Farmers of Forty Centuries: Or Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea and Japan (Classic Reprint) Paperback – November 16, 2016

Having read this book first, then "Foundations of Japan" whch was written a few years later, I am inclined to agree with the comment made in "Foundations" that this book was written with a somewhat rosy outlook. That said, as with "Foundations" this is a set of observations on topics made by a traveller skilled in those areas, and in this case by one who had an ecological perspective somewhat more in line with today rathar than his early 1900's contemporaries. With the aid of hindsight, it's interesting to note how the author used examples of how things were done in the farming cultures of Japan and China to try and encourage American agriculture to incorporate crop rotation, complimentary plantings, organic composting, etc..

First published in 1911, with a preface by Dr. L. H. Bailey, Farmers of Forty Centuries is the kind of book that would be of interest to farmers and historians alike.This book was written at time in society when 'better living through chemistry' was just starting to take hold as mainstream thinking. Reductionist science, pesticides, and fertilizer were gaining strength and agriculture was changing from a point of view that works with the natural processes to a system that conquers and controls plants natural impulses. Taking into account the time when this book was written, and one can see that it is an important book in the history of agriculture and an excellent reference for modern farmers that might have been lost if not for the dedication of people who converted it to e-text.The preface by Dr Bailey, discusses where American agriculture stands at the turn of the last century (1900). It mentions how farming in the North America is very successful, and acknowledged that this is primarily because the population density of the continent is sparse and people have been cultivating the soil for a relatively short time. Bailey mentions that in order to properly conquer the land and turn it to our needs (common attitude of the time)we must be careful not to strip it of fertility. Chemical farming alone will do this over time; however, by examining agricultural practices that have sustained themselves for long periods without loosing soil fertility - then american farming can be even more productive (shame this wasn't taken to heart at the time).The book itself is examines agricultural practices in some of the most densely populated areas of the world at the time in hopes of gleaming some useful information.Given where we are now with industrialized farming, this book might just be what we need to help understand how we can regain some of the waste farmland that now has very little or no agricultural use thanks to poor management practices over the last 100 years.The kindle version has no interactive menus, no way of quick navigation and no pictures. But there are no obvious errors in the text.This book is perfect for both small farmers and large scale agri-business.

This is not the book that is advertised. The original book and the table of contents shows over 370 pages but this reprint is only 30 pages! Also missing in this pamphlet are almost all of the original photographs. Do yourself a favor and look at other "editions" Heck this isnt even an edition except they edited almost all of the book. This is just a bad scan of the first 30 pages from a library book, complete with a former readers penciling.

Unless there was a mistake with my order, this is not what I expected. There are only 30 page. Its a pamphlet with an introduction and one chapter. There are suppose to be 17 chapters and over 376 pages and 248 illustrations....This little pamphlet was way over priced if this is what I was supposed to get. 50 cents would have been about right. Anyone else have this problem?

A very interesting and instructive book … a study of traditional farming practices, and how they were intertwined with the cultures of the far East, as seen and interpreted by an academic nearly a century ago. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, including its sometimes archaic style. If you want a book for cold winter nights, I think you will enjoy reading this work.The orientation of the contents is toward the preservation of timeless conservative agricultural techniques and practices, where, by contrast, the practices in the Western world seem more or less brute force techniques.I found the book as charming as instructive … and, thought provoking!

Interesting, but pretty dated material. I guess I shouldn't be shocked at the farmers of that time period using human poo for soil fertility. Interesting to see how tight their system of recycling nutrients was.

Do NOT buy this edition. The font is approximately size 6. The photographs that make this book great are totally missing. The tables are formatted terribly. Reading a good copy changed my understanding of what sustainable means. Thousands of years of farming tied to civilization is a rare coincidence that gets documented here thoroughly. We have almost everything to change in the US if we want to make it.

I first read this in the Small Farm Journal. It recounts the ingenuity and hard work that Chinese employ to make the most of resources. Some of the grainy photographs were included there, but this republication does not include the photographs which I think are important.