Five Acres and Independence: a practical guide to the selection and management of the small farm

420 Pages·1973·41.59 MB·English

by  Maurice Grenville Kains

$2.95
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The greatest fine art of the future will be the making
of a comfortable living from a small piece of land.
Abraham Lincoln
FIVE ACRES
AND INDEPENDENCE
The land! That is where our roots are. There is the
basis of our physical life. The farther we get away
from the land, the greater our insecurity. From the
land comes everything that supports life, everything
we use for the service of physical life. The land has
not collapsed or shrunk, in either extent or produc-
tivity. It is there waiting to honor all the labor we
are willing to invest in it, and able to tide us across
any local dislocation of economic conditions. No un-
employment insurance can be compared to an alli-
ance between man and a plot of land.
Henry Ford

FIVE ACRES
AND INDEPENDENCE
A HANDBOOK FOR
SMALL FARM MANAGEMENT
'By
M. G. KAINS, B.S., M.S.
With a new Introduction by
J. E. OLDFIELD
Professor of Animal Nutrition
Head, Department of Animal Science
Oregon State University
Revised and Enlarged Edition
DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC., NEW YORK
Copyright (c) 1973 by Dover Publications, Inc.
All rights reserved under Pan American and
International Copyright Conventions.
Published in Canada by General Publishing
Company, Ltd., 30 Lesmill Road, Don Mills,
Toronto, Ontario.
Published in the United Kingdom by Constable
and Company, Ltd., 10 Orange Street, London WC 2.
This Dover edition, first published in 1973, is a
republication of the second revised and enlarged
edition (January 1940) of the work originally
published in 1935 by Greenberg: Publisher, New
York. Like late printings of the second edition, the
present edition omits the obsolete Chapter 52, "The
Farm Library."
A new Introduction has been written specially
for the present edition by J. E. Oldfield.
International Standard Book Number: 0-486-20974-1
Libra)j of Congress Catalog Card Number: 72-92758
Manufactured in the United States of America
Dover Publications, Inc.
180 Varick Street
New York, N Y. 10014
INTRODUCTION TO THE DOVER EDITION
When Five Acres and Independence was first written,
in 1935, it promised its readers financial independence
through the judicious planning and marketing of a variety
of farm produce. In the context of today's complex agri-
business, the independence is more likely to be philosophi-
cal than fiscal, but it offers still timely and factual advice
to those who wish to escape, even for a time, from the
artificial life of the cities and get back to the land.
Much of the book is just good, sound common sense,
which is timeless, and it was written by an author who so
obviously knew what he was writing about, and believed
in it, that it makes interesting and easy reading. It is only
to be expected, however, that changes will have occurred
in the more than a third of a century since the book's
original publication. To cite a few examples, the varieties
and strains of many of the crop plants recommended in
1935 have been superseded by new and improved ones
today. Advances in both plant and animal breeding have
made many of the old varieties obsolete and some are
virtually extinct. Although nostalgically there may be some
desire to return to the old, the reasons for discontinuing
them are usually persuasive, including the important item
of susceptibility to disease which has been effectively "bred
out" of many modern types.
In some cases broad cultural and sociological changes
have so altered the scene that some reevaluation is neces-
sary. A case in point, which obviously harks back to the
draft-horse era, is the statement, "The pleasure horse* . . .
has no place on the small farm." Today's recreation and
environment-conscious citizenry have brought about a
INTRODUCTION TO THE DOVER EDITION
vi
remarkable comeback for the light horse, to the point
where it not only has a place but may be the raison d'etre
for many modern ranchettes.
Frequent reference is made to publications of the United
States Department of Agriculture, or of the cooperating
State Experiment Stations. This advice is still pertinent,
but in the interim new publications have replaced the
originals. Readers today would do well to consult up-to-
date USDA publications for general advice and state
publications for details most appropriate to their own
locality. A wealth of information can also be obtained
from local County Extension Agents, who are thoroughly
familiar with their immediate land area and also frequently
are specialists in certain most suitable phases of agriculture
for it.
This book holds a real attraction for the do-it-yourself
instincts that lie close to the surface in all of us. Perhaps
now, even more than when it was written, reiteration of
some of the fundamental operations of agriculture is
timely, since many people are so far removed from the soil
that they have neither the instincts nor close experiences
of others to learn from. There is a fascination about the
culture of plants and animals, particularly when it is
accomplished with rudimentary tools and instruments, that
brings a real sense of satisfaction.
Five Acres and Independence has as its underlying
message the basic importance of agriculture to mankind,
and it would be useful in establishing this understanding,
if for no other reason. It serves many other purposes,
however, largely by catering to man's innate desire to be
creative. To make a wasteland productive, to propagate
new and improved plants and animals, to bud or graft
various desirable fruits onto a single stock—these are but a
few examples of the agricultural heritage that this book
bestows. In more pragmatic terms, it also contributes to
the common human ambition to get something for nothing,
or next-to-nothing, in terms of actual cash expenditure.
The chapter "Re-making a Neglected Orchard" exemplifies
this, as anyone who has transformed the forlorn spectacle