Five Acres and Independence Book Review
The first (kind of) negative book review I’ve had to write goes to “Five Acres and Independence: A Handbook for Small Farm Management” written by Maurice G. Kains.
The fact that so many people have commented below it total disagreement with me goes to show that this book is still looked upon as an historical, if not practical, back-to-the-land guide even today. This review is just my opinion and sometimes my opinions go against the grain.
It’s not that this book was poorly written, or that the information wasn’t reliable at the time it was written. If only someone would rewrite the entire thing for farmers of this century, this review would probably have ended up much better. Five Acres and Independence was written in 1935. To give you an idea of how long ago that was, even in farm-time, the insecticidal properties of DDT were not discovered until four years later in 1939. Henry Ford introduced the Fordson, the first mass-produced tractor only 18 years earlier in 1917.
I will be the first to admit that some knowledge is timeless. I’d take the word of an old-time farmer in a second over that of a young whipper-snapper. For instance, in this book I learned a cheap homemade method of determining if a soil sample is acidic: Add a teaspoon of weak ammonia (not the ‘cloudy’ household stuff, but pure ammonia in water) to the muddy water. After standing over night if the liquid has turned dark brown or black the soil is acid; if not it is neutral or alkaline. But for every piece of information applicable to farming in 2008 I had to read twenty pieces of information applicable to only the most hardcore bucolics – the kind that drive a horse-powered buggy down the streets in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Not that there’s anything wrong with that – and indeed it may be exactly what you’re looking for – but I was hoping for more information that pertains to a “modern homesteading” lifestyle, whatever that is for each of us.
And I’m not talking about “modern” as in technology. I mean “modern” as in applicable to today’s laws, today’s septic tanks, today’s water problems, today’s lack of heritage-breed livestock and heirloom seeds… Some of the problems discussed in the book are no longer problems, and some of the problems not addressed in the book were not yet problems at the time. It is one thing to tell a person back in the 1930s that they can make extra income by selling milk and chickens. But the sad, sad, disgusting, irritating, totally irrational truth is that IT WOULD BE ILLEGAL today. Joel Salatin does a good job of discussing those issues in Everything I Do is Illegal so I won’t get into that or I’ll just get my blood pressure boiling.
Aside from the dated material, which one could easily skip over, the book is very dry. In other words – it will put you to sleep. That is, unless you enjoyed Moby Dick, in which case you might find this book absolutely enthralling.
The main reason I would not recommend Five Acres and Independence to the person interested in learning about small farm management and living an off-grid or self-sustaining life is because most, if not all, of the information I found within the book can be found in much more modern – and enjoyable – books like:
- Successful Small-Scale Farming: An Organic Approach
- Mini Farming for Self Sufficiency
- Storey’s Basic Country Skills: A Practical Guide to Self-Reliance
- The Solar Living Sourcebook
- The Self-sufficient Life and How to Live It
- And many others…
Now that I’m finished with it, I’m looking forward to moving on to a few books that were sent to me for review. Among them:
- Living Homes: Integrated Design & Construction
- Going Solar: Understanding and Using the Warmth in Sunlight
- Botany in A Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification
- Stone House: A Guide to Self-Building with Slipforms
Well…in 1948, it took my parents, city dwellers from Chicago, from the city to a 2.5 acre farm with vegetables, grapes, rabbits, goats, chickens, and ducks in just a few years.
Well, in 1945, it took my parents, city dwellers from Los Angeles, from the city to a 17 acre avocado grove with rabbits, goats, chickens, vegetables and poverty worse than the Great Depression.
Hellen,
Are you saying that your parents were impoverished when they were in LA, or that the book had something to do with their “poverty worse than the Great Depression”?
I’m a little surprised that you didn’t like the book, but if you’re looking for new technology and entertainment you probably shouldn’t be looking in what should be considered an old technical manual. I’ve yet to see any good technical manual that makes entertaining reading.
The problem with depending on the newest technology is that it wouldn’t take much for it not to be available. If you can’t buy or make repair parts the new technology won’t be any good in the long run. If you are ‘off-grid’ the old technology is easier to keep operating.
I would agree with your comment with remark about the DDT – a person should check the suggested materials in the book for safety. Many compounds that used to be used on farms were quite toxic. While helping clean up my in-laws farm we found two bags of paris green and a bottle of nicotine – both compounds had been used as insecticides. We had to dispose of it as hazardous waste.
I’ve lost or loaned out my copy which is about the same thing. I have enjoyed the read several times. I use it as a reminder of my roots and hope to have a future of however many acres with independance. I was hoping to find a picture of the little water liftin pump so I could help my son in law put some water on higher ground at his place without needing to power up. I like old low tech things but love this computer age.
You don’t became a builder by reading the “Ten Books Of Architecture by Marco Vitruvio Polion”, and nobody thinks Vitruvio was a polluter or something like that.
We need some historic perspective here.
Everyone here makes great points. From a historical perspective, this book was a good read. From a practical one, it was not – at least in my opinion.
I wasn’t looking for entertainment or infotainment. Many of the alternative books I mentioned at the end of the review are not entertaining. But they do contain information that is more applicable to modern homesteaders.
And I’m not talking about “modern” as in technology. I mean “modern” as in applicable to today’s laws, today’s septic tanks, today’s water problems, today’s lack of heritage-breed livestock and heirloom seeds… Some of the problems discussed in the book are no longer problems, and some of the problems not addressed in the book were not yet problems at the time.
It’s dated. That’s all I’m saying. If you like history and just want to read how the old-timers did it, why not pick up a copy of the Foxfire anthology? I’m all for old-timey ways and will be using wood ash to make my own lye this year even though it’s cheap and easy to buy. But I don’t know a local blacksmith, so I guess I’m not going to be getting the metal bands to my barrel made down the road. This book is a CLASSIC. But so is Walden Pond and, although entertaining and of high value to our bank of literature, neither seems to me an applicable manual for off grid living in today’s world.
Five Acres and Independence is one of my favorite books.i was raised in a small community that was green lol before it was popular to be green!!!i found the book donated by an older friend to a store about 10 years ago.if you were raised green you have always had the outlook on pestacides,ect. as i see it the past is the future
I like laurie’s closing comment about the past being the future. Makes perfect sense. With all the technological advancements, we seem to have gotten dumber in many ways. Why is it that common sense is not so common anymore? Think about it…
Feb 3rd, 2010 at 5:05 pm
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