The Book of the Farm
Detailing the Labours of the Farmer, Farm-steward, Ploughman, Shepherd, Hedger, Cattle-man, Field-worker, and Dairy-maid

A detailed description and guide to best contemporary farming practice, including agriculture, dairying and livestock farming, first published in 1842.

Henry Stephens (Author)

9781108024945, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 6 January 2011

710 pages, 223 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 4 cm, 1.03 kg

'This is the classic of Victorian farming: widely consulted at the time, huge in its extraordinary social, economic and technological coverage, and a splendid asset to historians. These three beautifully produced volumes are a major publishing event, of great scholarly and practical interest today.' Professor K. D. M. Snell, University of Leicester

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 1 describes farming tasks performed in winter.

1. The difficulties which the young farmer has to encounter at the outset of learning practical husbandry
2. The means of overcoming those difficulties
3. The kind of information to be found in existent works on agriculture
4. The construction of 'The Book of the Farm'
5. The existing methods of learning practical husbandry
6. The establishment of scientific institutions of practical agriculture
7. The evils attendant on landowners neglecting to learn practical agriculture
8. Experimental farms as places for instruction in farming
9. A few words to young farmers who intend emigrating as agricultural settlers to the colonies
10. The kind of education best suited to young farmers
11. The different kinds of farming
12. Choosing the kind of farming
13. Selecting a tutor farmer for teaching farming
14. The pupilage
15. Dealing with the details of farming
Part I. Winter: 16. The steading or farmstead
17. The farm-house
18. The persons who labour the farm
19. The weather in winter
20. Climate
21. Observing and recording facts
22. Soils and subsoils
23. Enclosures and shelter
24. The planting of thorn hedges
25. The plough
26. The various modes of ploughing ridges
27. Draining
28. Yoking and harnessing the plough, and of swing-trees
29. Ploughing stubble and lea-ground
30. Trench and subsoil ploughing, and moor-band pan.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural history [HBTB]