Field Farm

The Field Farm, which consists of an original circa 1807 farmhouse with an unusual seven-bay front facade that contains two entry doors, and seven circa 1830 to 1940 outbuildings, is significant as an example of a largely intact traditional Vermont farmstead. It is one of four or five original farmsteads built on Fuller Mountain Road in North Ferrisburgh southwest of Fuller Mountain. It is being nominated under the multiple property submission, "Agricultural Resources of Vermont," and meets the registration requirements for the farmstead property type. Until 1990, the Field Farm continued as a working dairy and hay farm and the original character of the farm remains. The Field Farm is notable in that it provides a complete version of the farming tradition of Addison County and Vermont as a whole; the first buildings (the farmhouse and the English barn) remain intact, while consequent farm construction reflects changes common to the agricultural growth of the region. Thus, the Field Farm is significant under criteria A as a full depiction of agricultural progression in Vermont as well as criteria C for providing classic intact examples of rural farm architecture.

Ferrisburgh was originally settled in 1762, though full settlement did not occur until after the American Revolution. Little Otter Creek and Lewis River linked the early settlers with Lake Champlain and these waterways were important for both transportation and energy reasons. The soil in Ferrisburgh was rich and required little tillage, and stands of pine, cedar, oak, and walnut were plentiful, and often used for building. Many of the early settlers built log homes, replacing them with frame houses within a few years. Archibald Collins, a reputable tanner, and shoemaker who moved to Ferrisburgh from Guilford, Connecticut, in 1787, was the first owner of the Field Farm plot, and it is probable that the present farmhouse, which may have been built as early as 1807, is the frame house that replaced the original log home. The farm stayed in the Collins family until the 1920s and a small cemetery located on the opposite side of Fuller Mountain Road from the farmhouse contains the graves of many members of the Collins family.

The earliest buildings on the Field Farm are the farmhouse and the English barn. The builders used local wood and timbers were hand-hewn, as only the larger towns in the region had working sawmills by the 1820s. Typical of many early Addison County residences of the early nineteenth century, the farmhouse is a "Cape Cod" with a high knee wall. However, the seven-bay configuration of the front facade is uncommon, and two entry doors on a structure of an early nineteenth-century building are rare. The English barn, with similar hand-hewn timbers and hand-wrought nails in the vertical siding, also maintains its original form. The English barn housed different types of animals, including cows for both milk and slaughter and sheep for wool. The Field Farm was not a single-crop farm, relying instead on various crops and livestock for both profit and subsistence.

When the Collins began farming in the 1830s, raising livestock was more profitable than raising crops as the wheat crops had depleted much of the soil in Addison County. The Collins family raised sheep, predominant in this area, as well as milk cows, throughout the nineteenth century. The 1870 agricultural census lists fifty-five sheep and 200 pounds of wool as a part of the farm's holdings. A dairy barn was built circa 1850 that housed eleven milk cows, as well as seven other cattle in 1860, and nineteen milk cows and six other cattle in 1870. The hand-hewn timbers found on the upper stories of this barn may have been reused from earlier buildings, reflecting frugal building practices. Wheat, corn, oats, Irish potatoes, and hay were grown on the farm, and dairy products, primarily cheese and butter were produced for sale during the second half of the nineteenth century. In addition, a small apple orchard, now defunct, was operating to provide additional food and income. In 1870, the orchard products were listed with a value of $50.

The farm stayed in the Collins family throughout the nineteenth century, passed on from father to son. In 1881, Elias B. Collins was the owner and farmer of the land, and a: relative named Charles Collins boarded at the farm. Charles Collins was a carriage, sleigh, and wagon manufacturer who may have practiced his craft on the property. New developments on the farm in the late nineteenth century resulted in the construction of additional outbuildings. Circa 1880, the granary was added for additional grain storage, the pump house (#F) was built to house a new water pump, and an equipment shed (#B) was attached to the English barn to store farm machinery.
The advent of the refrigerated railway car that allowed the transportation of liquid milk boosted the dairying industry in Vermont and nationwide in the last decades of the nineteenth century. With the transport of milk becoming as easy as cheese and butter, already a large crop on the Field Farm with 300 pounds of butter and 1000 pounds of cheese listed in the 1870 census, dairying capacities were increased. Health standards forced modifications of the existing buildings and a milk house (#C) was added circa 1920 to separate the milk from the milk cows. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the dairy barn was converted to a ground-level stable barn due to increased

mechanization in the farming industry. Livestock was housed on the lower level and the hay was stored in the large room above. As was common with many farms in Addison County, small-scale chicken-raising began on the Field Farm in the early twentieth century in the section of the equipment shed that was converted into a chicken coop. The last building to be added to the Field Farm was a concrete silo (#D) in the mid-twentieth century that provided more space for feed.

The Field Farm has been inactive since 1990, though the present owners plan to continue its agricultural uses in the very near future. As it stands, the Field Farm is impressive as a microcosm of the evolution of farming and farm buildings in Vermont. Each building has remained intact from its original construction date unless farming technologies or modifications in agricultural production deemed alterations necessary.
For nearly two centuries, the landscape has remained unchanged with hayfields, pastures, and woodlands occupying the same plots of land as they did when the farm was founded. A trip down Fuller Mountain Road reveals that development and new housing have replaced a number of the old farmsteads, leaving only a handful. Therefore, the Field Farm provides a rich resource for the study of both traditional agricultural practices and farm architecture and is worthy of protection.