A modern form of documentation and interpretation of the histstory of agriculture represents the open-air museum called „scanzen“. The foundationstone was erected on September 6, 1982. Nowadays, a visitor can observe original technologies of agricultural products processing in the majority of proces-sing buildings. A large attraction is also an operation of the reconstructed field railway, which is a symbol of transport of the second half of 19th and first half of 20th century in localities housing a sugar factory, brewery, grain silo, mill, etc. A visual demonstration of exhibits of functional agricultural machines and mechanisms with various drives, displays of processing technologies and craft techniques are the most effective presentation withthe highest value of evidence and understandability.

 

Interpretation of collections is realized also on the territory of research institutes, schools, enterprises and other institutions. Participation of the museum in the championship in ploughing represents various methods of ploughing by towing and also by machines. The museum intitiated establishment of corporate museums, writing of chronicles and commemorative volumes in agricultural enterprises, institutions and institutes. Methodical aids have been prepared for this purpose. It initiated education of the history of agriculture at the Slovak University of Agriculture, where also the employees of the museum participate. The museum initiated similarly an education of museology at the University of Constantine the Philosopher in Nitra.

In cooperation with the Slovak University of Agriculture it establiches a gene bank of original kinds of agricultural plants, bushes and pulps from various areas of Slovakia on the teritory of the outdoor museum. Since 1995the subjekt „The History of Agriculture in Slovakia“ is lectured on the university. The museum actively cooperates with many institutions, enterprises and companies. Within the framework of the Society for the history of sciences and technique it associates those interested in the history of agriculture. The museum is a founding member of the world association of agricultural museums AIMA. In 1995 the museum organized an international conference in Nitra, where participated over 80 employees of agricultural museums and agriculture historians from 34 states of the world.

The mission of the museum to fill up the goblet of knowledge of the history of agriculture as our cultural heritage in spite of several fatalities, has successfully been fulfilled. It confirms an idea from“Reflection“..., that to know the past, i.e. to know himself, means to build the future.

Field Railway of Nitra

The Field Railway of Nitra is a component part of the Slovak Agricultural Museum exposition.
In the past field railways served for transport of agricultural products as sugar beet, corn,animals, beet tops, molusses, milk, and also wood, dung, coal, building material, etc.
Moreover, they transported people to work, to towns and children to school. In the period of rainy springs and autumns this field railway used to be the only connection with the surrounding world.
The field railways from the environs of Želiezovce, Pohronský Ruskov, Sládkovičovo, Šurany, Trebišov, Trnava and other towns started to be liquidated at the late 1960s due to the quickly developing automobile transport and considerably cheap fuels. Based on the agreement between the State Agricultural Co-op Želiezovce and the Slovak Agricultural Museum Nitra of February 21, 1984, the frangent of the field railway was taken to the newly built open-air museum. In the same year the railway top in Želiezovce, part Nýrovce-Malos, started to be disassembled. In April 1985 we started constructing the railway in the open-air museum, and the first part was put into operation in August 23, 1985. It was a special event for visitors of the museum and the 1985 Agrokomplex exhibition. Steam locomotive U 34.901 of the year 1908, dragging a passenger wagon from the former railway Korytnica, caused a real shock. The steam locomotive was lent from the Open-air Museum of Kysuce in Vychylovka, which was an exceptional promotion activity both for ourselves and other railways.
During three weeks of the exhibition the railway transported almost 20 thousand visitors, mainly young people.
As a result of great interest in this kind of transport on the side of visitors, it was decided to continue constructing the railway around the open-air museum in the length of 1 600 metres already in the following year. And in the year 1990 another part of the railway in the length of 1000 metres was implemented, thus connecting the exhibition area of Agrokomplex to the open-air museum. From Želiezovce railway fleet several wagons for transport of sugar beet, corn, dung, sillage and piece goods, and two passenger wagons were acquired.
Observation coaches, on which visitors are transported, are provided with the frame and bogie of the years 1937-1939. Superstructures were made based on the original documentation of observation coaches which used to transport tourists and holiday-makers on forest railways.
There are three steam locomotives inthe Field Railway of Nitra:
1. U 25.001 „13“, ČKD BS-80 type,made in the year 1951 in ČKD Sokolovo. Its operational steam boiler pressure is 14 atm., output of heat depending on steam pressure 80 k, number of pipes in the boiler 90 pieces, max. speed 35 km and weight 13 t comprising water and coal. For the last time the locomotive operated in Ironworks of Králuv Dvur in the year 1983, from thereit was acquired after an overhaul and put into operation in the year 1987.
2. U 35.001 type C 760/90, production year 1949, made by ČKD Prague-Libeň, operational steam boiler pressure 13 atm, output 90 k, number of pipes in the boiler 82 pieces. The locomotive operated in Podbrezová ironworks under denomination number „7“. From the year 1981 the locomotive stood as a memorial in front of the Apprentice Training Centre of Metallurgy in Bratislava – Vajnory. It was acquired from there, and after complete averhaul put into operation on August 17, 1989.
3. U 35.901, type R III C, made by the Kraus company in Linz in the year 1918, operated in the Morava Firebrick nad Shaley Factory in Mladejov until the early 1960 s. The locomotivewas acquired from there totally damaged in the year 1987, with the diagnosis „unrepairable“.