Find farming history books you'll love

Chemical Applications Management

This is the student guide that corresponds with the text, Chemical Applications Management. This describes many various kinds of pesticides, their toxicity, calibrations and proper applications. Also, very practical management methods and application techniques are covered in detail. This book has over 850 pictures, charts, tables, graphs, and other illustrations. Filled with EPA, OSHA, and other regulatory agency standards and suggested ways to meet or exceed those standards. Some topics covered are accurate identification of weeds, insects, and diseases, and effective ways to control them. Includes 500 pest-identification photos in full-color.

Tractor The Heartland Innovation, Ground-Breaking Machines, Midnight Schemes, Secret Garages, and Farmyard Geniuses That Mechanized Agriculture

<p>This rollicking ride into machine history follows the innovators, entrepeneurs and hucksters who transformed our world with farm machines. Starting with the turn-of-the-century visionaries who saw that four wheels and a motor could replace for the horse, the book moves swiftly through key early developments to cover the power farming movement of the latter part of the 20th Century--a time when major manufacturers lagged behind and independent builders and farmers began creating their own solutions with a pencil drawing and a welder. The book includes stories of the butcher shop where John Deere secretly designed a completely new line of four-cylinder tractors, to the skullduggery and corporate raiding that took place in fields and back lots as company agents schemed to discover what their dirty ol' competitors had up their sleeves. The book moves all the way up through the creation of the first tractor electronics, the merger movement of the 1980s, and the emergence of the high-technology innovations such as smart farms and auto-guidance which are changing the farm as we know it. This raucous, heartfelt book shines a light on some of the bright minds and innovative companies which emerged from the fertile fields of America's heartland.</p>

Growing a Revolution Bringing Our Soil Back to Life

<b>Finalist for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award<br> <br> "A call to action that underscores a common goal: to change the world from the ground up." —Dan Barber, author of <i>The Third Plate</i> </b><br><p>For centuries, agricultural practices have eroded the soil that farming depends on, stripping it of the organic matter vital to its productivity. Now conventional agriculture is threatening disaster for the world’s growing population. In <i>Growing a Revolution</i>, geologist David R. Montgomery travels the world, meeting farmers at the forefront of an agricultural movement to restore soil health. From Kansas to Ghana, he sees why adopting the three tenets of conservation agriculture—ditching the plow, planting cover crops, and growing a diversity of crops—is the solution. When farmers restore fertility to the land, this helps feed the world, cool the planet, reduce pollution, and return profitability to family farms.</p>

John Deere

This is a new series created for younger gearheads ages 10 and up. They incorporate a flashy style that's sure to keep a kid's attention. Nothing runs like a Deere-and nothing sums up the might of the American farm machine like the bright green John Deere tractor. Young readers and machine enthusiasts will revel in this full-color, picture-filled, fact-packed book about the tractor that has worked America's fields for more than a hundred years. Here's the whole fascinating model-by-model story of the John Deere tractor from its beginnings in 1892 to its triumphant place on the farms of today. An inspiring portrait of the muscle of American machinery and an exciting close-up look at the big green workhorses that keep our farms rumbling, this book is the ultimate guide to the ultimate tractor.

Hydraulics

International Harvester, Mccormick, Navistar Milestones in the Company that Helped Build America

The passion for invention is a deeply ingrained part of American culture. In the decades after our independence, the new nation burst with names every schoolchild should learn: Robert Fulton, Eli Whitney, Samuel Morse-and above all, Cyrus McCormick. Cyrus McCormick, inventor of the first mechanical reaper, liberated the American farmer, and changed the course of history. Until 1831, when he marketed the first truly practical machine, grain was still harvested as it had been in the time of the Pharaohs. McCormick also pioneered modern sales and marketing techniques, and as the twentieth century dawned, his McCormick Harvesting Machine Company became International Harvester, an industrial powerhouse ranked with U.S. Steel and Standard Oil. Celebrating this year its 175th anniversary, McCormick's company, now Navistar International, has been a vital force in the American landscape, its tractors and trucks crucial to its industrial development. Milestones is the first fully illustrated history of the rich heritage of Navistar International, from its founding by Cyrus McCormick to its vitality today. This lavishly illustrated, oversized volume is packed with original photography, nostalgic advertising, fascinating detail and history, and American pride.

John Deere Blacksmith Boy

First Edition printing

The John Deere Moldboard Tractor Plow 1914 to 1960, the Two-Cylinder Era

Used to identify different plow models.

Salad Bar Beef

In a day when beef is assailed by many environmental organizations and lauded by fast-food chains, a new paradigm to bring reason to this confusion is in order. With farmers leaving the land in droves and plows poised to "reclaim" set-aside acres, it is time to offer an alternative that is both land and farmer friendly.<br><br>Beyond that, the salad bar beef production model offers hope to rural communities, to struggling row-crop farmers, and to frustrated beef eaters who do not want to encourage desertification, air and water pollution, environmental degradation and inhumane animal treatment. Because this is a program weighted toward creativity, management, entrepreneurism and observation, it breathes fresh air into farm economics.

John Deere

Born in Rutland, Vermont, John Deere served a four-year apprenticeship to a blacksmith and worked in that trade until 1837.The implements being used by pioneer farmers of that day were cumbersome and ineffective for cutting and turning the prairie soil.To alleviate the problem, Deere and a partner, Major Leonard Andrus, designed three new plows in 1838.The plow was so successful that by 1846 Deere and his partner were selling a thousand a year.Deere then sold his interest to Andrus and organized a plow company in Moline, Illinois.After experimenting with imported English steel, he had a cast steel plow made for him in Pittsburgh.By 1855 he was selling more than 13,000 such plows a year.In 1868 his business was incorporated as Deere & Company, which is still in existence today.

Family Friendly Farming A Multi-Generational Home-Based Business Testament

Saving the landscape, rebuilding entrepreneurial rural families, and protecting nutritious food are the themes of this timeless treatise-hence the word "testament." Delving into the soul of the Salatin family's nationally acclaimed Polyface Farm, author Joel Salatin offers <i>Family Friendly Farming</i> as the key to dealing with resource issues, food policy, and social fabric.<br><br>With humor and personal stories, he opens his family and farm convictions for all to see, share, and enjoy. Written from his unabashed "Christian libertarian environmentalist capitalist" perspective, his ideas are guaranteed to encourage and challenge virtually every "ism" in the culture. It will captivate anyone passionate about healing the land, healing families, and healing the food supply.<br><br>For several decades young people have been leaving the family farm. The ones left behind are now responsible for society's greatest resources: clean land and clean food. Anyone dedicated to preserving these resources will find in these pages a nongovernmental, self-empowerment approach to environmentalism and food safety.<br><br>The heart of this book is aimed toward parents tired of their Dilbert cubicle at the end of the expressway who want to reconnect with their children through a pastoral lifestyle. It's written for anyone who yearns to grow old working with and being adored by value-sharing grandchildren and honored by passionate, productive adult children. <i>Family Friendly Farming</i> can make any family business more viable and any family more functional.<br><br>The ten-chapter section on how to get the kids to love the farm is an invaluable addition to any collection of child-rearing manuals. Salatin moves from the family team-building section into a practical discussion on how to increase income per acre and create new, white-collar salaries without buying more land, equipment, or buildings. He deals with the unique and thorny issues surrounding any family business by using his own multi-generational family farm experience as his base for insight and wisdom.

A Corporate Tragedy: The Agony of International Harvester Company

In an examination of the disastrous fall of International Harvester Company, this book details the powerful forces that have undermined American industry and the dizzying succession of management blunders that are being repeated throughout American companies every day