The Book of the Farm

by Stephens, Henry

• ISBN13: 9781108024945
• ISBN10: 1108024947
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-01-06
• Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr

Summary

Henry Stephens (1795-1874) was a farmer and later a writer on agriculture. After attending lectures on chemistry and agriculture at the University of Edinburgh he boarded with a Berwickshire farmer, George Brown, and gained experience of agricultural work. In 1820 Stephens acquired his own farm, on which he used modern and experimental farming methods. In 1837 he sold the farm, and devoted the rest of his life to writing guides to farming for the use of inexperienced farmers. These influential volumes, first published in 1842, contain Stephens' detailed descriptions of contemporary farming practices. He describes in meticulous detail all aspects of farming, including livestock care and slaughter, dairying, irrigation practices and crop culture. Arranged by season and including copious high-quality illustrations of farming equipment, these extremely popular and fascinating volumes were considered the standard work on practical Victorian agriculture. Volume 3 describes tasks performed in summer and autumn.

Table of Contents

The difficulties which the young farmer has to encounter at the outset of learning practical husbandry

The means of overcoming those difficulties

The kind of information to be found in existent works on agriculture

The construction of 'The Book of the Farm'

The existing methods of learning practical husbandry

The establishment of scientific institutions of practical agriculture

The evils attendant on landowners neglecting to learn practical agriculture

Experimental farms as places for instruction in farming

A few words to young farmers who intend emigrating as agricultural settlers to the colonies

The kind of education best suited to young farmers

The different kinds of farming

Choosing the kind of farming

Selecting a tutor farmer for teaching farming

The pupilage

Dealing with the details of farming

Winter

The steading or farmstead

The farm-house

The persons who labour the farm

The weather in winter

Climate

Observing and recording facts

Soils and subsoils

Enclosures and shelter

The planting of thorn hedges

The plough

The various modes of ploughing ridges

Draining

Yoking and harnessing the plough, and of swing-trees

Ploughing stubble and lea-ground

Trench and subsoil ploughing, and moor-band pan

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