Tumbledown Farming Links
Home, Library
Below are our favorite internet links and sources of information
for 19th and early 20th century farming history, techniques, and skills.
|
|
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.
- 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 and Museums
- Indiana
- 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
-
Diversified, Organic, and Sustainable Farming Information
- Acres U.S.A. A web
site, book catalog, and newsletter promoting organic farming,
homesteading, and the like. May require overlooking a few
references to "Gaia" and the like, but overall a great list with which
to begin reading about the subject.
- The
Ecological Farming Association. An
activist association with educational programs and publications.
Self-described as supporters of "
strengthening soils,
protecting air and water, encouraging diverse ecosystems and
economies, ...honoring rural life
[and] producing healthful food.
- Farm
& Garden | Building Sustainable Lives.
- I
Heart Farms, stories and pictures of real people and real
food.
- The NEW FARM
Web Site (was http:/www.newfarm.org) is now returning to its roots as part of the Rodale Institute web site. The old archived organic farming articles and any new publications can be found now at the Rodale site.
- Ohio
Grazing Network, includes the "Amazing Graze" Newsletter.
-
Exemplary Farms
-
Farmers Markets, Garden Markets and Community Supported
Agriculture and other Farm Subscriptions
- Local
Harvest.
An awesome web site for those seeking to support local,
small-scale farms where it counts, with their pocket books.
Just
plug in your zip code and receive a full list of local farmers markets,
CSAs and the like. Also lists seeds and other farm and garden
products for sale, with an organic gardening and farming focus.
Farming Lifestyle and Rural Life Catalogs
- General
- Agri Supply.
(tt) A group of farm stores in the Southeast that also offers
a mail order catalog. Focus is on farm supplies for the small
commercial farm, but also includes hardware, hand tools, garden
supplies, livestock supplies, and food processing and cooking supplies.
- American Nettings.
This is a supplier of bird netting, netting for trellises,
landscape fabric, crop and row covers, fabric pins and ground staples,
and the like.
- Kencove.
Farm Fence Supplies. Self-described as "fast, friendly
services and expert advice."
- Lehman's
Non-Electric Catalog. (ttt) ("Founded by Jay Lehman
in 1955 to serve the local Amish and others without electricity,
Lehman's ships old-fashioned, high-quality merchandise all over the
world.") This catalog offers the best and most complete
variety of tools for preserving late 19th and early 20th century skills
and crafts that Tumbledown has seen to date.
- Northern:
Tool + Equipment. Perhaps the antithesis of
Lehman's. Plenty of power tools and tending toward the
mechanized solution for everything. But, for those times when
a tractor or power tool is required on the small farm, this is a
supplier to check.
- Premier 1 Supplies.
Providers of electric fencing and netting, sheep and goat supplies,
clippers and shearers, ear tags and expert advice for more than 27
years.
- Horses
- Country Supply:
America's Horse Supply Headquarters. A catalog for the
recreational horse enthusiast; this is not
a "working horse" supply catalog.
- I&J,
Mfg.
Makers of horse drawn implements for horse farming.
Equipment for cutting hay, cultivating, and plowing.
They
also make carts and 3-point attachments.
- Pioneer
Equipment, Inc.
Amish manufacturers of horse drawn farming equipment.
Self-described as makers of "Farm and Covered Wagons,
Forecarts,
Work Sleds, Walking, Sulky and Gang Plows, Harrows, Yokes, Hitch
Wagons, Motorized PTO Carts, and many other farm equipment items and
accessories."
- Greenhouses and Nursery Supplies
- CropKing,
Inc. is a company that specializes mainly in "Controlled Environment
Agriculture," which means indoors with roots in "growing media" rather
than soil and all of the nutrients "injected" into the system. It is
nearly the opposite of the "old way" of doing things, but it appears to
be a good source of greenhouse supplies and so is listed here.
- FarmTek:
Growers Supply. (Note: includes the new style of
temporary, canopy-covered animal housing for poultry and juvenile or
small farm animals.)
- Rabbits
- Bass
Equipment Company. An equipment source for commercial
rabbitries and for the small farmer or breeder.
- Tools (Hand Tools, Safety, Scientific Tools, and Hardware)
- A. M. Leonard.
(ttt) Their motto is "tools that work...and so much more."
They "serve the horticulture industry," but they'll probably
stoop to serve a farmer or gardener too. The so much more
includes Climbing, rigging, crop protection, field production,
fertilizers, greenhouse, pruning, securing trees and plants, spreaders,
sprayers, applicators, watering, irrigation, and farm and garden
clothing.
- Ben
Meadows is the company for "outdoor pros." It
started as a forestry supply company and has branched out into
horticultural and agricultural supply company. Among its
product categories are outdoor clothing, landscaping tools, weather
equipment, laboratory supplies, soil augurs, hand tools, etc.
- Conney Safety.
(See description for Direct Safety below.) Safety
and First Aid supplies, including respirators, gloves, and an
"influenza protection" kit.
- Direct
Safety. Organic Farmers and Gardeners will not need
all of the protective gear listed in this master catalog, especially
all the Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS). But everybody
needs first aid equipment and various gloves, and goggles and coveralls.
- Forestry
Suppliers, Inc. (ttt) is
an incredible catalog that first caught my eye for its arboriculture,
horticulture, and landscape tools (hand pruners, grafting supplies,
tree planting supplies, and the like), and then kept my attention with
its science education tools and agricultural and environmental science
supplies. You'll find entomolical equipment (butterfly nets
and magnifyer boxes), field guides, rain gauges weather stations,
laboratory equipment (test tubes, beakers, microscopes). One
educational tool called "DNA depot" even encourages learning about and
student discussion of the relative merits and dangers of genetically
modified food crops. Way to go!
- The GarrettWade
Tool Catalog: Tools for Enthusiasts. (ttt) Nothing
beats the feel of a quality hand tool. Tumbledown is counting
his pennies until he can purchase the hand forged felling axe and
limbing axe. But the hand drills, braces, and other
specialized tools are tempting too.
- Gempler's.
Describes itself as "America’s #1 source for
hard-to-find, commercial-grade work supplies for ag, horticulture and
grounds maintenance professionals." Their catalog includes
such things as tires, shop and maintenance supplies, pest management,
crop and nursery production, ATV, tractor and vehicle supplies.
Farming Lifestyle and Rural Life Journals, Magazines, and
Newspapers
- Backyard Poultry.
Dedicated to more and better small-flock poultry. This
magazine is a much needed source of encouragement and advice to the
owner of small flocks of chickens, guineas, turkeys, geese, ducks,
pigeons, and quail. With the fear mongering about avian flu
rampant, this publication is a contrarian. Published since
2006. (bi-monthly)
- The Budget.
A newspaper established in 1890 that serves the Sugarcreek,
Ohio
area (in its
local edition) and (in its national and international edition) the
Amish and Mennonite communities throughout the Americas. The
classified ads are notable for antique farming
equipment, livestock, horse-drawn equipment, etc.
(Weekly)
- Countryside
& Small Stock Journal. A rip-roaring read with a
"homesteading" slant. Eclectic and chock full of
information. However, it suffers from an inconsistency in
quality (similar to the internet) because of the loose editorial
hand. Sometimes the
very-opinionated-and-remarkably-uninformed public have their full say.
(bi-monthly)
- Farm
World.
(ttt) Everything ag that's fit to print. Focus is Midwest and
Mid-South farming states (Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and
Tennessee). The paid advertising is largely agribusiness and
many
of the articles carry the farming as business slant, but there is room
for a great diversity of articles and the calendar of ag events, list
of area sales and auctions (including land and equipment sales), along
with the classifieds are well worth the price of admission for this
weekly (except Christmas week) publication.
- Hobby Farms:
Rural Living for Pleasure and Profit. An enjoyable read with
glossy photos and ads. The title suggests--and the many
reviews of new "toys" (farm machinery) prove--that this magazine is for
the "rich folk" who have chosen a country "lifestyle." In
other words, farming is not viewed as the primary (or perhaps even a
strong secondary) source of livelihood. Maybe that is why the
articles are informative, but often lack sufficient depth of detail to
make it possible to reproduce the photo-finish results in the "real"
world. There's just enough here to make one wish for a "real"
farmer's magazine. (bi-monthly)
- The Hoosier Farmer.
The voice of the large, mono-crop, agri-business
community. While committed to advocating for what it views as
the only future (bigger, more consolidated, more automated) for "real"
farming, it is worth reading for contrast with the way things were when
farms were diversified and farming communities were strong.
(File under the warning to "know your enemy." Quarterly)
- Mother Earth News:
The Original Guide to Living Wisely. 'nuf said.
Strong environmental consciousness paired with homesteading interests
and general interest in "rural" life. A smorgasboard of
articles, with few directly related to "farming," but often serves up
traditional gardening and preserving advice in contemporary
guise. (bimonthly + 2)
- The Progressive Farmer:
Farm and Country Living at its Best. This "sister"
of Southern Living is less "glossy" than the Hobby Farmer (above) and
gives more evidence of interest in "real world" farming problems and
issues, but also shares the penchant for modern "toys" (tractors,
trucks, ag machinery) that confirms the moniker
"progressive." (monthly)
Rural Culture and History of the 19th Century
Copyright © 2008 by
Tumbledown Farm
Home, Library