Free Downloads

Ten Acres Enough: The Classic 1864 Guide To Independent Farming

When author Edmund Morris left the business world and bought a small farm in the early 1800s, he was so pleased with the results that he decided to tell others how he did it. His simply written chronicle — one of the most popular books of its time — emphasizes that agricultural success depends not on how much you grow but on what and how. Between thoughtful discussions of choosing the location, crop selection, and maintenance, he contrasts city and country life, despairs over weeds and raising pigs, and writes about the joy of establishing a home.

Paperback: 192 pages

Publisher: Dover Publications (July 26, 2004)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 048643737X

ISBN-13: 978-0486437378

Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.4 x 8.5 inches

Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #118,788 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #110 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Gardening & Landscape Design > By Technique > Organic #113 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Gardening & Landscape Design > Vegetables #287 in Books > Science & Math > Biological Sciences > Zoology

This is one of my favorites. Since it was written during the mid-1860's, the writing style is perhaps a bit different from what we are used to nowadays, but not distractingly so. This farmer knows how to tell a story. He starts with his longing to leave the city, leads us through his search for an affordable property and then lets us follow him as he chooses his crops -- among them, 804 peach trees at 7 cents a piece, all dutifully "tarred" to prevent worms -- and markets the produce for the first few years on the farm. Along the way, he scatters fascinating tidbits about his life. One of my favorites is the story of his blackberry plants. While living in town, he had read of a new kind of blackberry that intrigued him, and though it was a very unheard of thing to do at the time, he orderd six of the plants by mail, at the princely sum of five dollars. When the plants arrived, he was shocked at their size and appearance. "They looked like long white worms, with here and there a bud or an eye" and was too embarassed to admit to his wife that he paid so much for them. But he planted them and tended them, and the next year had a magnificent crop of berries, and so finally admitted to the cost. He and his wife agreed it was a bargain at that, and since they loved the berries so much, they dug up the plants and took them along to their new farm. There, the berries attracted the attention of neighbors and nurserymen, and by being one of the first suppliers in the area, he was able to sell $460 worth of blackberry plants that first year on the farm -- quite a return on his initial five dollar investment.

Ten Acres Enough: The Classic 1864 Guide to Independent Farming Farming In Your Backyard for Beginners Vol.2 - Use Proven Strategies to Grow Plants, Herbs, and Food in Your Backyard Easily (Best Guide To Grow Organic ... Farming, Backyard Farming Strategies) Mini Farming For Beginners: Learn 10 Best Ways Of Making Your Small Farm Profitable: (Mini Farming Self-Sufficiency On 1/ 4 acre) (Backyard Homesteading, ... farming, How to build a chicken coop,) Mini Farming & Indoor Gardening: Mini Farming & Indoor Gardening for Fresh & Organic Produce: How To Do Mini Farming In Your Apartment Using Indoor Gardening Techniques Mini Farming: How to Build a Backyard Farm and Grow Fresh & Organic Food. Learn How To Avoid 20 Common Mistakes In Growing Vegetables: (Mini Farming Self-Sufficiency ... farming, How to build a chicken coop,) Sustainable Market Farming: Intensive Vegetable Production on a Few Acres The Independent Filmmaker's Law and Business Guide: Financing, Shooting, and Distributing Independent and Digital Films Gardening: The Complete Guide To Mini Farming (Square Foot Gardening, Small Space Gardening, Mini Farming For Beginners) Mushrooms: A New Ultimate Guide to Growing Mushrooms at Home For Dummies: (Mushroom Farming, How to Grow Oyster Mushrooms, Edible Mushrooms) (Farming For Dummies, Gardening For Dummies Book 2) Homesteading For Beginners: How to Build a Profitable Homestead Backyard Farm & Make Money from Urban Farming The Easy Way: A Self-Sufficiency Survival ... Organic Mini Farming, Sustainable living) Homesteading For Beginners: Learn 10 Best Ways Of Making Your Homestead Profitable: (How to Build a Backyard Farm, Mini Farming Self-Sufficiency On 1/ ... farming, How to build a chicken coop,) Notes from the Underground: A Classic 1864 Russian Novella (Notes from the Underground - Fyodor Dostoyevsky) A Few Acres of Snow: Documents in Pre-Confederation Canadian History, Third Edition The Borderland (Black Acres Book 2) Cabin: Two Brothers, a Dream, and Five Acres in Maine Five Acres and Independence Just Enough Liebling: Classic Work by the Legendary New Yorker Writer Armies of the War of the Triple Alliance 1864-70: Paraguay, Brazil, Uruguay & Argentina (Men-at-Arms) Biographical Sketches from the Paraguayan War - 1864-1870 Weep, Grey Bird, Weep: The Paraguayan War 1864-1870