Interviews
Brusveen's farm was first described to me [interviewer Kenneth C. Rineer] in the fall of 1980 by Professor Clarence Olmstead of the Geography Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Professor Olmstead had taken students in an agricultural geography course to the Brusveen farm on field trips to see an example of an efficient smaller-scale dairy farm in operation. Dale Treleven of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin made the project's first contact with Brusveen and arranged for us to visit with Howard and Avis Brusveen at their New Glarus home on February 12, 1981. We discussed agriculture in general, Brusveen's life as a farmer, and explained the purpose of the Wisconsin Agriculturalists Oral History Project at the Society. Brusveen agreed to participate, and on March 3, I sent a long letter to make further arrangements.
We held four separate interview sessions between March 18 and July 7, 1981. During the first three, on March 18 and 24 and April 9, 1981, we were seated in the den of the new house, with the microphone between us on a hassock. Around us on the wall were photographs of the Brusveen farm as well as a 26 acre farm owned earlier by his parents, which Brusveen occasionally referred to. Mrs. Brusveen sat nearby and listened during the first session but was absent for the others because of part-time employment as a housecleaner in Madison. Just after the first session, she showed me a rather thick photograph album and a guestbook they had saved.
The final session on July 7, 1981, was held at the farm. Unfortunately, the tape recorder was not turned on during the drive as Brusveen discussed farms, farming methods, and the poor corn germination we saw. I turned the recorder on as we were getting out of the car, thereby managing to record a few seconds of car doors, short comments, birds, and wind. Along our walk around the farm, I started the recorder for small discussions, and shut it off during the times between them. As we approached the hog house, I experienced what I later found to be a battery connection failure in the recorder, so the remainder of the day's interview was conducted within reach of an electrical power outlet. No interview material was lost because of the malfunction, as it was discovered immediately. The last portion of the final session was conducted inside the farm's old forge building, with Brusveen sitting on a board on top of an old can and me sitting in the doorway. The temperature outside reached the 90's and the humidity was high. After going to the house for water, we recorded a final segment.
The interview divides itself roughly into several major categories, including (1) Farm life and changes from Brusveen's childhood to the time he did full-time construction work; (2) Farm operation and neighborhood history since Brusveen's operation of the farm in 1960; (3) Brusveen's extra-farm activities; (4) Tour of the farm itself, and Brusveen's impressions about agriculture in general.
The subject matter is somewhat unique from most other interviews done for the Wisconsin Agriculturalists Oral History Project in that it concentrates more on a single, small farming operation and less on farmers' organizations and neighborhood politics. Although Howard Brusveen had held township offices and was a member of the National Farmers' Organization for a time, he was not active in shaping policy. Much of Brusveen's most potentially useful information involves his personal insights on many aspects of small-scale dairy farming and the changes that occurred in a dairying neighborhood since the 1920's. Many details are given concerning changes in farm buildings, crop culture, and animal husbandry over a fifty year period. The outspoken Brusveen also offers candid opinions on several of the formal and informal institutions affecting area small farmers over these years. He firmly believes that farm life is a good life, but emphasizes that he is a member of one of the last generations to know how to run a farm conservingly.
Abstract to the Interview
The tapes for this interview have two tracks: a voice track containing the discussion and a time track containing time announcements at intervals of approximately five seconds. The abstract below lists, in order of discussion, the topics covered on each tape, and indicates the time-marking at which point the beginning of the particular discussion appears.
Thus, the researcher by using a tape recorder's fast-forward button may find expeditiously and listen to discrete segments without listening to all of the taped discussion. For instance, the user who wishes to listen to the topic on “Typical Chores during Childhood” should locate the place on the second track of tape one, side one, where the voice announces the 07:30 time-marking (the voice says at this point, “seven minutes, thirty seconds”), and at this point switch to the first track to hear the discussion. The discussion on “Typical Chores during Childhood” continues until approximately 11:05 at which point discussion of the next topic (“Father Also Does Carpentry and Blacksmithing”) begins.
Notice that in most cases sentences beneath each headline explain more about the contents of the topic. For example the sentences underneath “Typical Chores during Childhood” give further details on what appears on the tape between 07:30 and 11:05.
The abstract is designed to provide only a brief outline of the content of the tapes and cannot serve as a substitute for listening to them. However the abstract when used with the index will help the researcher easily locate distinct topics and discussion among the many minutes of commentary.
Index to the Interview
The index, which is keyed to the same time announcement track (second track) as the abstract, gives a single alphabetical listing of all proper nouns (names of persons, places, groups, organizations, books, periodicals), and distinct historical phenomena (Depression, Crash, World War II, McCarthy-ism) which appear on the tape/in the abstract. Each entry is followed by one or more three-part citations specifying the location(s) where the entry appears. For instance, Butchering is followed by the citations 4:1, 18:40; 5:1, 27:20. This indicates that references to Butchering appear on Tape 4, Side 1 within the time-marking beginning at eighteen minutes, forty seconds of the time announcement, and on Tape 5, Side 1 within the time-marking beginning at twenty-seven minutes, twenty seconds. The index includes cross references.
