The Heart of the Farm: A History of Barns and Fences in the Eastern Townships of Quebec

Louise Abbott and her husband, Niels Jensen, spent several years travelling the breadth of the Eastern Townships, snapping pictures of barns and interviewing their present caretakers. Abbott, who grew up on a farm near Lake Memphremagog, also mined local archives for photographs and testimonials of barns long since vanished. Their collaboration has resulted in The Heart of the Farm – a book as painstakingly crafted as some of the heritage buildings that appear between its covers – which uses the barn as conduit for exploring over 200 years of change in an agricultural landscape and society. Topics explored include timber and balloon framing; colonial English, Dutch, and polygonal barn styles; features such as extensions, weathervanes, cupolas, and silos; and a related ubiquitous landmark, the fence. This attractive tome is as well placed on a coffee table as on an historian’s bookshelf. mRb