FARMING BOOKS CLEARANCE SALE

A novel by Charles Walters

From whence comes this beast of muddy brain that trails a boy, a man, a family and a civilization through Century 20 into Century 21? The tale that unfolds in this intensely gripping, often instructive novel begins in the dust bowl of the 1930s and grows with its characters through war and peace. It is an angry testament that sees the debauchery of a civilization.

The chief character, James Ness and his family both survive and prevail while a Darwinian demon devours almost all around him. Here is the real story of what happens when public policy takes the food from the farmer, giving him very little in return, with showy successes forever shadowed by pending adjustments in our institutional and political arrangements.

Page after page, the author adds to the best of times the fact of rural worst of times, answering questions that have still to be asked.

Acres USA, Softcover, 375 pages
ISBN: 9781601730138

By Anne Perdeaux

Chickens are an ideal family pet, requiring less attention than a dog, yet still entertaining, productive and educational. For the family and would-be smallholder, chickens are the obvious first step when venturing into keeping livestock.

This book includes:
Planning and preparing for your first chickens
Choosing housings for different sized gardens
Choosing the right chicken for the job
Exploring useful equipment such as poultry feeders and drinkers
Routine care of your chickens
Outfoxing the fox – and other predators
Dealing with parasites and ailments
Broody hens and hatching eggs and much more.

Softcover, 258 pages, First Edition – 2014
ISBN: 9781908974150

This book deals with a life in the day of an editor at Acres USA.

Its focal point is 15 years, the single “moment” in time when the Hydra called education, economies and eco-farming came to one head as a publication called Acres USA. In his opening note, Phil Callahan says it is people like William Albrecht, Harold Willis, Lee Fryer and ‘Chuck’ Walters who tell us how to farm correctly.

Charles Walters Jr

by William A. Albrecht Ph.D

Soil Fertility and Animal Health: The Albrecht Papers Volume 2 by William A. Albrecht Ph.D. ed. by Charles Walters

Albrecht was the premier soil scientist and was dismayed by the rapid chemicalisation of farming that followed WWII.
This book is a well-organised explanation of the relationship between soil fertility and animal and human health.
This is a great book for those just familiarising themselves with these concepts and the perfect companion to Eco-Farm – An Acres USA Primer.

Each volume is a stand-alone book – you don’t need to have the entire set to learn vast amounts from this master soil scientist.

Acres USA, Softcover, 187pages.
ISBN: 9780911311075

by William A. Albrecht Ph.D
Classic Essays on Soil, Pastures and Animals

This collection presents more of Professor Albrecht’s brilliant, classic essays providing essential insights into the health of our soil.

Albrecht was one of the first to see the danger in relying on agri-chemicals instead of soil fertility for healthy crops.

In this carefully organized collection of writings, Albrecht explains how the soil-crop system works, and provides his substantiated theory and observation that the lack of major elements and trace minerals is responsible for depleted crops, weeds, and poor animal health. His teachings are more critical today than ever.

Acres USA, Softcover, 325 pages
ISBN: 9781601730381

All About Apples is a comprehensive, reliable and informative guide to apples old and new, their care, pest and disease control, propagation and harvesting.

• Grow your own organic apples • More apples and less work with Allen Gilbert’s new pruning system • Treat yourself and your friends to the true taste of apples from bygone years • Improve your success rate with Allen Gilbert’s new grafting technique • Espalier apple trees for unusual landscape effects • Grow more than 10 different varieties of apples on a single tree • First steps to small-scale orcharding. 

Allen Gilbert

By Chris & Paula Steenholdt

This book discusses the principles and methods of growing organic apples in Tasmania, Australia.

Includes chapters on:
ORGANIC Farming
APPLE Varieties
SOIL Fertility – green manure, compost, mulch
PEST Control – natural, biological, insect pests & diseases
SEASONS – jobs to be done each month
CROP Management – thinning, pruning, fruit harvesting & handling, value adding, getting on with the neighbours, labour requirements
CERTIFICATION – most commonly asked questions
MARKETING & Selling – what is a marketable product, marketing problems, direct selling, supermarkets & wholesalers, promotion activities, a day at Salamanka markets

Softcover 96p
ISBN: 0646351729
Published 1998

By NSW Agriculture Tocal.

Learn how to plan your farm’s crop and pasture production so you can manage dryland salinity to achieve sustainable paroduction. You’ll discover the early warning signs to help you take action and find out how Australian farmers are successfully tackling the issues.

Table of Contents:
Introduction:
WHAT is dryland salinity
HOW bad is the problem?
WHAT causes dryland salinity?
GOVERNMENT strategies for dryland salinity
PREVENTING dryland salinity on your farm
MANAGING and treating salt-affected areas
MAKING better use of water on your farm
A HYPOTHETICAL case study
WHAT farmers are doing
Conclusion:  Appendix 1 Advice and further information;    Glossary of terms; References and further reading.

ISBN: 0731305442
Published in 2001, 76 A4 pages, printed in full colour.

By Athena Tainio
A farmer’s (and gardener’s) guide to understanding Gaia . “… watch with me as a grand and beautiful picture unfolds, of the interconnectedness of all things.”

No endeavour engages so deeply, so personally with nature as farming, whether on a thousand acres or in the gardener’s window box. When farmers delve into nature’s mysteries, they follow in the footsteps of the myraid curious natural scientists who came before.

No mere book of philosophy, Tainio cleverly connects the esoteric with the concrete, bridging the gap between modern-day soil chemistry and natural earth forces. She builds upon the work of her late husband, legendary agronomist Bruce Tainio, with her own understandings, creating a book sure to challenge and inspire any student of nature who has an open mind.

Join Athena (Teena) Tainio on a journey that illuminates the diverse wonders of the building blocks of life and gain a new appreciation for the inspiring and powerful dynamics of life on our planet, our farms, Gaia. In this deeply personal story of discovery, the author poetically relates her own understanding of Gaia, a name drawn from Greek mythology for the personification of the Earth, the ancestral mother of all life: the primal Mother Earth goddess.

Acres USA Soft Cover 116 pages
ISBN: 9781601731364

By Harold Willis, Ph.D.

Understanding core concepts of ecological agriculture 

Join longtime ecological farming author/researcher Harold Willis as he explains the foundation concepts of natural farming and issues the call for cleaner forms of food and fibre production.

In this single volume, the author details the interconnections between soil chemistry, microbial life, plants and livestock. He discusses the current problems in agriculture and suggests how lessons from nature provide the roadmap to efficiency, effectiveness and profitability.

This book does not stop at providing recipes of what farmers need to do to farm better, but also passes along an understanding of the why of ecological agriculture. This book is certain to become a classic of clean farming and one of the most heavily bookmarked volumes on a farmer’s shelf.

Acres USA Softcover, 384 pages
ISBN: 9781601730077

A story of Farmers’ Markets, Local Food and Saving the Family Farm
by Forrest Pritchard with a foreword by Joel Salatin

A seventh-generation farmer’s inspiring journey to the heart of the sustainable farming community – set in the Shenandoah Valley, US.
The author, Forrest Pritchard, recounts his endeavours to save his family’s seventh-generation farm in the Shenandoah Valley, US. He turns Smith Meadows into a leading light in the sustainable, grass-fed, organic farm-to-market community.

There is nothing the author & farmer Pritchard won’t try. Whether he’s selling firewood and straw, raising free-range chickens and hogs, or acquiring a flock of Barbados Blackbelly sheep, his learning curve is steep and always entertaining. Pritchard’s world crackles with colorful local characters—farm hands, butchers, market managers, customers, fellow vendors, pet goats, policemen – bringing the story to warm, communal life.

Softcover 320 pages
ISBN 9780762787258

By Newman Turner

In this book, Turner explains that livestock illness is a result of bad farming practices and that real livestock health begins with true natural farming disciplines such as composting, biodiverse pastures with deep-rooted forages and herbs, and sub-soiling, as well as the avoidance of supposed panaceas that ignore or marginalize these fundamentals such as vaccines, pesticides, antibiotics and artificial fertilizers.

The author teaches that the cornerstones of profitability are rooted in: soil fertility and animal nutrition, cattle breeding for better feed efficiency, and cattle breeding for longevity.

Longevity, he holds, is the most critical factor for success in livestock breeding and production.

Acres USA Softcover, 239 pages
ISBN 9781601730107

By Ann Cliff
Make cheese, yoghurt and other dairy products

No room for a goat, cow or sheep? No matter, just buy a few litres of milk and get straight into the process of making your own cream, butter, cheese and yoghurt.

Ann Cliff’s thorough approach to her subject on making dairy products is good practical reading. She looks at the story of milk, then how to care for dairy animals, and more specifically at cows, goats and sheep. The final chapters are on milk, cream, butter and cheese with clear and useful instructions on how to create your own milk-based products.

Like bread or beer, making your own yoghurt, butter and cheese is fun. It’s an age old tradition – neither difficult nor complicated – and very rewarding.

Whether you want to embark on the journey of keeping dairy animals or just want to create butter, cheese, yoghurt, kefir, koumiss, ice-cream or soap then this book is for you.

Softcover 160 pages
ISBN: 9780947214647

Discovering Honesty, Trust & Profit amongst the goodness of people
by Jeff McPherson

Jeff McPherson reports that honor systems are making a comeback in the 21st century.

More than a standard guide, he shows how the honor system marketing can become an essential tool for doing business and reviving our spirit of trust in humanity.

Drawn on the author’s personal experience with dozens of farmers, business owners and customers he shows how you can make this work through a diverse group of real life examples.

Acres USA Softcover, 201 pages
ISBN: 9781601730206

by Andrea Fabbri, Giorgio Bartolini, Maurizio Lambardi and Stan Kailis

An authoritative guide to olive propagation, providing information on seed germination, rooting of cuttings, grafting and micropropagation.
This practical manual is an authoritative guide to olive propagation, providing extended information on seed germination, rooting of cuttings, grafting and micropropagation. The authors describe each topic in detail and discuss the relative advantages and disadvantages of each procedure.
The Olive Propagation Manual has been developed to take into account the future demand for olive oil, which is expected to increase to three million tonnes annually over the next 10 years. Such volumes will require active farming programs and olive trees for new orchards and the replacement of olive trees in existing orchards. As the olive industry moves from traditional manual methods to mechanised operations, planting stock will need to be developed to meet future challenges. Varietal selection will need to be directed to clones that are early bearing, disease resistant, able to be mechanically harvested, and produce quality fruit and oil. Each of these issues are addressed throughout this book.
The Olive Propagation Manual explores historical perspectives, traditional methods and state-of-the-art olive propagation including theoretical explanations and all practical aspects.

CSIRO 2004
Softcover 141 pages
ISBN 9780643066762

By David Madge

Organic Agriculture: Getting Started is packed with sound information on the basic principles of organic farming.

It includes source lists of contacts and information useful for farmers who want to know more about organic agriculture.

It also contains information on the way farmers can set about obtaining certification that will allow them to command better prices in the marketplace by reassuring customers that they are buying a genuine organic product.

Softcover 68 pages
Agriculture Victoria 1995
Out of Print
ISBN 9780730664338

Practical Advice on Heirloom Chickens and Eggs

By Kelly Klober

A resurgence of interest in heritage poultry breeds has invigorated poultry-raising on family farms and backyards across the country. These are the birds that can and should be producing for today’s marketplace – for consumers that have come to value locally bred and grown, historically significant agricultural food.

This book offers valuable insight into rare, heritage and heirloom breed selection, chick raising, breeding and marketing so you can start your own fully sustainable heritage chicken flock and raise eggs or meat for your family or small farm business.

Acres USA Softcover 395 pages
ISBN: 9781601730213

By Leonard Ridzon

1990 Hardback

LIKE NEW. Pages slightly yellowed with age.

OUT OF PRINT
ISBN 0911311246

Carbon Cycle, The by Leonard Ridzon with Charles Walters Jr: A book for today’s literate eco-farmers, on the author’s vision & research to unlock the biological energy contained in coal, the same way its mechanical energy has been released with the agency of heat, to enable stored reserves of carbon for furbishing & re-furbishing agriculture for centuries to come.

By Bernarr Macfadden

How to use the Milk Diet scientifically at Home – The complete, unabridged Original 1923 text

CONTENTS: Preface; Why the Milk Diet cures; When to use the Milk Diet; The Milk Diet regime – how to use it at home; Preventing and remedying symptoms, disturbances and mishaps during the Milk Diet; How to change from the Milk Diet; How to Keep the Health you have gained.

Touting the health benefits of milk and outlining the milk diet, The Miracle of Milk, originally published in 1923, starts dramatically with Bernarr Macfadden writing, “Milk is the greatest of all diet cures.” Macfadden, America’s first health guru, says that the milk diet will undoubtedly boost your vitality and may add many years to your life.
He states that when properly prepared for and properly used, the milk diet is capable of bringing about miraculous changes in the physical organism.
Macfadden’s health crusader commitment to exercise and a diet of fresh, nutritious food was spurred on by his start in life as a small, weak child and the death of his parents to alcoholism and illness by the time he was 11 years old.
Overhearing a relative predict that he would not live to adulthood, he strengthened his constitution and went on to live a long and healthy life based largely on sound, holistic and natural approaches to health.
Macfadden frequently contradicted the popular beliefs of the time when little was known about nutrition and a high-caloric diet was the norm, and with today’s prospective his teachings about diet were amazingly accurate.
While the milk diet may not be practical for people to adopt fully, there are many health benefits that Macfadden outlines that readers can achieve just by increasing the amount of raw, whole, unpasteurized and non-homogenized milk in their diet.
This historic reprint contains many valuable nuggets that are just as profound and important today as they were almost a century ago when Macfadden traveled the nation advocating whole milk consumption.

Acres USA  Softcover 117 pages
ISBN: 9781601730183

The Real Dirt: Farmers tell about Organic and Low Input Practices in the Northeast
Edited by M. Smith & E. Henderson. Published in USA

This book has been edited in conjunction with members of the Northeast Organic Farming Association and Cooperative Extension and is based on farmers talking about organic and low-input practices in the Northeast, USA.

It is a snapshot of the techniques and systems that these farmers relied on during the period 1989 to 1991. It is not a ‘how-to’ book. The book is intended to help farmers learn and refine organic techniques by answering questions and disseminating information.

The Real Dirt gives you a vivid snapshot of organic and low-input farming in the Northeast in the early 1990s.

Based on interviews with more than 60 farmers in 8 US states, the book summarizes the practical methods for ecological soil, pests, disease, crop, greenhouse, and livestock management that have been discovered and used over the past few decades.

It offers a farmer’s-eye view of how to go about the site specific work of designing rotations, selecting crops, and surviving economically.

It also poses many questions that farmers and researchers need to answer for the future.

Northeast Organic Farming Association
Second Edition 1998
Softcover 264 pages

By Allan Windust

This practical guide shows how we can contribute to conserving water, our most precious resource, in our home and garden.

Waterwise House and Garden takes a planned approach to saving water in the home using different household reticulation options including the use of rainwater tanks and recycling greywater. It shows how to eliminate unnecessary watering in the garden by working with nature to create a garden that is both enjoyable and sensitive to the environment.

It explains the science behind survival strategies of plants in dry conditions, shows how soil and water interact, and demonstrates how to improve the soil in your garden. Included is an extensive list of native and exotic plants that are tolerant to dry conditions in both tropical and temperate climates.

The result is an accessible and informative resource guaranteed to help you reduce the environmental impact of everyday living, and dramatically reduce your household water bill in the process.

CONTENTS: The value of water; The importance of plants; The house and garden system; Waterwise strategies; Waterwise options; The theory and practice of mulching; Planning your waterwise garden; Plants; What to do during drought; The future
APPENDICES: The importance of water to plants; Australian plants tolerating very dry conditions; Exotic drought-tolerant plants; Fire-retardant species; Drain stranglers and cloggers; Wastewater reuse EPA guidelines; Water audit; Publications

2003 Softcover 190 pages
ISBN: 9780643068001