Pls help me find good books on farming

Try ANY old farming books, the older the better. Those books were written before everyone had heavy machinery, and the things that they casually mention are very illuminating.

For example, "hogging off" a crop means to first grow the crop in a fenced field, then just turn out the pigs when it is ripe. No harvesting, no shelling, and so forth. You then sell the pigs when they are large enough.

The old "Feeds and Feeding" books are particularly wonderfull, as is anything by Ensminger.

You must keep in mind, of course, that we know more about nutrition than they did then. But, those old books are wonderfull for telling you how to get things done without machinery.

I get mine from used book stores, Friends of the Library sales (where they sell donated books), and so forth.

This thread has been helpful to me too! I just got Carla Emery's Encyclopedia today. It's awesome.

Terri, I got an agricultural book the other day for it's "historical" value at a used book store. It's the 1975 USDA Yearbook of Ag. I like farming books across the past 150yrs or so to see how methods and the tone of the writing change (which can be indicative of societies views about the food supply).

Megan

How old, Terri? I'm not sure when pesticides and machinery became the norm...

The chemical/big tractor farming era really kicked in right after WW2. Most of the farming books printed before 1935 will be what you're looking for. "Farm Economy" in 1915 is one I refer to a lot. "Traditional American Farming techniques" is another oldie that was reprinted in 2001. Another place to look is globepequot.com go to "Special Interests" and click on "Country Living" they have reprinted a lot of good old books and some good new ones too.

I feel like a librarian. Yipeee

We used Salatin's book as sort of a jumping off point. His climate is REAL different from north central Indiana it seems to me. And his clientele are different people.

That said, it was a place to start.

I think I got more good out of the Storey books "Storeys' Guide to Raising ..." (fill in the blank) because we were in the middle of switchign livestock ventures from dairy cattle to beef cattle, poultry adn anything else we can make a buck on!

Good luck!
Ann

__________________
"In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all things, charity."