The Book of the Farm

Abstract

Henry Stephens (1795–1874) was a farmer and later a writer on agriculture. After attending lectures on chemistry and agriculture at the University of Edinburgh he boarded with a Berwickshire farmer, George Brown, and gained experience of agricultural work. In 1820 Stephens acquired his own farm, on which he used modern and experimental farming methods. In 1837 he sold the farm, and devoted the rest of his life to writing guides to farming for the use of inexperienced farmers. These influential volumes, first published in 1842, contain Stephens' detailed descriptions of contemporary farming practices. He describes in meticulous detail all aspects of farming, including livestock care and slaughter, dairying, irrigation practices and crop culture. Arranged by season and including copious high-quality illustrations of farming equipment, these extremely popular and fascinating volumes were considered the standard work on practical Victorian agriculture. Volume 1 describes farming tasks performed in winter.

Wire Fences in Colonial Australia: Technology Transfer and Adaptation, 1842–1900

“…While keeping in mind Raby's (1996, p. 64) warning that ‘agricultural writers, popularisers and propagandists tended to be well ahead of general farming practice in Britain’, we can follow the adoption of wire fences through five successive editions of Henry Stephen's influential Book of the Farm . There is no mention in the first edition (1844), but the second (1855) and third (1877) plagiarise the information in Young (1850). The fourth (1891) and fifth (1908) editions add more material and illustrations, but the basic text is similar.…”

“…(Letter from George Russell (in Scotland) to William Lewis, 6 th August 1851; Brown, 1963: p. 117) According to Kerr (1987: p. 134), a fence with this structure was built on the Clyde Company's properties in Victoria. Stephens (1855: Volume 2, p. 596) briefly mentions a similar structure: ‘three wires above the height of a turf or stone dyke’, and such a composite fence was illustrated by Vernon (1909: p. 257) (Figure 9).

Figure 9.Composite fence of the type seen and described by George Russell in Scotland in 1851.

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“…It is difficult to see how the millions of kilometres of farm and station property boundaries in Australia could be secured to prevent wandering stock without wire. Although Stephens (1855: p. 596) had misgivings about the future of wire fences, within four decades he accepted their value: ‘Wire is now more largely employed than any other material in fencing land’ (Stephens, 1891: volume 3, p. 235). Wire fences, using either plain wire or barbed wire or some combination of these, quickly became the de facto standard in the western world.…”

“…It is now, I presume, quite understood that wire-fencing is the best and cheapest fencing that can be adopted in almost any circumstances (Munro, 1850: 426)It is not at all probable, that however durably wire-fences may be erected, they will ever supersede thorn hedges or stone dykes on farms. (Stephens, 1855: II, 596)…”

“…It is not at all probable, that however durably wire-fences may be erected, they will ever supersede thorn hedges or stone dykes on farms. (Stephens, 1855: II, 596)…”