Farming Books

In 1993 the Equipment Manufacturers Institute honored author Peter Pakosh for his contributions toward the manufacture of forestry and farm equipment: Versatile Tractors: A Farm Boy's Dream traces his life and achievements. Peter was born in 1911 on a farm in eastern Canada, and became an engineer denied the change to design equipment for a large farm equipment manufacturer. Undaunted, Pakosh built his first machine at home - and founded his own line of products. All ages will find his story involving and a solid story of achievement under the worst of odds.

This is splendidly written book all the way around. Pakosh did an excellent job bringing a modern, insightful look to the life of a legend in the farming industry. It is easy to read and well organized. It has great original photographs of most models. I would highly recommend this book to anyone, whether in the industry or not.

We happened to come across R.W. Blowey while trying to get some knowledge about cattle hoof care. He made this very instructive video and in it this book was advertised - since we liked his clear and effective mode of explaining things we ordered the book and are very satisfied.
Blowey also wrote a book titeled: 'Cattle Lameness and Hoofcare'
He knows what He is talking about and can communicate it to others.

Very good for day to day review of dairy problems, with color photos to refer to. All the farm employees use it as a reference book. We keep it located in the employee break room for easy access.

Ralph Sanders does an excellent job of explaining the history of the Farmall from the invention of the reaper all the way to the Tenneco buyout of International Harvester. Excellent pictures, useful and historical text, and wonderful explainations of every tractor pictured. Pictured tractors have some of the best restorations that I have ever seen! A great book for anyone interested in the history of the Farmall line of tractors and International Harvester Company.

This is the best book I've seen on the subject of International tractors. It has a good amount of detail of the history of the various companies and an excellent mix of old and new photos.

The author uses his concrete experience as a farmer in the San Fernando Valley to develop a fine point about the "low intensity" character of Classical Greek warfare. He argues that, the Greek city-states waging warfare through part-time citzen militias, the war strategy of all Greek polities centered on the idea of forcing a pitched battle in order not to keep citzens away too long for harvesting at home. The means used to force such a battle being to disturb the enemy's harvest, which, however, given the low technology tools avaliable and the resilience of the crop-species - specially olive trees - could never amount to permanent damage. Therefore the general low-intensity, boarding game character of much of Classical Greek military history. A fine argued, important book, specially for the firm grasp of the concrete realities at play.

Warfare and Agriculture is a scholarly, yet very readable, analysis of the effects of war on agriculture and rural life in classical Greece. Drawing heavily on contemporary sources, Hanson clearly illustrates the inextricable connection between war and agriculture in the Greek world. With the notable exception of Sparta, Greek infantrymen typically were farmers themselves who were often torn between their role as ravagers of agriculture in enemy territory, and the need to tend to their own crops.

Hanson's main premise is that many previous analyses of agricultural devastation in classical Greece have overstated the severity of its effects. He points out the ravaging was usually a means to incite battle with enemy infantry rather than an end in itself, and argues convincingly that the ravaging often associated with the seasonal cycle of warfare, while certainly contributing to hardship among the invaded population, was far from complete and had relatively short-term effects. Drawing on his first-hand experience as a farmer, Hanson illustrates some of the practical difficulties with destroying the olive trees, vines, and grains that formed the staples of Greek agriculture. In the course of his analysis, he brings to life the Greek countryside and its relationship to the urban center of the polis.

Although Warfare and Agriculture will be of interest to any reader interested in the classical world, it is probably of greatest interest to readers with some familiarity with Greek history. The extensive references to contemporary and modern sources, including many recent sources cited in the Updated Commentary to this revised edition, guide the interested reader to a wealth of additional information on the subject.

Glyn Jones,a top Border Collie handler gives his insights about working as a team with your Border collie on the trial field. He also explains how to train your dog and how to become a team. This book goes into detail from choosing your dog, training you dog in all the stages to trialing. A top book with lots of pictures, diagrams and great explanations.

If you own and work (or plan to work) stock dogs then you'll want to own this book. I borrowed this book many years ago and now that I am getting back into working stockdogs I just ordered it for myself! The book takes you through choosing and raising a puppy, step-by-step training from start to finish, and trialing. The book is mostly geared towards Border Collies working sheep but most of the same techniques can be used with other breeds. If you have another breed working cattle may want to look into purchasing Scott Lithgow's "Training and Working Dogs for Quiet Confident Control of Stock".

Great Book! But, my version was a paper back that I could have photocopied. The price on the inside of the book was around five dollars! I feel ripped off.

No need to spend $40 on a small paperback book! Please shop around. This book is a phenomenal resource. Find it at Southern Exposure Seed Exchange for less than $10!
http://www.southernexposure.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?

FYI - (Not to discourage supporting the organiztion) but this publication is available via the FAO website:

http://www.fao.org/documents/show_cdr.asp?url_file=/docrep/v4200e/v4200e00.htm

"The book really is a tour de force. In spite of its price, it should be held at least by every decent agricultural library in the world, and many practicing agriculturalists (who can afford the financial pain)will quite properly want to have their own copy. ....... It is literally a treasure of information that will usefully inform debate on the big issues of global food and fiber commodity outlook, and global natural resource issues linked to agriculture."

Jock R. Anderson, The World Bank (in American Journal of Agricultural Economics, February 1996).

"I would like to emphasize that this is an exceptionally important book. It belongs on every reference list in courses on agricultural development. Any effort that attempts to confront the issue of future food and population balance that ignores the work of Alexandratos and his colleagues can not be regarded as serious." Vernon W. Ruttan, University of Minnesota, (in Population and Development Review, 1996).

100 Years Of Vintage Farm Tractors is an anthology of truly engaging and nostalgic stories dedicated to the tractor farming of yesteryear. Included are pieces by Justin Isherwood (horse vs. tractor farming), Bill Holm (our faith in machinery); Hamlin Garland (threshing days), Patricia Penton Leimbach (a farmwife's view of tractors), Loren Paine (tractors as "man things"), Jerry Apps (homemade tractors), and Orlan Skare (the agony and the ecstasy of tractor seats), William Upson Hazlett ("Super Salesman Alexander Botts and the Earthworm Tractor). Enthusiastically recommended for tractor fans, farm equipment enthusiasts, and students of American agricultural history, 100 Years Of Vintage Farm Tractors is illustrated throughout its 160 pages by one hundred color photographs of vintage tractors, plus black and white period photos.

The book begins with American Indian farming methods and ends 300 years later with steam and gasoline powered tractors of the early 1900s. In between you will find inventor biographies, 500 antique engravings and some of the earliest farm implement advertising ever published. Everything from handtools to butter churns, plows, wagons, windmills and threshing machines is covered, including a full-sized reprint of Mongomery Wards 1896 Agricultural Implement Catalog.
Farm Industry News said "This 208 page book opens a window to the past with historical facts and 500 antique engravings of machines at work."
San Diego Union columnist, Neil Morgan says "I have never seen anything like it. It deserves to be a bestseller."

I FOUND THE INFORMATION I WAS LOOKING FOR, ABOUT SOME SPECIFIC TECHNIQUES FOR CASEIN DIFERENTIATION AND QUANTIFICATION.