FRED:

Good morning, I'm Fred Korneli. You must be Martin Learner.

MARTIN:

That's right. You must have received my letter. I'm happy to be here.

FRED:

You came at a good time. The weather is perfect.

MARTIN:

Tell about the museum. What's the purpose?

FRED:

We've tried to recreate a working farm of about nineteen hundred. We have the house, the barn, and some outbuildings of the time.

MARTIN:

The house is very simple, isn't it?

FRED:

At that time, the barn was the most important building. The houses were generally quite small.

MARTIN:

I see you have animals too.

FRED:

Yes, it's a small farm, but we try to run it as it was at that time. There are cows, sheep, chickens, ducks, pigs, and of course horses.

MARTIN:

Why do you say, of course?

FRED:

Before tractors and cars, horses were extremely important. They provided the only transportation. They pulled the plows and other machinery. They provided some of the sport and leisure time activities too.

MARTIN:

So every farm had some horses.

FRED:

Yes, there were horses for work, for transportation, and pleasure.

MARTIN:

Transportation was slow and difficult, wasn't it? What did people do for social life?

FRED:

A lot of the social life was related to work. People came together to help one another with the harvests. The women came to cook the meals. At the end of the day, the men and boys went swimming in the river. Sometimes there was a dance in the barn at night.

MARTIN:

Harvest time sounds like a good time.

FRED:

It probably was the best time.

MARTIN:

What about the rest of the year?

FRED:

Church was probably the most important social activity.

MARTIN:

Work must have been very difficult without tractors and other machinery. Who did all the farm work?

FRED:

The farms around here were rather small. But many farmers had hired hands.

MARTIN:

That's an interesting expression. Hired hands.

FRED:

Right. The farmer paid someone for his hands. Of course you got the rest of his body to work too.

MARTIN:

Was it a bad life for the hired hand?

FRED:

Often it was a good life. They were usually young men.

MARTIN:

Did these young men come from the city?

FRED:

Oh, no. They were usually the sons of other farmers. Sometimes there were too many sons. There wasn't enough work for them at home. They went to work to earn some money.

MARTIN:

May I see inside the house?

FRED:

Sure. You can tell how people lived then.

FRED:

Would you like to look inside the house now?

MARTIN:

Yes, I would.