The Book of the Farm: Detailing the Labors of the Farmer, Farm-steward, Ploughman, Shepherd, Hedger, Cattle-man, Field-worker, and Dairymaid, Volume 1Replete with instruction and knowledge honed with experience, The Book of the Farm remains one of the finest agricultural guidebooks ever produced. The 19th century saw the maturation of farming in Western Europe, with intensive methods and efficiencies achieved as never before. Published in the 1840s and successively revised over subsequent decades, this book is a summation of the ingenuity of large-scale agriculture. The production of ever-greater harvests required skill; no longer could any farm be maintained by rudimentary methods taught by example - farming had become a sophisticated, professional discipline reliant upon science and machinery. Aimed at informing prospective students of farming, this work makes no secret of the difficulty and wits required of the modern farmer. Over 100 illustrations depict the tools required, from hoes and ploughs to the traction steam engines that served as forerunners to the modern tractor. Over 80 charts detail all manner of records: animal and crop weights, their prices on the market, mineral levels present in soil and fertilizer, costs of machinery and day-to-day operations. In all, The Book of the Farm is both a superb agricultural history and guide, filled with insight and techniques useful even in the modern day. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 35
... clouds constitute another , and are classified according to the forms they assume , which are definite , and indicative of certain changes . The winds constitute a third , and afford subject for assiduous observation and much ...
... clouds and winds , upon which the diversity of the states of the atmosphere appear so much to depend , shall be described ; and the efficacy of the electric agency , which seems to affect so many of the phe- nomena observed , shall be ...
... Clouds are eminent premonitors . It may at first sight be supposed that clouds , exhibiting so great a variety of forms , cannot be subject to any positive law ; but such a supposition is erroneous , because no phenomenon in nature can ...
... cloud , the stratus the fall - cloud , the curled heap the sonder - cloud , the curled stratus the wane - cloud , and the heaped stratus the twain - cloud , is by no means obvious , unless this last form , being com- posed of two clouds ...
... cloud frequently changes into the complete cirro- cumulus , but it sometimes forms a fringed or softened edge to the ... Clouds slowly castellating in a calm Sublimer than a storm ; which brighter breathes O'er the whole firmament the ...