COLUMBIA — You’re at the mercy of nature when land and livestock is your livelihood. An Easter freeze, a summer drought and unseasonably wet weather can wipe out a year’s harvest. Disease and predators threaten your cattle, sheep, hogs and chickens. Success and survival depend on discipline, meticulous planning and the age-old wisdom of those who came before you.

And then there’s the isolation of working all day in open fields and tending animals. But county fairs like Boone County’s were a sure bet for socializing.

Since its beginnings in 1835, the Boone County Fair has moved many times before the current North Oakland Gravel Road location, increased from being a two-day gathering to a weeklong event packed with exhibits and entertainment and has grown from a humble few to educating and entertaining thousands of visitors each year.

Yet, even as it grows in popularity and activities, agriculture and community remain its focus. Traditional events such as the society horse show, ham competition and 4-H participation pay homage to a heritage of practical know-how and the pioneering farmer’s spirit of self-sufficiency, ingenuity, entrepreneurship and personal and community pride.

America’s entry into World War I in 1917 suspended the Boone County Fair until 1947. But before that, the Boone County ham tradition began in 1901 when Thomas W. “T.W.” Gardner arrived in Rocheport from Decatur, Ill.

As Virgil Gardner, his grandson, who lives in Rocheport just down the road from the old farm tells it: The price of land in Illinois was so high that one day T.W. caught a train heading to Missouri where he borrowed a horse and looked at a piece of land. He rode the train back and told his wife that they were moving to Missouri “‘cause he just bought some land.”

“How’d you think that would go today?” he said, chuckling as he recalled the old man’s gumption.

That March, T.W. moved his wife and eight kids (two more were born in Missouri) while the train hauled his machinery and livestock all down to the “500 and some acres” in Rocheport, Virgil said.

T.W. had nothing except what the Pullman car carried. He raised livestock, grains, hay and oats, everything a farmer needed to be self-sufficient. Here was where the Boone County ham got its start.

Curing was a necessary tradition during the days when refrigerators didn’t exist and the winter months were long. An experienced meat curer in Illinois, Gardner noticed that here his hams came out different. He packed the meat with salt; hesewed them up in cloth and sacked them; he tied the ends with string and strung them up away from the dogs and cats; and he let them dangle in the ventilated ham house — drying in the Missouri air for six months. Whatever the reason, the ham tasted different but good.

T.W. started the curing trend, but his son, W.H. “Bud” Gardner, popularized it and made it a Boone County country tradition. Bud also was the one to decode the ham’s secret. In the early years, production was kept to about 20, just enough to feed the family. To make ends meet during the lean war years, Bud increased his production to 25 and sold the extras to friends. Word got around that Bud’s ham was the best in the county. Soon he was curing a 100 and then 200 without any advertising except for his reputation of making a good product.

Naturally, it was Bud who supplied the hams for Boone County’s first ham breakfast back in 1945 in the basement of the Missouri United Methodist church. He supplied the hams for the second one, too, at Tiger Hotel Ballroom. Virgil said he helped at both.

When the Boone County Fair was revived in 1947, Bud was behind the first ham contest, and it’s been a county tradition ever since.

What makes Boone County ham special? Virgil maintains a Boone County ham is unique because of Boone County — its climate and its air.

“You’ve got to have ventilation and air circulation,” Virgil said.

No matter how cold it is, he always keeps the two southern windows in his ham house open. The Gardner method has a national reputation, with 650 hams leaving the ham house door at the height of business. They’ve shipped hams from coast to coast and even to a few loyal consumers overseas.

Virgil has retired, but he still cures about 20 hams for family and lucky friends.

Today, the young members of 4-H (which stood for Head, Heart, Hands and Health) continue the heritage of personal and regional pride with their community involvement and learning projects. Originally called the Boys and Girls Clubs, the organization became 4-H in 1902 and through the years has provided countless learning experiences for young people “to make the best better.”

After months of working in the fields, rearing their livestock or completing that sewing project, 4-H members have the chance to show the public the fruits of their labor and earn some bragging rights if not a little extra money for their efforts. Of the 600 members in the county, about 200 participate in the youth arts unit and 200 in the livestock unit along with the FFA. Some members compete in both divisions.

When it comes to livestock, 4-H’ers have been involved in every step of the animals’ development. Understanding their behavior is an art best learned through doing — and learning by doing is the 4-H philosophy, said Elaine George, this year’s ham contest co-chairwoman and retired 4-H club leader of 25 years.

It’s the way members learn to be independent, but she stresses that success in any project requires the family’s support.

George comes from a 4-H tradition. Her father was a 4-H member in his youth and later became a project leader. Her grandfather was also a project leader — 4-H had not been formed when he was young. Her three children also were members. There are times, she said, when members will have to confront some of life’s realities. For example, George recalled how sad her granddaughter was the day her lamb was auctioned. Fortunately, “Oreo,” a ball of white with a little black face and feet, was sold to a man as a gift for his granddaughter.

“The animals tend to sell above market price because community members are very generous and supportive of the youth members,” said Stephanie Femrite, 4-H youth development educator for Boone County.

The auction can be competitive and to get that higher price, members need to develop a keen marketing plan because it makes the difference, George said. 4-H members have to be innovative in their exhibition booths to educate passers-by on the success of their projects or convince potential customers through brochures, fliers and personal conversations that their animal or product is worth the investment.

These business and social skills aren’t limited to the fair events, but winning a ribbon can change one’s fortunes. Annie Fisher’s Beaten Biscuits won a blue ribbon at the 1904 World’s Fair, and the Columbia woman built her financial success on that reputation.

However, nationally and statewide, the 4-H enrollment numbers have declined over the years as options have increased for family and children’s time and attention. More problematic, however, is the misconception that it has little to offer youths in urban areas.

“There are some stereotypes of it being a ‘rural’ program, but 4-H has something for everybody,” Femrite said.

4-H clubs can be found in every state, county, city and town engaging youth development in all areas. In the past couple of years, 4-H has expanded to include more educational and community leadership focused projects and after-school programs in addition to collaborating with other nonprofit organizations. The Fun City Youth Academy and 4-H are partners in programming at the Summer and Saturday Academy in community service, leadership and using technology. There are also cooking clubs and “Kids in the Kitchen” which teach cooking skills focused on budgeted nutrition and independence.

New to this year’s 4-H competition lineup is a baking contest sponsored by Hammons Product Co., which highlights another unique Missouri agricultural feature: the native black walnut. Hammons Product Co., headquartered in Stockton, has been sponsoring black walnut contests around the state, including at the Empire Fair down in the Ozarks and the State Fair in Sedalia. Although this is the first such baking contest at the Boone County Fair, many folks already know about black walnut harvest traditions.

Each autumn, on the first day of October, legions of people, individuals, communities and organizations gather underneath the trees as the nuts start to fall. They comb the ground: Some prefer picking up nuts individually; some rake them in piles; and a few climb or shake the trees to get at the nuts. The harvest season lasts about five to 5½ weeks.

If not kept for personal use, the walnuts are dropped off at one of 120 buying stations around the state, where they’re weighed and gatherers are paid for their labor. The nuts are hulled by a machine provided by the company, then shipped off to Stockton where the Hammons Product Co. shells the nuts and ships them out.

Founded in 1946 by grocer Ralph Hammons, the company is still a family business and is a leading distributor of American black walnuts. Company president Brian Hammons said 65 percent to 70 percent of the world’s supply comes from Missouri.

Black walnuts are also wild crop. The company relies on communities in black walnut regions across the nation to gather and harvest the nuts, Hammons said, but its wild nature makes the crop more susceptible to extreme production swings. A record haul of 49 million pounds came in 1999; on average, the company takes in about 29 million pounds a year, he said.

Around fall harvest time, Hammons sells its own brands at local stores, but during the rest of the year the company is a supplier to Planters, Diamonds, Fisher and Kroger’s, Hammons said.

The shells are extremely hard and once ground are used in city water filtration systems, as an abrasive in sandblasting to clean metal parts, in pressure drilling by oil companies and as glue extenders in furniture making.

The ice cream industry and home bakers are the two big markets for the nutmeat.

Regionally it’s a popular ice cream flavor, Hammons said. The black walnut has a bolder flavor than its better-known cousin, the mild English walnut.

The baking contest not only helps promote the black walnut’s usage, but it promotes a harvesting tradition in which everyone can participate. While it’s not a large industry, it’s an eco-friendly product unique to Missouri and helps local economies by promoting natural resources, regional and community pride.

Farm life is as vital and unpredictable today as it’s ever been. Early county fairs were agricultural exhibitions that showcased new machinery and methods to improve livestock health and crop cultivation. By historical accounts, the first Boone County Fair was held Oct. 16 to 17 on a racetrack near where Hickman High School is now. That isn’t as odd as it sounds; Kentucky migrants were Columbia’s original settlers and brought with them a love of horses, according to Alan Havig’s 1984 chronicle of the city’s growth, “From Southern Village to Midwestern City: Columbia, An illustrated History.”

Although Columbia has its fair share of horse society families, one story often goes unnoticed. Tom Bass entered the world in 1857 on the Bass plantation just south of Columbia. The son of Cornelia Gray, a slave, and William Hayden Bass, the plantation owner’s son, Tom, raised by his mother’s parents, grew up to become an internationally recognized horseman. Accounts of his life can be found in Bill Downey’s 1975 biography “Tom Bass: Black Horseman” as well as at the Audrain County Historical Society’s Web site, www.audrain.org.

According to both, his grace and skills had him performing in front of royalty and high society members. His grandfather was an expert in rearing the horses on the plantation, and his father had an eye for champion stock. Bass inherited these abilities and grew up around the best horses. However, it was a mule that he first trained to canter backwards in a corral, an amazing feat that didn’t go unnoticed by his father. He would later have Tom training his horses at a handsome profit, Downey wrote.

During those days, the American Saddle horse was prized for its smooth and graceful gait, speed and the beauty of its symmetry and balance. Tom Bass’ affinity for animals enabled him to train even the most difficult one without ever raising his voice and using a whip.

“To a man who loves a horse, to see one abused is as bad as having the whip laid on his own body,” he was quoted in a 1931 article in the St. Louis Globe Democrat.

Rex McDonald, Miss Rex and Columbus were three of the most famous horses Bass trained: Downey and the Audrain historical society say Rex McDonald is the greatest American Saddle horse in history; Miss Rex the most successful mare; and Columbus, once sold to Buffalo Bill Cody, the most talented horse of his day.

Bass’ natural gifts won him the admiration and lifelong friendship of influential people such as Teddy Roosevelt.

Roosevelt waited months while Bass painstakingly searched for the perfect horse for him. Bass refused to take any commission for his troubles.

Although his talents never made him rich ­— he used grain to calculate his deals — he revolutionized the Saddle Horse profession with his training methods and his invention of the Bass Bit, used to protect the horse’s mouth against abuse during training. He never patented his design, and it’s still in use today.

During his career, Bass not only trained horses and their young riders, he performed at countless horse shows and competitions in front of five presidents, social elites as well as English royalty and French dignitaries. His legacy is that he inspired others to see beyond race and class as the measures of a person.