Rural Sources: Books (part 1 of 6)
Dave Sill
Well, it's been months since I've posted these, so here goes...
These were collected from articles posted to misc.rural, as were most of
the comments. Additions/corrections/suggestions welcome. Send them to me
at cf...@cleveland.freenet.edu.
Dave Sill
----
150 Years of IHC
C. H. Wendel
(Available from Kings Books, P.O. Box 86, Radner, OH 43066)
A history of International Harvester and the companies that made
up IHC. Also has serial number lists to date IHC
tractors.
American Cider Book
Vrest Orton
Farrar, Straus, & Giroux NY 1973
He was a sexist bombast, but it's an informative, traditionalist
book.
Angora Goat Book and Guard Dogs
Jean Ebeling
Eakin Pulications, Inc.
Austin, TX, 1983
Written by Ranch Magazine columnist, somewhat oriented toward
conditions in Texas.
Angora Goats the Northern Way
Susan Black Drummond
Freeport MI:
Stony Lonesome Farm, 1985.
Good overall info. especially on conditions in MI.
Art of Blacksmithing, The
Alex Bealer
Harper & Row 1984
My constant reference for both tricks, designs, and history.
Back To Basics
Reader's Digest 1986
It's amazing how much is covered in the book, from livestock to
barn building to blacksmithing &c. It has enough to get you
started on many rural pursuits.
A pretty good general, but superficial, reference.
Another must-have. A series of how-to articles on things
traditional from surveying and log-cabin-building (adobe too for
you southwesterners) to sheep shearing and blacksmithing. Good
recipes. Good pointers for additional information. This is the
book to have around whenever you start thinking, ``Wonder if I
ought to get a few geese for this place?''
Barns, Sheds, and Outbuildings
Byron D. Halstead (Ed.)
Stephen Green Press, MA 1981
(Reprint of 1881) Includes good drawings of late 19th C barns,
emphasizing efficient layout.
Chickens in your Backyard -- A Beginner's Guide
Rick & Gail Luttmann
Rodale Press, Inc.
Emmaus, Pa. 18049, 1976
ISBN 0-87857-125-6
Well organized, up to date how-to/reference.
Appears to touch on a lot of aspects of raising chickens like
feed, illnesses, predators, coops, clean-up, etc. It's a
paperback, and was less than 10 bucks including postage, I think.
Complete Book of Raising Livestock and Poultry, The
Thear & Fraser
1980-1988
Pan Books Ltd., Pan, Cavaye Place, London, SW10 9PG, UK.
0-330-30158-6
The how-to book of beasties for a small-holding.
Complete Book of Prefabs, Kits, and Manufactured Houses, The
Fawcett Columbine (C) 1981
ISBN 0-449-90051-7
Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency, The
John Seymour
1976-1989
Corgi/Faber
0-552-98051-X
Transworld Publishers, 61 Uxbridge Road, Ealing, London, W5 5SA, UK.
Excellent. A must for any small farm or homestead.
Complete Herbal Handbook for Farm and Stable, The
(See: Ten Acres Enough)
Continuing the Good Life
Schocken 1979
(See: Maple Sugar Book, The)
Country Living: A Source Book of Projects and Friendly Advice
Lewis & Nancy Hill
Rodale Press.
Encyclopedia of American Farm Tractors
C. H. Wendel
(Available from Kings Books, P.O. Box 86, Radner, OH 43066)
Encyclopedia of American Gasoline Engines Since 1872
C. H. Wendel
(Available from Kings Books, P.O. Box 86, Radner, OH 43066)
THE reference on old engines. This book has over 21000
illustrations showing almost every company to manufacture internal
combustion engines in the US.
Endless Tracks In The Woods
James Young and Jerry Budy
(Available from Kings Books, P.O. Box 86, Radner, OH 43066)
A history of the development of the crawler. Has serial number
lists so you can date that old crawler.
Economic Feasibility of Raising Angora Goats in the Northeastern US, The
Stephen Dahm
1986
Penn State Library
Master's thesis. You can get the thesis via interlibrary loan.
It's not too econ-techy, mostly pretty understandable. Good
overview of issues, lots of references.
Farm Animal Coloring Book
(See: Ten Acres Enough)
Farm Fever: How to Buy Country Land and Farm It--Part Time or Full Time
Jerry Baker and Dan Kibbie
Funk & Wagnalls, 1977,
ISBN 0-308-10299-1
Full of excellent information about how to buy land and get
started in farming, including addresses of various organizations
and contacts. Unfortunately, it's written in an dated and
somewhat obnoxious style--lot's of exclamation marks! and hokey
`my grandma Foobar always used to say...'s.
Farmer's Tax Guide
IRS Publication 225
Farmstead Book 1
Paul Harmond (Ed.)
Cloudburst, Seattle 1978
Useful treatment of soil management and forage crops. Also the
farm shop and the woodlot. There is no Farmstead Book 2!
First Person Rural
Noel Perrin
Penguin Books 1978
(also the sequels _Second Person Rural_, 1980, and _Third Person
Rural_, 1983)
Brief, thoughtful essays about manure, sheep, maple sugaring,
firewood, and such by a Vermont farmer who also happens to be a
Dartmouth professor. Often _Yankee Magazine_-type stuff aimed
toward rural-wannabes and confused urbanites, but a good
introduction to what one can expect to encounter as part of
escaping the cities and 'burbs.
Five Acres and Independence
M. G. Kains
Greenberg Publishers 1935
How to make a very small farm pay for itself. Amazingly un-dated
advice, even after fifty-five years. Get one, if you can.
Foxfire series
They are available at the B. Dalton's bookstore chain. As a
series of interviews and how-to demonstrations by hillfolk, they
are a valuable source for persons rediscovering problems of rural
life.
Garden Way Publishing Bulletins
Storey/Garden Way
Schoolhouse Road
Pownal, VT 05261
800-827-8673
Roughly 100 32-page booklets on various gardening, DIY/crafts,
livestock, cooking/preserving, energy, etc. List for $2 each. I
have _Eggs and Chickens_, by John Vivian (see Practical Guide) and
_Baking with Sourdough_, don't remember author. Both are very
good. The sourdough book has dozens of recipes, I particularly
liked the pretzels.
In addition to lots of neat books, they also publish an odd
series, "Country Wisdom Bulletins". They're a dollar each, 32pp
long, and focus on one topie or another: "Building and Using Cold
Frames", "Axes & Chainsaws", "Build a Smokehouse", "Buying country
Land", "The Best Fences", etc, etc, tect [there are over a hundred
of 'em. I have a dozen or so].
Getting Started in Farming on a Small Scale
USDA Agriculture Information Bulletin Number 451.
Gift of Good Land, The
Wendell Berry
North Point Press
San Francisco 1981
Goat Husbandry
David Mackenzie
I don't know if it's still in print, but I was fortunate enough to
obtain a copy at a rummage sale.
Greener Pastures on Your Side of the Fence
Bill Murphy
Harnessing Water Power for Home Energy
Dermot McGuigan
Garden Way Publishing, Pownal, Vermont 05261
Paperback, 100 pages, 1978
ISBN 0-88266-115-9
The book describes how to determine how much power you have:
measuring flow and head and the mechanics of turning the water
into useful energy. There are chapters on water-wheels, pelton
wheels, turgo wheels, cross-flow turbines, francis turbine and on
lots of other little details (like building a dam). There are
lots of manufacturer's addresses included in the text.
Have-More Plan, The
Ed and Carolyn Robinson
Garden Way/Storey
This book is worth owning just for the comic effect. Leave it on
your coffee table and watch your guests. It's a blast from the
past. As with 5 Acres, though, the information is fairly timeless
if you can suffer the presentation. It contains lots of 1-2 page
entries on beekeeping, rabbit/chicken raising, orcharding, etc.
How to Design an Independant Power System
(out of print)
Terrance D. Paul
Best Energy Systems for Tomorrow, Inc.
P.O. Box 280
Necedah WI 54646
If you can find someone who has a copy, hound them until you can
borrow it.
Integral Urban House Self Reliant Living In The City, The
Helga Olkowski, Bill Olkowski, Tom Javits and the Farallones
Institute Staff
ISBN: 0-87156-213-8
Sierra Club Books
Available via mail-order from Sierra Club bookstores. It's about
500 pages (8.5 x 11) and has a good bibliography
John Deere Tractors and Equipment
Don Macmillian
(Available from Kings Books, P.O. Box 86, Radner, OH 43066)
General source of JD information.
Life after the City,
Charles Long
1989
Camden House, 7 Queen Victoria Rd, Camden East, Ontario, K0K 1J0,
CANADA
0-920656-14-5
Practical book. Covers US as well as Canada
Living on a Few Acres
USDA Yearbook of Agriculture, 1978
Should be available free from your conresscritter. A collection
of short articles on different aspects of "Living on a Few Acres".
From how to find a place, to what to do with it, etc [e.g., "Dairy
Goats Require Lots of Care Just to Brak Even"; "think twice about
risks of horse rental business", "land improvements --- what you
need to know", "Ready to face the realities of small-scale
farming?"]
Living on Less
Editors of the Mother Earth News
Mother Earth News Books
Scores of 2-5 pagers on such topics as housing, homesteading,
gardening, canning, foraging, livestock, energy, clothing,
recreation, etc. Lots of good DIY info that doesn't assume you
were born in a log cabin or raised by wolves.
Living the Good Life
Schocken 1970
(See: Maple Sugar Book, The)
Malabar Farm
Harper & Bros. 1948(?)
(See: Pleasant Valley)
Maple Sugar Book, The
H. & S. Nearing
Schocken Books 1950
I think the FBI used to put your name on file if you ordered
these. Maybe they still do. In any case, Scott Nearing (who had
run as a Socialist against Fiorello LaGuardia in the NY mayoral
race) and his wife Helen started the back-to-the-land movement in
the '30s, when they set up a self-sufficient farm in Vermont. They
continued for another half-century, later moving to Maine when the
ski industry started ruining the neighborhood. Good scholarship,
with numerous obscure quotes and references going back hundreds of
years; rather dated politics; lots of blaming meat-eating for most
of mankind's physical and moral infirmities. Probably a more
primitive lifestyle than most of us could stand for long, but true
classics. I especially recommend the first, which combines a
history of maple sugaring with in-depth technical information.
Nebraska Tractor Tests Since 1920
C. H. Wendel
Kings Books
P.O. Box 86
Radner, Ohio 43066
The Nebraska tractor tests are an important tool in comparing
tractors and any farm tractor sold in Nebraska must be put through
these tests. The tests are still being conducted. This book
gives the important data for each test from 1920 through 1984. If
you are concerned about the size, power, weight, economy of a
tractor, it is here. For example the tractors tested in 1978
range from the small 1940 lb. Kubota L-185 to the large 47370 lb.
Stieger ST-450.
New Industry, or Raising the Angora Goat, and Mohair, for Profit, A
William L. Black
Keystone Printing Co.
Fort Worth, TX 1900. (yes, 1900)
An oldie, but goodie. Great perspective on the way things were,
and the way they could be.
New Organic Grower, The
(See: Ten Acres Enough)
Pleasant Valley
L. Bromfield
Harper & Bros. 1943
Not sure if these are in print right now, but you should be able
to get them from used book stores. Politically far more
conservative than the Nearings, novelist Louis Bromfield takes all
his book royalties and puts together a huge Ohio farm. The
money's-no-object bit can get tedious at times (not to mention the
thousands of words in praise of Boxers), but these were the first
really-widely-read books against reliance on chemical fertilizers
and toward composting, erosion control, and protecting farmland
from development by selling the rights to conservancy trusts or
foundations.
Practical Blacksmithing
M.T. Richardson (Ed.)
Weathervane 1978
(reprint of 4 volume 1889-91) compendium of 19thC journal
articles; jumbled, but fun.
Practical Guide to Homesteading, The
John Vivian
I'd consider this a must-read, if not a must-have, for wannabes.
Vivian takes the reader through a typical year on his homestead.
Full of practical (hence the title) advice, the kind of thing you
learn usually by blowing it the first time around.
Practical Guide to Successful Farming
Wallace S. Moreland (Ed.)
Halcyon House 1943
Excellent reference for practical, low-budget farming. From
Rutgers Ag professors, it can be found in used book shops. (I
bought one for $3, then my mom gave me the one she had given her
father in 1943. It's a pleasure to read from the pages thumbed by
the man who got me interested in farming.)
Raising Milk Goats Successfully
Gail Luttmann
Williamson, Charlotte, VT 1986
Well organized, up to date how-to/reference.
Raising Poultry the Modern Way
Lenonard S. Mercia
A Garden Way Publishing Book
Storey Communications, Inc.
Pownal, Vermont 05261, 1983
ISBN 0-88266-058-6
Raising Sheep the Modern Way
Paula Simmons
Garden Way 1976
Well organized, up to date how-to/reference.
Secrets of the Still
Grace Firth
EPM Pub McClean VA 1983
She's a great writer, this is worth reading even if you don't
drink! This plus Foxfire are all you need to know about making
spirits.
Shepherd's Guidebook, The
Margaret Bradbury
Small Scale Grain Raising
Gene Logsdon
Rodale 1977
This will convince you that you don't need a lot of land to grow
your own wheat, barley or oats. Very practical for small
holdings.
Small Scale Poultry Keeping
(See: Ten Acres Enough)
Ten Acres Enough
Small Farmers Journal
P. O. Box 2805, Eugene, Or 97402
A fine source of readable material on how to do many of the things
that we as a culture have forgotten and mislaid in our rush to
yuppiedom.
Three Acres and Liberty
Bolton Hall
MacMillan Co NY 1918
University of Guelph
Division of Independant Studies
Agriculture and Horticulture programs
South House
Ontario, N1G 2W1, CANADA
Extensive video collection for sale as well as ag and hort
diplomas.
Veterinary Guide for Animal Owners
C.E. Spaulding
Rodale Press 1976
Very handy reference for most livestock (except children)
--
Dave Sill
Play: cf...@cleveland.freenet.edu
Work: d...@ornl.gov
M Darrin Chaney
fractal.ucs.indiana.edu, and available for anonymous ftp'ers. Look in
/pub/misc.rural. I left both a compressed and an uncompressed version,
although it is really small either way.
Disregard the message at the beginning. If you're just going to grab this
file, do it whenever you want. If you want to grab the 120-something joke
files, please do that "after hours" :)
I would be happy to add any misc.rural type stuff here, BTW. There were
some excellent articles on the Nebraska tractor tests that might want to
make their way there.
Maybe instead of a FAQ we could simply keep these information sources and
refer people there.
Darrin
--
mdchaney@iubacs mdch...@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu mdch...@rose.ucs.indiana.edu
"It's a marvel of vegetable containment..."