Old Farming Books Free To Download

For instance this on the the Clifton Park System

see http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/elliot/cliftonToC.html#contents

Pasture resources

Ley Farming by Sir R. George Stapledon and William Davies, 1948, Faber & Faber, London. Sow a piece of land with a good pasture mixture and then divide it in two with a fence. Graze one half heavily and repeatedly with cattle, mow the other half as necessary and leave the mowings there in place to decay back into the soil. On the grazed half, you've removed the crop (several times) and taken away a large yield of milk and beef. On the other half you've removed nothing. Plough up both halves and plant a grain crop, or any crop. Which half has the bigger and better yield? The grazed half, by far. "Ley Farming" explains why "grass is the most important crop" and how to manage grass leys. Leys are temporary pastures in a rotation, and provide more than enough fertility for the succeeding crops: working together, grass and grazing animals turn the land into a huge living compost pile. Stapledon draws on the work of Robert H. Elliot of Clifton Park, whose work with deep-rooting leys was the culmination of hundreds of years of development in grass rotation farming. Full-text online at the Small Farms Library.

The Clifton Park System of Farming, and laying down land to grass -- a guide to landlords, tenants and land legislators by Robert H. Elliot, introduction by Sir R. George Stapledon, 1898, 1943, Faber and Faber. The master-work of the ley farming rotational grazing system of laying down cropland to grass -- actually a complex mixture of grasses, legumes and deep-rooting herbs (aka weeds). The grass ley provided beef and dairy produce, as well as enough high-grade soil fertility for a succession of grain and root crops after the grass was ploughed up -- truly sustainable farming. Full-text online at the Small Farms Library.