Museum Talk

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

While mowing my yard this week on my John Deere riding mower, I was reminded of the mower at the Buffalo Island Museum. It is a push reel mower from the early 1900's, made by the Great States Corp, Shelbyville, Indiana. It has a wooden handle with metal blades and rubber covered wheels. Prior to the early 1800's, home lawn care was largely using a scythe, a swing blade or grazing animals. A lot of homes on Buffalo Island had dirt yards. I remember my grandmother taking a hoe to any stray grass or weeds that appeared in her front yard of hard packed sand.

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