Traditional Country Skills: A Practical Compendium of American Wisdom and Know-How FROM THE PUBLISHER
This classic volume presents a comprehensive collection of farm-and-country wisdom and know-how from the turn of the century, a time when most farmers were still virtually self-sufficient and had to know how to do everything on their own. Divided into five parts -- Structures, Agricultural Machinery, Crops, Farm Animals, and Moving Machinery -- that correspond to the five basic divisions of farm work and organization, Traditional Country Skills provides a fascinating glimpse of farming at the dawn of the twentieth century as well as handy advice for the modern homesteader on dozens of key tasks, including the construction of barns, fences and gates, and irrigation systems; the use of plows for tilling, seeders for planting, reapers for harvesting, and manure for fertilization; vegetable cultivation for crops ranging from cabbage and cauliflower to radishes and okra; tree selection for orchards, apiary construction, and honey extraction; dairy management and cattle and hog breeds; tools and machinery for all manner of lifting, hauling, and pulling operations, and much more. Introductions to each section, written by editor Sheila Buff, provide background on the material and offer a useful historical perspective that allows the reader to understand more clearly the transformations that have taken place and what time-honored practices have been regretfully lost over more than a century of farming in America.
Traditional Country Skills is both a practical handbook as well as a pleasure to browse through for the hundreds of illustrations (the very same drawings that appeared with the original text) that adorn nearly every page. It is the perfect book for anyone lured by the rich legacy of American agriculture, or for those who want to learn for themselves the now almost-lost arts of farm and country living.
ACCREDITATION
Sheila Buff is a freelance writer specializing in natural history, gardening, and the outdoors. She is the author of The Great Tomato Book, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Bird Watching, The Birder's Sourcebook, The Birdfeeder's Handbook, and many other titles.
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