What I know of farming:

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Greeley Horace. What I know of farming:

PREFACE

I. WILL FARMING PAY?

II. GOOD AND BAD HUSBANDRY

III. WHERE TO FARM

IV. PREPARING TO FARM

V. BUYING A FARM

VI. LAYING OFF A FARM – PASTURING

VII. TREES – WOODLAND – FORESTS

VIII. GROWING TIMBER – TREE-PLANTING

IX. PLANTING AND GROWING TREES

X. DRAINING – MY OWN

XI. DRAINING GENERALLY

XII. IRRIGATION – MEANS AND ENDS

XIII. THE POSSIBILITIES OF IRRIGATION

XIV. PLOWING – DEEP OR SHALLOW

XV. PLOWING – GOOD AND BAD

XVI. THOROUGH TILLAGE

XVII. COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS – GYPSUM

XVIII. ALKALIS … SALT – ASHES – LIME

XIX. SOILS AND FERTILIZERS

XX. BONES – PHOSPHATES – GUANO

XXI. MUCK – HOW TO UTILIZE IT

XXII. INSECTS – BIRDS

XXIII. ABOUT TREE-PLANTING

XXIV. FRUIT-TREES – THE APPLE

XXV. MORE ABOUT APPLE-TREES

XXVI. HAY AND HAY-MAKING

XXVII. PEACHES – PEARS – CHERRIES – GRAPES

XXVIII. GRAIN-GROWING – EAST AND WEST

XXIX. ESCULENT ROOTS – POTATOES

XXX. ROOTS – TURNIPS – BEETS – CARROTS

XXXI. THE FARMER'S CALLING

XXXII. A LESSON OF TO-DAY

XXXIII. INTELLECT IN AGRICULTURE

XXXIV. SHEEP AND WOOL-GROWING

XXXV. ACCOUNTS IN FARMING

XXXVI. STONE ON A FARM

XXXVII. FENCES AND FENCING

XXXVIII. AGRICULTURAL EXHIBITIONS

XXXIX. SCIENCE IN AGRICULTURE

XL. FARM IMPLEMENTS

XLI. STEAM IN AGRICULTURE

XLII. CO-OPERATION IN FARMING

XLIII. FARMERS' CLUBS

XLIV. WESTERN IRRIGATION

XLV. SEWAGE

XLVI. MORE OF IRRIGATION

XLVII. UNDEVELOPED SOURCES OF POWER

XLVIII. RURAL DEPOPULATION

XLIX. LARGE AND SMALL FARMS

L. EXCHANGE AND DISTRIBUTION

LI. WINTER WORK

LII. SUMMING UP

Отрывок из книги

Men have written wisely and usefully, in illustration and aid of Agriculture, from the platform of pure science. Acquainted with the laws of vegetable growth and life, they so expounded and elucidated those laws that farmers apprehended and profitably obeyed them. Others have written, to equally good purpose, who knew little of science, but were adepts in practical agriculture, according to the maxims and usages of those who have successfully followed and dignified the farmer's calling. I rank with neither of these honored classes. My practical knowledge of agriculture is meager, and mainly acquired in a childhood long bygone; while, of science, I have but a smattering, if even that. They are right, therefore, who urge that my qualifications for writing on agriculture are slender indeed.

I only lay claim to an invincible willingness to be made wiser to-day than I was yesterday, and a lively faith in the possibility – nay, the feasibility, the urgent necessity, the imminence – of very great improvements in our ordinary dealings with the soil. I know that a majority of those who would live by its tillage feed it too sparingly and stir it too slightly and grudgingly. I know that we do too little for it, and expect it, thereupon, to do too much for us. I know that, in other pursuits, it is only work thoroughly well done that is liberally compensated; and I see no reason why farming should prove an exception to this stern but salutary law. I may be, indeed, deficient in knowledge of what constitutes good farming, but not in faith that the very best farming is that which is morally sure of the largest and most certain reward.

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I look back, on this day completing my sixtieth year, over a life, which must now be near its close, of constant effort to achieve ends whereof many seem in the long retrospect to have been transitory and unimportant, however they may have loomed upon my vision when in their immediate presence. One achievement only of our age and country – the banishment of human chattelhood from our soil – seems now to have been worth all the requisite efforts, the agony and bloody sweat, through which it was accomplished. But another reform, not so palpably demanded by justice and humanity, yet equally conducive to the well-being of our race, presses hard on its heels, and insists that we shall accord it instant and earnest consideration. It is the elevation of Labor from the plane of drudgery and servility to one of self-respect, self-guidance, and genuine independence, so as to render the human worker no mere cog in a vast, revolving wheel, whose motion he can neither modify nor arrest, but a partner in the enterprise which his toil is freely contributed to promote, a sharer in the outlay, the risk, the loss and gain, which it involves. This end can be attained through the training of the generation who are to succeed us to observe and reflect, to live for other and higher ends than those of present sensual gratification, and to feel that no achievement is beyond the reach of their wisely combined and ably self-directed efforts. To that part of the generation of farmers just coming upon the stage of responsible action, who have intelligently resolved that the future of American agriculture shall evince decided and continuous improvement on its past, this little book is respectfully commended.

New York, Feb. 3, 1871.

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