Homesteading days are here again. The present movement of people back to the land is of a different type and has different objectives from those which prevailed when a continent was to be conquered and exploited. Today we know that many urban industries will operate on a seasonal basis and we know too that periods of unemployment and shorter working days will provide more leisure and probably lower incomes for hundreds of thousands of families. The utilization of this leisure time to supplement incomes, to raise the standards of living and of health, and to attain some measure of economic security will tend more and more to settlement on the land.

In these days of rapid transportation and all the attributes and conveniences of modern country life, the hardships of the earlier period of land development are non-existent. Although urban industrial development has reached a point which will not be exceeded for many years to come, the individual who needs additional income may adjust himself to such circumstances by establishing a country homestead. Industrial activity is tending to decentralize, largely as the result of widespread power distribution, and a home in the country accessible to some form of manufacturing or business employment offers undeniable attractions.

This book is prepared primarily for the family that is inexperienced in country living and in soil culture. Such a family should know about the nature of the soil on which it lives, how to make it serve the family’s needs and purposes, what to do, and what to avoid in order that success may be attained and failure averted. Students of agriculture as a vocation and practical farmers may find, beyond the elementary facts presented, information of value and help to them. To know and to understand the science and practice of agriculture is to have power to cope with and to enjoy soil culture and animal husbandry. If this little volume helps to answer clearly and definitely the many inquiries that are in the minds of prospective and active homesteaders, it will have served its purpose.

The knowledge of many practical people and the resources of agricultural institutions and agencies have been drawn upon for this book. Grateful acknowledgment is made to those who have contributed constructive criticism and have helped in the preparation of material. Especial credit is due to the personnel of the New Jersey and New York colleges of agriculture and to my associates in the New Jersey Department of Agriculture.

William B. Duryee.

Trenton, N. J.,
December, 1933.