UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Blending nostalgia and technology, a vintage horse-powered hay press will be demonstrated at Penn State's Ag Progress Days, Aug. 20-22. Nearly 100 years old, this rare piece from Penn State's Pasto Agricultural Museum will give a live demonstration of farm work as it was done in a slower, simpler time.

"Each day at noon, we will demonstrate a 1905 stationary hay press powered by a mule," says museum curator Darwin Braund. "It will show how loose hay was pressed into rectangular blocks or bales weighing 100 to 120 pounds.

"One or two horses or mules hitched to a 12-foot pipe sweep arm walk in a circle to drive a 16-foot-long wooden plunger, which compresses the hay in a metal chamber," Braund explains. "As the compressed hay emerges, long wires are placed around the bale by hand to hold it together."

Braund says the baler was donated to the museum in 1998 by Robert L. Cowan, professor emeritus of animal nutrition, and was restored in early 1999. Cowan, now 82 years old, will operate the machine with the aid of his sons.

Ag Progress Days hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Aug. 20; 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Aug. 21; and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Aug. 22. Admission and parking are free.

For more information, call (800) PSU-1010 toll-free through August 22 or visit the Ag Progress Days Web site at http://apd.cas.psu.edu.

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EDITORS: Contact Darwin Braund at 814-863-1383 or pastoagmuseum@psu.edu.

Contact: Gary Abdullah gxa2@psu.edu 814-863-2708 814-865-1068 fax #227