Customer Reviews

Farm: A Year in the Life of an American Farmer

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As an american farmer, I was curious as to how a non-farmer would depict a way of life so diffrent from his own. I think Richard did a fine job in showing just how tough things can be sometimes and also the humor that goes along with this way of life. I did find a few technical errors that would not be noticeable to any one unfamilar with farming or its equipment. Overall this is a very good book for any one curious about "life down on the farm" or any one just looking for a good light read. I have read and reread this book several times and will probably do so again in the future. So there you have it, an endorsement from a farmer for a book about a farmer.

What a damned shame this book is out of print! If it were up to me, this book would be required reading for anyone planning to relocate to the midwest from either the east or west coast, particularly if you grew up in the suburbs.

FARM details the deceptively complicated life of a midwestern farm couple, their 3 kids, two dogs and assorted friends, crops, livestock, farm machinery, etc. Farming is certainly no walk in the park. The further you venture into this book, the more emotionally exhausted you feel as Rhodes brings home in brilliant detail all the pulls, pushes, tugs, restraints and jolts that go into this lifestyle. How do they do it?

Around the biographical data concerning the Bauer family, Rhodes introduces a staggering array of ancillary subjects, summarizing each with deadly accuracy coupled with a comfortable and easy-to-digest writing style. (Even soils and compactor mechanics are rendered comprehensible for those of us who never "tested well" on mechanical reasoning!)

For east/west coast new arrivals to the midwest who couldn't feel more lost if they'd just landed on Jupiter, this book sheds lots of light on many of the onstensibly incomprehensible mores, rhythms, habits and tendencies of midwestern life that persist in the behavioral patterns of even those who are more than a generation removed from the farm or the small town. With Rhodes as your guide, it's easier to understand the positive aspects of why they do what they do and less painful and exasperating to conform yourself to behaviors that will make them accept you more. I'd need a calculator to add up all the dumb mistakes I could have avoided over the past 10 years if I'd been armed with the information contained in Rhodes' book.

However, 1989 was a long time ago. Since then a new breed of "agri-preneurs" led by Ron Macher, Small Farm Today, the various editors of Storey Books and others is slowly guiding America's farmers away from traditional wholesale masochism toward direct marketing of specialty crops and livestock.

Rhodes' FARM and Macher's MAKING YOUR SMALL FARM PROFITABLE form a veritable old and new testament of American farming -- and an important primer for the aging suburban Boomer who wants to replace lifelong cluelessness with a practical body of knowledge with which to become at least a small part of the solution -- the voting booth, perhaps?!!

Having grown up in Wisconsin and worked on a farm I found this book to be a fine example of farm life. I've read the other reviews and found it interesting that someone couldn't finish this book because of the mundane and the boring side of this story. Farm life is slow going and the day to day life of a farmer isn't as glamourous as a jet fighter pilot, but I still find a way to come back home when I read this book. To a farmer this may be a boring book, especially since a farmer may do the things depicted in this book on a regular basis and the last thing he would want to do is read about it. To someone who used to work on a farm years ago or someone who has never worked on one this book puts you up close and personal with the daily life of what it's like to farm.

The other aspect of this review is the farm is fast disappearing from our landscape. Commercial farms are becoming the norm, and the family farm and the support it needs to survive are fast becoming ancient history. This book will put you back into those good old days when farmers were an important part of American life and helped shape Americana.

There are too few books like this and when I find myself longing for home I'll pull it out and read a few chapters and I'm back home helping fix the tractor or hoping a thunderstorm will pass by in order to drive the combine over to one of the fields to harvest some corn.

If you like farming, buy this book, you won't be disappointed.

With the disclaimer that I refused to invest any more of my life in the completion of this book, I have to say that this is among the worst books that I've never read. I was attracted to it because of (i) Rhodes' reputation, and (ii) the legacy of, and current connection to, farming in my own family. My intimate familiarity with farming (see note ii above) might have made me more sympathetic to, or perhaps more critical of, this book - I don't know. Anyway, I found it to be flat and uninspired. Perhaps it is a good read for someone who has never, ever stepped foot on a farm. However, I think that listening to an ag report on the radio would be just as informative, and about as interesting.