Farming Game - Hardcover

Jones, Bryan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0803225598 ISBN 13: 9780803225596

Publisher: University of Nebraska Press, 1982

Synopsis

In cantankerous opinions, hard-headed advice, and free-swinging sketches of real farmers, Bryan Jones addresses everyone who feels the pull of the land. He accepts the emotional appeal of “going back to the land” and then takes the unconventional stand that, above all, farming can be a good way to make money. Against the grain of public policy that, he maintains, encourages big agriculture, Jones works out how a shrewd, stubborn small farmer can still make a go of it.

His keen-eyed sketches of farmers at work show the variety of ways a farmer may succeed or fail. Even his own neighborhood, dominated by thousands of acres of corn and high technology, is peopled with “scalper” who makes a living in the cattle business with little more stake than a gooseneck trailer, a telephone, and his native wits; the sheep man who secretly grows rich while looking poor and raising an animal that other farmer disdain; the experimenter who never turns a nickel himself, but whose successful innovations are readily adopted by his neighbors; the hog raiser who makes a large family pay.

The heart of the book is the primer for novices—and for city folk who dream of farming. Jones emphasizes the practicalities of farm finance and recommends sidelines for the beginner—welding, giving guitar lessons, keeping the books for a local elevator—as an alternative to starving. He urges newcomers to start small and to be sure that farming is something they really want to do. To interested bystanders, The Farming Game offers one farmer’s audacious, stimulating, and entertaining view of American agriculture today.

About this title

About the Author

Bryan Jones maintains strong ties to the land and teaches reading at McCook Junior High School in McCook, Nebraska. His articles have appeared in New Farm, New Land Review, North Dakota Quarterly, and other magazines. In a new afterword, he discusses the current status of “the farming game.”

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Publication date: 1982
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0803225598
• ISBN 13: 9780803225596
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 277