Download or read book Plowman s Folly written by Edward H. Faulkner and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2015-01-06 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mr. Faulkner’s masterpiece is recognized as the most important challenge to agricultural orthodoxy that has been advanced in this century. Its new philosophy of the soil, based on proven principles and completely opposed to age-old concepts, has had a strong impact upon theories of cultivation around the world. It was on July 5, 1943, when Plowman’s Folly was first issued, that the author startled a lethargic public, long bemused by the apparently insoluble problem of soil depletion, by saying, simply, “The fact is that no one has ever advanced a scientific reason for plowing.” With the key sentence, he opened a new era.For generations, our reasoning about the management of the soil has rested upon the use of the moldboard plow. Mr. Faulkner proved rather conclusively that soil impoverishment, erosion, decreasing crop yields, and many of the adverse effects following droughts or periods of excessive rainfall could be traced directly to the practice of plowing natural fertilizers deep into the soil. Through his own test-plot and field-scale experiments, in which he prepared the soil with a disk harrow, in emulation of nature’s way on the forest floor and in the natural meadow, by incorporating green manures into its surface, he transformed ordinary, even inferior, soils into extremely productive, high-yield croplands.Time magazine called this concept “one of the most revolutionary ideas in agriculture history.” The volume is being made available again not only because farmers, ranchers, gardeners, and agriculturists demanded it, but also because it details the kind of “revolution” which will aid those searching for the fruits of the earth in the emerging nations.
Download or read book The Power of Place written by Daniel Grothe and published by Thomas Nelson. This book was released on 2021-10-26 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Acclaimed teaching pastor Daniel Grothe speaks to the sense of loneliness that many feel in today's age of hypermobility and noncommittal wandering, reminding us of the ancient vow of stability and teaching us how we can lead a richer life of friendship, community, and purpose. Unlike previous generations that had to stay put, many people today have unprecedented access to a lifestyle of mobility. We can explore and bounce from place to place, never settling down or making anywhere home. And while it feels freeing to be able to try something new whenever we want--whether it's a new job, a new city, a new group of friends, or even a new church--somewhere along the way, we discover we're missing something. We may be paying our bills and have a roof over our heads, but we're lonely and unfulfilled, disconnected and unsatisfied. What's that all about? What is the missing piece? In The Power of Place, pastor Daniel Grothe speaks to the human ache for home and makes a countercultural case for staying put. He calls us to reject the myth of Christian individuality and instead embrace the richness of commitment and community, arguing that we must stay in one place as long as we can, plant our lives, and let roots take hold. Because only then can we experience the deep fulfillment, friendship, and fruitfulness God created us for.
Download or read book Too Wet to Plow written by Jeanne M. Simonelli and published by New Amsterdam Books. This book was released on 1990 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anthropologist Simonelli writes vividly, her prose a moving testimonial to the courage farming takes....--The Book Review
Download or read book Washington at the Plow written by Bruce A. Ragsdale and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2021-10-12 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fresh, original look at George Washington as an innovative land manager whose singular passion for farming would unexpectedly lead him to reject slavery. George Washington spent more of his working life farming than he did at war or in political office. For over forty years, he devoted himself to the improvement of agriculture, which he saw as the means by which the American people would attain the Òrespectability & importance which we ought to hold in the world.Ó Washington at the Plow depicts the Òfirst farmer of AmericaÓ as a leading practitioner of the New Husbandry, a transatlantic movement that spearheaded advancements in crop rotation. A tireless experimentalist, Washington pulled up his tobacco and switched to wheat production, leading the way for the rest of the country. He filled his library with the latest agricultural treatises and pioneered land-management techniques that he hoped would guide small farmers, strengthen agrarian society, and ensure the prosperity of the nation. Slavery was a key part of WashingtonÕs pursuits. He saw enslaved field workers and artisans as means of agricultural development and tried repeatedly to adapt slave labor to new kinds of farming. To this end, he devised an original and exacting system of slave supervision. But Washington eventually found that forced labor could not achieve the productivity he desired. His inability to reconcile ideals of scientific farming and rural order with race-based slavery led him to reconsider the traditional foundations of the Virginia plantation. As Bruce Ragsdale shows, it was the inefficacy of chattel slavery, as much as moral revulsion at the practice, that informed WashingtonÕs famous decision to free his slaves after his death.
Download or read book Plowing with Moldboard Plows written by Wallace Ashby and published by . This book was released on 1945 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book People of the Plow written by James McCann and published by Univ of Wisconsin Press. This book was released on 1995-07-15 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For more than two thousand years, Ethiopia’s ox-plow agricultural system was the most efficient and innovative in Africa, but has been afflicted in the recent past by a series of crises: famine, declining productivity, and losses in biodiversity. James C. McCann analyzes the last two hundred years of agricultural history in Ethiopia to determine whether the ox-plow agricultural system has adapted to population growth, new crops, and the challenges of a modern political economy based in urban centers. This agricultural history is set in the context of the larger environmental and landscape history of Ethiopia, showing how farmers have integrated crops, tools, and labor with natural cycles of rainfall and soil fertility, as well as with the social vagaries of changing political systems. McCann traces characteristic features of Ethiopian farming, such as the single-tine scratch plow, which has retained a remarkably consistent design over two millennia, and a crop repertoire that is among the most genetically diverse in the world. People of the Plow provides detailed documentation of Ethiopian agricultural practices since the early nineteenth century by examining travel narratives, early agricultural surveys, photographs and engravings, modern farming systems research, and the testimony of farmers themselves, collected during McCann’s five years of fieldwork. He then traces the ways those practices have evolved in the twentieth century in response to population growth, urban markets, and the presence of new technologies.
Download or read book When Horses Pulled the Plow written by Olaf F. Larson and published by Univ of Wisconsin Press. This book was released on 2011-06-01 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1910, when Olaf F. Larson was born to tenant livestock and tobacco farmers in Rock County, Wisconsin, the original barn still stood on the property. It was filled with artifacts of an earlier time—an ox yoke, a grain cradle, a scythe used to cut hay by hand. But Larson came of age in a brave new world of modern inventions—tractors, trucks, combines, airplanes—that would change farming and rural life forever. When Horses Pulled the Plow is Larson’s account of that rural life in the early twentieth century. He weaves invaluable historical details—including descriptions of farm equipment, crops, and livestock—with wry tales about his family, neighbors, and the one-room schoolhouse he attended, revealing the texture of everyday life in the rural Midwest almost a century ago. This memoir, written by Larson in his ninth decade, provides a wealth of details recalled from an earlier era and an illuminating read for anyone with their own memories of growing up on a farm.
Download or read book From the Soil Up written by Donald L. Schriefer and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The farmer¿s role is to conduct the symphony of plants and soil. In this book, learn how to coax the most out of your plants by providing the best soil and removing all yield-limiting factors. Schriefer is best known for his ¿systems¿ approach to tillage and soil fertility, which is detailed here. Managing soil aeration, water, and residue decay are covered, as well as ridge planting systems, guidelines for cultivating row crops, and managing soil fertility. Develop your own soil fertility system for long-term productivity.
Download or read book Horse Powered Farming for the 21st Century written by Stephen Leslie and published by Chelsea Green Publishing. This book was released on 2015 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now is a time of exciting new developments for live animal power. As the numbers of adherents to this way of life grow, ecologically minded farmers in their fields are developing efficient horse-drawn systems, and equipment manufacturers in small shops all across North America and Europe are coming forth with new innovations in ground-drive technology that have us poised on the cusp of another agricultural revolution--with working horses, mules, donkeys, and oxen at the heart of it. --Publisher.
Download or read book The Farm Tractor written by William Aitkenhead and published by . This book was released on 1919 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Texas Cotton And The New Deal written by Keith Joseph Volanto and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cotton growing-Government policy-Texas-Historly 2. Cotton trade-government policy-Texas-History. 3. New Deal1933-1939-Texas. 4. United States.
Download or read book One Small Farm written by Craig Schreiner and published by Wisconsin Historical Society. This book was released on 2013-08-22 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “People’s lives are written on the fields of old farms. The rows of the fields are like lines on a page, blank and white in winter, filled in with each year’s story of happiness, disappointment, drought, rain, sun, scarcity, plenty. The chapters accumulate, and people enter and leave the narrative. Only the farm goes on.”—From the Introduction In One Small Farm, Craig Schreiner’s evocative color photographs capture one family as they maintain the rhythms and routines of small farm life near Pine Bluff, Wisconsin. “Milk in the morning and milk at night. Feed the cows and calves. Plant crops. Grind feed. Chop and bale hay. Cut wood. Clean the barn. Spread manure on the fields. Plow snow and split wood in winter. In spring, pick rocks from the fields. Cultivate corn. Pick corn. Harvest oats and barley. Help calves be born. Milk in the morning and milk at night.” There’s much more to life on the farm than just chores, of course, and Schreiner captures the rhythms and richness of everyday life on the farm in all seasons, evoking both the challenges and the joys and providing viewers a window into a world that is quickly fading. In documenting the Lamberty family’s daily work and life, these thoughtful photos explore larger questions concerning the future of small farm agriculture, Wisconsin cultural traditions, and the rural way of life.
Download or read book Farming for Us All written by Michael Mayerfeld Bell and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2010-11-01 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Farming for Us All gives us the opportunity to explore the possibilities for social, environmental, and economic change that practical, dialogic agriculture presents.
Download or read book Horsedrawn Plows Plowing Revised Edition written by Lynn R. Miller and published by Davila Art & Books. This book was released on 2018-04-15 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Covers how to plow with horses using older equipment and new implements. Here you will find simple diagrams explaining tricky adjustments for both riding and walking plows. Detailed engineer's drawings will be immensely helpful to folks restoring equipment. Also includes close-up photos and information on new makes of animal-drawn plows including Pioneer and White Horse.
Download or read book Plowed Under written by Andrew P. Duffin and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2009-11-17 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Plowed Under, Andrew P. Duffin traces the transformation of the Palouse region of Washington and Idaho from land thought unusable and unproductive to a wealth-generating agricultural paradise, weighing the consequences of what this progress has wrought. During the twentieth century, the Palouse became synonymous with wheat, and the landscape was irrevocably altered. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, native vegetation is almost nonexistent, stream water is so dirty that it is often unfit for even livestock, and 94 percent of all land has been converted to agriculture. Commercial agriculture also created a less noticeable ecological change: soil erosion. While common to industrial agriculture nationwide, topsoil loss evoked different political and social reactions in the Palouse. Farmers all over the nation take pride in their freedom and independence, but in the Palouse, Duffin shows, this mentality - a remnant of an older agrarian past - has been taken to the extreme and is partly responsible for erosion problems that are among the worst in the nation. In the hope of charting a better, more sustainable future, Duffin argues for a candid look at the land, its people, their decisions, and the repercussions of those decisions. As he notes, the debate is not over whether to use the land, but over what that use will look like and its social and ecological results.
Download or read book Perilous Bounty written by Tom Philpott and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2020-08-11 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice An unsettling journey into the disaster-bound American food system, and an exploration of possible solutions, from leading food politics commentator and former farmer Tom Philpott. More than a decade after Michael Pollan's game-changing The Omnivore's Dilemma transformed the conversation about what we eat, a combination of global diet trends and corporate interests have put American agriculture into a state of "quiet emergency," from dangerous drought in California--which grows more than 50 percent of the fruits and vegetables we eat--to catastrophic topsoil loss in the "breadbasket" heartland of the United States. Whether or not we take heed, these urgent crises of industrial agriculture will define our future. In Perilous Bounty, veteran journalist and former farmer Tom Philpott explores and exposes the small handful of seed and pesticide corporations, investment funds, and magnates who benefit from the trends that imperil us, with on-the-ground dispatches featuring the scientists documenting the damage and the farmers and activists who are valiantly and inventively pushing back. Resource scarcity looms on the horizon, but rather than pointing us toward an inevitable doomsday, Philpott shows how the entire wayward ship of American agriculture could be routed away from its path to disaster. He profiles the farmers and communities in the nation's two key growing regions developing resilient, soil-building, water-smart farming practices, and readying for the climate shocks that are already upon us; and he explains how we can help move these methods from the margins to the mainstream.
Download or read book The Future Proof Farm written by Steve Groff and published by Advantage Media Group. This book was released on 2020-09-22 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A SURVIVAL GUIDE FOR FARMERS! WHAT'S GOOD FOR THE EARTH IS GOOD FOR BUSINESS Steve Groff's message to his fellow farmers is profound and prophetic: they are in danger of becoming obsolete. Major market changes are forcing them to make difficult decisions. Farmers who adjust have an opportunity to thrive. Those who do not are likely to fade away. Consumers increasingly demand that the food they eat and the clothes they wear come from producers who observe responsible farming practices such as cover crops and reduced tillage. The major corporate players are positioning themselves for a profitable future. Farmers must do likewise to ensure they will have a continuing market for their goods. To future-proof their farms, they must heal the live-giving soil that sustains their livelihood. Steve Groff knows that what is good for the earth is good for business. He has taken his message across the nation and to the corners of the world, promoting a new mindset that could save the family farm from extinction. This book is his wake-up call.
