The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-04-16
VALUABLE FARM BOOKS.

from a recent issue of COlman's s
Rural World. Any book mentioned
in this article will be furnished by
Thhe Progressive Farmer upon re-
ceipt of price:
A reader of the Rural World asks ::
"What do you think is the best work
on farming and stock raising what
is the cost and who are the pub
lishers?" This comes to us, i'll one
form or another, very often, and we
have to answer that there is no one
book covering so broad field that
we can cOnscientiously recommend
as text book to one who wants to
get information covering the field.
When one stops and considers what
is included in the word farming he
will soon come to understand that it
includes too much to be put between
two covers, and he does not have to
study the subject a great while until
he concludes that not one book but
many are required if one expects to
get from such sources information
of much worth regarding farming.
Take, for instance, the subject of
soils. 1t will be readily conceded
that this is basic subject. All
farming operations begin with the
soil.
But stop for a moment, brother
farmer, even you who have been
working with soils every year dur
ing the last half century, and tell
how much you know of that sub
stance from which you have pro-
duced your corn, clover, wheat, oats,
fruits, fax and other crops, some of
which you have worked into beef,
milk, butter, pork, wool, horse
power, flowers and physical and
mental energy.
You know there are many differ
ent kinds of soils and perhaps you
have half dozen or more on your
own farm of quarter section; and
in the years you have been handling
those different soils you have learned
so much about them as to what crops
are best on the different ones, and
how each should be handled for best
results that if you attempted to put
in writing all you know about them
for the guidance of a man to whom
you were selling the farm and who
had little knowledge of farming,
you would cover a good many sheets
of PAGER. And Yet were you t. ex
anime yourself carefully you would
readily admit that what you did not
know about the soils Of your own
farm would amount to far more than
what you did know. And the knOwl
edge you do not have could have
been turned to very useful account
if it had been possessed. And thus
it appears that there is much to
learn about soils, far too much to be
condensed into d chapter in a book
that attempts to cover the whole
subject of farming. The subject of
soils calls for book all by itself,
and such a one is available. It is
entitled The Soil, was written by F.
H. King, Professor of Agricultural
Physics in the University of Wis
consin, and is published by the Mac
MILAN Company, at the price of
rs cents. This book tells how soils
were made nature, functions, origin
and wasting of soils, texture, cOmpO-
sition and kinds of soils, and u vast
deal more that every farmer ought
to know, and which but few do.
But this is only one of mtny i'm
portant divisions of the subject of
farming, and you begin to see that
it will be necessary to recommend
the best books rather than the best
book. In addition to the book on
soils mentioned we would like to
recommend one entitled The Fertil
ity of the Land, by l. P. Roberts,
Director of the College Of Agricul-
ture, Cornell University, and pub
lished by the Macmillan Company.
Price 81. Other books are published
by this company in this same Rural
Science series. Among which may
be mentioned The Principles of
Fruit Growing, by Prof. L. H.
Bailey; Principles of Breeding of
Animals, by w. II. Brewer, and
Feeding of Animals, by w, H. Jor-
dan. A work which we must recon-
mend to all who have animals to
feed is Feeds and Feeding, by w. A.
Henry of the University of WiscOn