I was already familiar with author Schwenke from his 1975 book, Build Your Own Stone House, a product of the back-to-the-earth movement of that decade. His more recent book, Successful Small-Scale Farming, is simply too short and too thin to live up to its title, a characteristic it shares with its earlier sibling.
From its title, one would expect Schwenke's volume to present a reasonably broad overview of farm operations, concentrating on methods proven to be successful and profitable. While no one should expect a completely thorough and fully-detailed investigation of such a vast topic as farming, agronomy, and farm-business operations in one single volume, I should have known from the short length of this book, a mere 130 pages, that topics essential to its title would receive inexcusabley short shrift.
About half of Schwenke's offering is an examination of thoughts on organic farming to include an organic approach to maintaining soil and various organic cropping methods. This is all well and good, but considering this comprises only 39 pages of an already thin book, there is little reason one would not fare better buying a volume devoted solely to organic agriculture and the actual, useful detail and sophistication it would offer.
If the vestigal treatment of organic farming is insufficient reason to buy Schwenke's book, then one must conclude it would be for the depth and breadth of its exploration and analysis of successful small-scale farm techniques and operations. In this, Schwenke's attempt falls short again.
He offers a scant 12-page chapter on farm machinery, laughable in its superficial treatment of a profoundly important topic to successful farmers. Analysing capital purchases such as farm machinery is one that can promote success if done well and contribute to poverty and eventual loss of one's farm if done poorly. This would have been a great opportunity for Schwenke to bring to bear thorough research about the productivity improvements machinery can bring to the small farm and a machinery needs anaysis with depreciation and maintenance schedules. Alas, he missed the opportunity.
He further could have siezed the moment by weeding through the confusing morass of different kinds of farm implements and equipment available and described the crops and farm operations that can be met through the use of general farm machinery and those needing the use of specialized equipment.
For example, he could have discussed when and if a seed drill should be acquired, how various types of combines work and the various heads that must be bought in order to harvest specific types of field crops. He could have looked at small scale milking parlors and on-farm refrigeration required by law for dairy products and butchered meat. He could have investigated small butter-making machinery. Advice on what to look for when evaluating used equipment and the type and extent of maintenance each would require would have proven highly valuable to the small farmer on a tight budget. He does none of this.
Greatfully, Schwenke avoids going off on a tangent urging the aspiring successful farmer to step back to the 19th century and farm with oxen and horses. However, his treatment of tractor selection is, frankly, astonishing. It seems for Schwenke, the more rusted, poorly-operating, and outmoded the tractor, the better. He apparently feels that living a dust bowl lifestyle somehow makes one a successful farmer.
Specifically, Schwenke argues that the few remaining examples of 1930s to 1960s relic tractors that still can be found offer a low acquisition cost and ought be the tractor of choice for the small farmer. How foolish. Excellent recent-vintage and far superior tractors from John Deere, among others, are amply available everywhere and in every state at Schwenke's much-loved junk tractor prices. A quick search of the internet will reveal thousands at prices equal to the disaster-tractors Schwenke seems to inexplicably favor.
As far as the topic of overall farm management, what Schwenke writes is easy to read and provides some small amount of useable knowledge, but the key word is small- a total of 30 pages. There are many other books one could study that would provide far more of the necessary depth and usefullness to be actionable. Mr. Schwenke's treatment of this extensive and critical topic is mere fun-to-know information and not much more.
Perhaps the best part of Schwenke's flawed attempts at a useful book are the bite-sized nuggets he randomly heaps together in two appendicies comprising the last 36 pages of his book. These pages offer interesting tidbits such as how to make a wire-tensioner to use when building wire fences or how much split wood comprises a cord. He also addresses the plant-food content and typical yields of a wide variety of common farm crops. However, these and the other charts Schwenke includes in the appendicies are one and the same available from seed and feed companies, so one cannot offer much appreciation for bringing original work to bear on this vital topic.
In summary, one can expect Karl Schwenke's book, Successful Small-Scale Farming, to be a very light and occasionally amusing read. It would be far better, however, to spend one's money on books that offer more pages and more hard, up to date, realistic farming information that really can help the small farmer become successful.
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Successful Small-Scale Farming: An Organic Approach (Down-To-Earth Book) Books In Print, Audio Books.