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
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... give the reasons fully for which each piece of work is undertaken . While the principal operations are narrated in this way , the precise method of executing every species of work , whether manual or implemental , should be minutely ...
... give no preference to science over practice . Theorising writers , however , sometimes throw out hints which , when improved by more practical experimenters , real- ly lead to useful results ; but whatever may be the origin of the hints ...
... . Besides shewing by anticipation the successive operations as they arrive , could I also give clear descriptions of the labour performed for each crop , as it is carried on simultaneously on a farm , I should 12 THE BOOK OF THE FARM .
... give a clearer insight into the growth of crops . In this department of science , too much discussion to be of benefit to agriculture has , as I conceive , been expended on what really constitutes the food of plants . Whether the food ...
... give the pupil a clearer insight into the minutiae of ploughing , than he could acquire by himself as a spectator in an indefinite length of time . I have selected the plough , as being the most useful implement to il- lustrate the ...