Below are our favorite internet links and sources of information
for 19th and early 20th century farming history, techniques, and skills. ("ttt"= a three-star Tumbledown Favorite)
Traditional (19th Century and earlier) Farming
- The
Core Historical Literature of Agriculture (CHLA)
is a core electronic collection of agricultural texts published between the early nineteenth century and the middle to late twentieth century. Full-text materials cover agricultural economics, agricultural engineering, animal science, crops and their protection, food science, forestry, human nutrition, rural sociology, and soil science. Scholars have selected the titles in this collection for their historical importance. Their evaluations and 4,500 core titles are detailed in the seven volume series The Literature of the Agricultural Sciences, Wallace C. Olsen, series editor.
- Holistic Agriculture Library is a mix of older and newer publications, mostly full text (where
Australian copyright allows) for downloading and reading, and
mostly in .pdf format. As you might expect, heavy on the "organic
farming" sources, but also includes some notable exceptions, like
Justus von Liebig.
- NAL: Organic Agriculture Information Access. This is a database of pre-1942 (before the chemical regime became so entrenched) USDA articles.
- Roman Farm Management
(The Treatises of Cato and Varro Done into English, with
Notes of Modern Instances by a Virginia Farmer, 1918.
F. H. Belvoir, Fauquier
County, Virginia. Marcus
Porcius Cato )
- Small
Farms Library (Journey to
Forever Online Library, Small Farms)
- Farmers
of Forty Centuries: or Traditional Agriculture in China,
Korea and Japan.-F.H. King - 1911.
- The
Evolution of Horticulture in New England Daniel
Denison Slade - 1895.
- The
Old and the New in Corn Culture - Article from the 1918 Yearbook
of Agriculture.
- The Oliver
Chilled Plow.
Living History Farms, Museums, and Internships
- Indiana
- The ATTRA-Internship Directory for Indiana. Ever wanted to apprentice in sustainable farming? Here's your chance. A national database of farms looking for people to learn the skills required to establish their own farms. The best education possible in farming--hands on, in the dirt.
- Conner
Prairie (located in Fishers,
Indiana, just six miles north of Indianapolis on Allisonville Road
[exit 5 from Interstate 69]).
- Amish
Acres farmstead (in Nappanee,
Indiana)
- Ohio
- The Country School Farm.
Holmes County, Ohio. Bills itself as a farm "for children who
love animals and want to live on a real farm." A rural living
camp experience for ages 6-12 and 10-13. Montessori based.
Contemporary Farming in Traditional Style