Social Science - Sociology - Rural

The Contrary Farmer
Larger View
Buy Online Find Locally

The Contrary Farmer

Author Gene Logsdon

Gene Logsdon has become something of a rabble-rouser in progressive farm circles, stirring up debates and controversies with his popular New Farm Magazine column, The Contrary Farmer. One of Logsdon's principle contrarieties is the opinion that--popular images of the vanishing American farmer, notwithstanding--greater numbers of people in the U.S. will soon be growing and raising a greater share of their own food than at any time since the last century. Instead of vanishing, more and more farmers will be cottage farming, part-time.

This detailed and personal account of how Logsdon's family uses the art and science of agriculture to achieve a reasonably happy and ecologically sane way of life in an example for all who seek a sustainable lifestyle. In The Contrary Farmer, Logsdon offers the tried-and-true, practical advice of a manual for the cottage farmer, as well as the subtler delights of a meditation in praise of work and pleasure. The Contrary Farmer will give its readers tools and tenets, but also hilarious commentaries and beautiful evocations of the Ohio countryside that Logsdon knows as his place in the universe.

About The Author

Over the course of his long life and career as a writer, farmer, and journalist, Gene Logsdon published more than two dozen books, both practical and philosophical, on all aspects of rural life and affairs. His nonfiction works include Gene Everlasting, A Sanctuary of Trees, and Living at Nature’s Pace. He wrote a popular blog, The Contrary Farmer, as well as an award-winning column for the Carey, Ohio, Progressor Times. Gene was also a contributor to Farming Magazine and The Draft Horse Journal. He lived and farmed in Upper Sandusky, Ohio, where he died in 2016, a few weeks after finishing his final book, Letter to a Young Farmer.

  • Publish Date: April 19, 1995
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Category: Social Science - Sociology - Rural
  • Publisher: Chelsea Green
  • Trim Size: 6 x 9
  • Pages: 256
  • US Price: $27.00
  • CDN Price: $36.00
  • ISBN: 978-0-930031-74-9
Buy Online Find Locally
Back To Top

Reviews

"’Cutting down a large tree should be an act charged with ritual.’ Why? Farming columnist Logsdon points to the tree's ‘wonderful accomplishment’ and to its ‘feat of survival’ as models for ourselves. Then he goes on to discuss ways of felling trees that have come to the end of their lives and can therefore spare their wood for fuel. This collection of essays recommends cottage farming--the small-scale, part-time growing that aims to reduce food expenses and increase pleasure in living--in a tone that combines even-handed pragmatism, idealism (‘Measure the value of products in human terms,’ he urges) and impatient realism (‘Let those who put their faith in fancy threads laugh at your jeans’). The author rejects "institutionalized claptrap" for the greater benefits of rural independence and freedom, and outlines ways we can pursue these. ‘Flee the evils that centralized power always generates,’ he advises, calling himself an investor in ‘the tools that make sweat more productive.’ Logsdon raises a sanely unruly voice in a society where life too often only seems civilized. His correctives are not easily applied, but their promise and appeal (like his own) are powerful.”—Publishers Weekly

“Logsdon is a writer for New Farm magazine and author of several books on small-scale farming and American agriculture, including At Nature's Pace: Farming and the American Dream. He is also a farmer, and experiences from his small Ohio farm provide much of the the subject material for The Contrary Farmer, which explains how he deals with crops, animals, machinery, the weather, and the neighbors. Just what is a contrary farmer? Among other things, one who is not afraid to go against the grain of conventional agricultural wisdom, who does not believe that bigger is always better or that no-till chemically maintained monocultures are superior to crop rotations and diversified farming. Logsdon is as staunch an advocate for the small family farm or acreage (‘cottage farm’ in his parlance) as you are likely to find. His latest book is thoughtful, entertaining, often irreverent, and brimming with ideas and practical advice.”—Library Journal

“No learned gentleman farmer, Logsdon earns his moments of lyricism by analyzing at length the daily demands on the cottage farmer (one whose holdings are much smaller than the 50 acres that economists deem ‘small’). He recommends alternatives: ways to avoid backbreaking work, to use gardens to test prospective crops, to ameliorate the ‘gruesome’ tasks of butchering and tail docking, to access water for irrigation, to avoid the pitfalls of ‘controlled rational grazing,’ to determine the most functional crop for the working cottage farm (it's corn), and so on. All this by a man who also reads widely and has a down-home sense of humor, as well as no reluctance to express his opinions. So if at first you think that these farming essays are too technical for you, you're wrong. ‘Yeah, I could do that--avoid buying gadgets I don't need, be a lender rather than a borrower, live near a village where I can buy a home for $40,000,’ we muse, even if eventually we hear from Logsdon that we must ‘learn to fix cars and tractors’ ourselves, and sigh, ‘Too much, too much.’”—Booklist

Author Bookshelf: Gene Logsdon

Letter to a Young Farmer
Gene Everlasting
A Sanctuary of Trees
Holy Shit
Small-Scale Grain Raising
Living at Nature's Pace