in tinkering and oral history. After all, old persnickety engines don’t come with online manuals.
Such is the case over at the Morrill Family Farm Museum at the Hopkinton State Fair, which runs through Labor Day.
Doug Smith stores more than a dozen antique engines at the fairgrounds that he takes out of storage and gets running as part of the museum demonstration. Once they’re all started, they combine to make a soothing, rumbling rhythm from a bygone age.
“We’re usually tinkering on one or another throughout the whole fair,” Smith said.
Getting all the engines going is a skill that Smith likes to call “farmer engineering.”
Some of the oldest machines were made more than 100 years ago, like a four-and-a-half horsepower engine that used to be connected to flat belts to drive different pieces of equipment to save time and effort on the farm.
The museum was started by David and Edwina Morrill of Penacook, who wanted to share and educate what farm life was like. For children at the fair, petting the animals is always a hit. Some like to watch the engines and ask questions.
“It’s kind of neat to see them look at it,” Smith said. “They like to see stuff going like the band saw over there.”
Smith’s father bought him an engine when he was a kid in 1978, which he said got him hooked. That same engine is on display as part of the exhibit.
“One of the most interesting things we do that draws attention – typically with this one, we’ll twist the belts that will reverse the rotation,” Smith said. “People will look at it and say ‘why do you twist the belts?’ And it’s to reverse the piece of equipment you’re driving.”
For more information on the museum and all the other things to see and do at the fair, go to www.hsfair.org.