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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 630
EAN num: 9780486437378
ISBN number: 048643737X
Label: Dover Publications
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 176
Printing Date: July 26, 2004
Publishing house: Dover Publications
Sale Popularity Level: 121246
Studio: Dover Publications
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
A simply written chronicle by a man who abandoned the 1800s Philadelphia business world for a small farm in the New Jersey countryside. Features thoughtful reflections on how to choose a site, select crops and maintain them, the difference between city and country life, and the joy of establishing a home.
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Rated by buyers 
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I ordered this book with the expectation that this would be a step-by-step guide to small scale farming (similiar to the book Five Acres and Independence). The book is a historical account about a Philadelphia businessman who left the city in the late 1800s after 15 years of renting and failing as business owner in order to endeavor a life of self-sufficiency on a ten acre farm he purchased. The book was such an interesting account of history that I read the very first half of the day it arrived. However, once you get past how he purchased the farm and the very first three or four years of trials and tribuluations, the author repeats himself for the later third of the book (make your own liquid manure, apply it to everything, attack the weeds with a hoe, work hard, pay cash, yadda, yadda, yadda). There are many instances where the book reads as if the author is speaking of the present times and economy (bank failures, people losing their jobs and homes, and how through all of this, people will still buy fresh fruits). I recommend this book for the small farmer or gardener who plans on starting up from scratch with little capital. I also recommend this book for those who are interested in the 19th century U.S. history. You will learn a lot of interesting facts that you did not learn in school and will be able to draw parrallels to the current state of the economy.
Rated by buyers 
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Ah, truly a book to inspire. I wanted to dash right out and dig up the old potato patch!
Although this is an American book and therfore I did not understand a lot of the geographical references, this in no way detracted from the enjoyment I got from this book. I felt a bit smug when thinking about the sucess I have had with my chickens, but quite wilted when comparing his raspberries and strawberries with mine! Next season, I'm going to get me a lawtonberry or two.
I found it a bit tedious towards the end but that was when he was no longer writing about his own little farm and I think many of his comments there are quite dated and of no practical value now.
This book was well written and entertaining, though some comments I feel should rather be taken with a pinch of salt.
Rather sorry that I have finished reading this book and heartily recommend it to anyone who has fancied getting a small-holding or even those who just want to grow something well in their own backyard. Many of his tips and comments are as valid yesterday as they were 140 years ago.
Rated by buyers -
Great read. I bought this book looking for some ideas on how to better enjoy the farm life I now have. This book tells about a man who is tried of the hustle and bustle of city life. (And mind you this was in the late 1800's). He writes in detail how to locate a small piece of property and live a much fulfilled life. I highly recommend this book. I have already loaned it out twice.
P.S. see if you can find the small reference about The Civil War.
Rated by buyers -
This is one of my favorites. Since it was written during the mid-1860's, the writing style is perhaps a bit different from what we are used to nowadays, but not distractingly so. This farmer knows how to tell a story. He starts with his longing to leave the city, leads us through his search for an affordable property and then lets us follow him as he chooses his crops -- among them, 804 peach trees at 7 cents a piece, all dutifully "tarred" to prevent worms -- and markets the produce for the very first few years on the farm. Along the way, he scatters fascinating tidbits about his life. One of my favorites is the story of his blackberry plants. While living in town, he had read of a new kind of blackberry that intrigued him, and though it was a very unheard of thing to do at the time, he orderd six of the plants by mail, at the princely sum of five dollars. When the plants arrived, he was shocked at their size and appearance. "They looked like long white worms, with here and there a bud or an eye" and was too embarassed to admit to his wife that he paid so much for them. But he planted them and tended them, and the subsequent year had a magnificent crop of berries, and so finally admitted to the cost. He and his wife agreed it was a bargain at that, and since they loved the berries so much, they dug up the plants and took them along to their new farm. There, the berries attracted the attention of neighbors and nurserymen, and by being one of the very first suppliers in the area, he was able to sell $460 worth of blackberry plants that very first year on the farm -- quite a return on his initial five dollar investment.
There's more, and he catalogs it all: the cow that worked out well and the chickens that didn't, the way his neighbors thought him insane for battling the never-ending weeds, the value he saw in small birds, the money spent on load after load of manure, and mostly, the satisfaction of it all. There really is no substitute for farming done this way, where taking care of the land itself is still a priority, and the crops a source of pride. So if you are even the slightest bit interested in coming to the country in search of something better, I encourage you to read this book. Initially, I hesitated to buy it, figuring that it would be too irrelevant and dated, but no, it's not. It's absorbing. And though I can't find peach trees for 7 cents a piece today, the story is the same. And if you don't find yourself living in the country soon enough to suit you, you'll at least have had the pleasure of sharing Edmund Morris's farm for awhile.
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