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. |
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... clay land friable by the mechanical admixture of sand , the physical impracticability of the proposal would at once convince the far- mer that the chemist had no adequate notion of farm work . And yet pro- positions as absurd as this ...
... clay , on one or both sides of a considerable river ; and may be of great or small extent , but generally comprehends a large tract of country . In almost all respects , a carse is quite the opposite to a pasto- ral district . Carse ...
... clay even more than the unctuous , retains a great deal of water ; —all these substances form objectionable ground ... clays . Pure sand is not always dry , and it is apt to form , in some situations , an insecure founda- tion . Pure ...
... clay will be requisite behind the walls , and below the pavement of the bottom . The bottom of the feeding - troughs in the byres , courts , and hammels , should be of 3 - inch thick of flag - pavement , jointed and scabbled on the face ...
... clay of 2 or 3 inches is first laid on the ground levelled for the pur- * Prize Essays of the Highland and Agricultural Society , vol . viii . p . 373 . pose , and upon the clay , while in a OF THE STEADING OR FARMSTEAD . 173.