Ten Acres Enough

Morris, Edmund, 1804-1874Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.4

Word count: 375K words
Chapters: 38

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Ten Acres Enough by Edmund MorrisAuthor: Morris, Edmund, 1804-1874,Language: English, Class: S: Agriculture, Release Date: Apr 20, 2015

Editor's review

This book is a first-person account from nineteenth-century American rural-life writing, in which the author records the complete process of leaving the city with his family, purchasing ten acres of land, and running a small farm, covering site selection, soil assessment, crop and livestock arrangements, and income and expenditure accounting. Its value lies not in providing modern agricultural techniques that can be directly copied, but in presenting a "small-scale self-cultivation" approach that later readers can repeatedly consult: how to arrange production and life with limited land and limited capital, and how to adjust plans through trial and error. The prose is plain and the narration concrete, interspersed with observations of rural scenery and family daily life, giving it the texture of documentary prose. It is suitable as supplementary reading for agricultural history and rural social history, and also for readers interested in returning to rural life or planning a small family farm, to understand the historical experience and limitations of such choices.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in nineteenth-century American rural life and agricultural history
Practitioners planning a small family farm or rural lifestyle
General readers who enjoy first-person documentary narrative and pastoral essays
Teachers and students needing supplementary materials on agricultural history and rural social history

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking modern agricultural techniques, soil improvement, or market operation data
Readers who prefer strong-plot fiction or theoretical academic works

Reading tips

Read the chapters on the author's relocation and land purchase first to grasp his decision logic and historical context
Take separate notes on the book's income-expenditure and cultivation arrangements, and compare with today's conditions to distinguish what can and cannot be applied
Read alongside agricultural history or nineteenth-century American rural studies to avoid treating personal experience as universal law
Read the book slowly chapter by chapter as essays, paying attention to scenery descriptions and family-life details

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book suitable as a modern farm management guide?

No. It records a nineteenth-century author's firsthand experience on a small farm, and the tools, markets, and technological conditions differ greatly from today. One can borrow its planning approach and trial-and-error attitude, but specific cultivation methods and cost-benefit data should be based on modern sources.

Can I understand it without an agricultural background?

Yes. The book is narrated in the first person about personal experience, in plain language with few technical terms. Readers need only an interest in rural life; unclear historical background can be skimmed or checked in agricultural history sources.

What does this book mainly cover?

It mainly recounts the author's departure from the city, purchase of ten acres, and operation of a farm, involving site selection, land preparation, crop and livestock arrangements, labor and income-expenditure calculations, and daily observations of family rural life. It is a firsthand record rather than a systematic agronomy textbook.

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About the author

Morris, Edmund, 1804-1874 Author · 1804–1874

Edmund Morris (1804–1874) is an English-language author about whose life little information survives; today he is known mainly for a single work. His representative book, Ten Acres Enough, judging by its title and its usual subject matter, is a practical piece of writing on small-scale land cultivation and rural living, addressed to ordinary readers who hope to support themselves or improve their lives on a limited acreage. His nationality, education, career, and social connections cannot be reliably established from the limited public information available, so too much should not be inferred. In the work that survives, his style is plain and concrete, stressing experience and feasibility rather than empty discussion—one reason the book has continued to be read. The library currently holds only one of his works, through which readers may glimpse one aspect of nineteenth-century English-language writing on agricultural life.