Farm Progress

Old barns, dilapidated houses, rusty farm implements mark the passage of time and progress.

Ron Smith 1, Senior Content Director

April 26, 2018

13 Slides

Something about abandoned  old things—barns, homesteads, pieces of equipment — stirs my imagination. Who lived there? Why did they move? How many bales of hay, head of livestock, or plows were protected from the elements under that barn roof now open to the weather? How many bales did that old cotton picker harvest before rust and wear and newer models made it obsolete? How many hands showed up to raise that barn decades ago?

I wonder every time I drive by an abandoned farm house, an old barn that tilts just a bit, or an ancient tractor rusting in a field or covered by layers of spare parts, fertilizer bags and bird poop, what memories might be stored in the dark corners and rickety lofts.

The log barn in this gallery was an original mule barn on Stovall Plantation, Prairie Place.  It is 164 years old, built out of swamp cypress logs 40 feet long, according to Pete Hunter, Stovall Farms, where this barn, an old seed house and an old feedlot barn are located. 

The feed lot barn was used for hay and corn storage for farm cattle and was built in the early 30s. The old seed house was built along with the Stovall gin and dates back to the late 1800s. Thanks to Mr. Hunter for access to these old Stovall Farms structures and for sharing the history behind them

About the Author(s)

Ron Smith 1

Senior Content Director, Farm Press/Farm Progress

Ron Smith has spent more than 40 years covering Sunbelt agriculture. Ron began his career in agricultural journalism as an Experiment Station and Extension editor at Clemson University, where he earned a Masters Degree in English in 1975. He served as associate editor for Southeast Farm Press from 1978 through 1989. In 1990, Smith helped launch Southern Turf Management Magazine and served as editor. He also helped launch two other regional Turf and Landscape publications and launched and edited Florida Grove and Vegetable Management for the Farm Press Group. Within two years of launch, the turf magazines were well-respected, award-winning publications. Ron has received numerous awards for writing and photography in both agriculture and landscape journalism. He is past president of The Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association and was chosen as the first media representative to the University of Georgia College of Agriculture Advisory Board. He was named Communicator of the Year for the Metropolitan Atlanta Agricultural Communicators Association. More recently, he was awarded the Norman Borlaug Lifetime Achievement Award by the Texas Plant Protection Association. Smith also worked in public relations, specializing in media relations for agricultural companies. Ron lives with his wife Pat in Johnson City, Tenn. They have two grown children, Stacey and Nick, and three grandsons, Aaron, Hunter and Walker.

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