Malabar Farm

"A rare book of abundant variety . . . breathes the satisfaction of a busy rewarding life. This is a book for thoughtful people who love America. It will be read with gratitude far and wide. It is beautifully written." -Chicago Tribune When Pulitzer Prize-winning author Louis Bromfield and his young family returned to America from France on the eve of World War II, they settled down in rural Ohio's Pleasant Valley. He bought several adjacent properties and named the resulting aggregation Malabar Farm. The topsoil at Malabar Farm had been exhausted and eroded over the years, leaving the land largely unproductive, but Bromfield was determined to return it to sustainable productivity. Potent seeds were planted there. Those seeds soon took root and the plants began to thrive as he charted a bold new course for their lives and the land, in the process became an outspoken advocate for sustainability. Readers of Bromfield's previous book Pleasant Valley will enjoy the continuation of the true story he told there, this time focusing more on Malabar's transition from general-purpose farm to single-crop grass farming for cattle in the years 1944-1947. Originally published in 1948, Malabar Farm quickly became a popular success, attracting the attention of fellow farmers and the general public alike. In passionate, lyrical prose, Bromfield conveys both the practical, day-to-day details of farming and of the need to adopt new, regenerative agricultural practices. As an early proponent of sustainability, he urged farmers to regard the land as a long-term treasure to be nurtured rather than a disposable resource to be exploited. Malabar Farm is an excellent source of information on soil improvement, erosion management, organic versus chemical fertilization, range development for cattle, waterway management, gardening, and animal husbandry. This seminal work on organic, sustainable agriculture is today more relevant than ever; even in this digital age it shines as a beacon for aspiring farmers, conservationists, and environmentalists worldwide. This book is also available from Echo Point Books as a hardcover (ISBN 1648372031).

About the Author :
Louis Bromfield was born in Mansfield, Ohio on December 27, 1896. During the 1920s and 1930s he made a name for himself as an internationally popular bestselling novelist. In 1927 he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and in 1927 and 1929 he was a recipient of the prestigious O. Henry Memorial Short Story Award. In 1939 Louis founded Malabar Farm near Mansfield, Ohio. At malabar Farm he soon established a reputation as a leading proponent of sustainable agriculture and environmental stewardship. Louis Bromfield died on March 18, 1956. Today Malabar Farm continues to preserve Louis Bromfield's legacy as Malabar Farm State Park.

Review :
"A crusading book? Certainly it's a crusading book-and an important one. A book that every countryman and every gardener should read and get excited about. And the best of all is that it presents the Bromfields as a well-knit, highly intelligent family, who are having a whale of a time." -New York Herald Tribune "A rare book of abundant variety . . . breathes the satisfaction of a busy rewarding life. This is a book for thoughtful people who love America. It will be read with gratitude far and wide. It is beautifully written." -Chicago Tribune "A book filled with what seems to a layman much sound sense about farming, in addition to many diverting anecdotes." -The New York Times "The record of a one-man crusade to revitalize the land, told with skill and energy. A record and a book of which to be proud." -Atlantic Monthly "Part diary, by a man who enjoys working the land; part argument, to prove what can be done; part exultation in the results. It's inspiring." -New York World Telegram "The major part of this book is the story of the way Louis Bromfield and his family and helpers succeed in rebuilding a house, the soil and all the accessories of rural life on a farm in mid-Ohio. It is a rich and varied description, a testament to the power of the good earth." -Commonweal "In this book, he gets down to describing in detail the hard work of actually farming the land in an intelligent manner (although he would contend this is actually less work than not farming intelligently)." -Bob on Books blog