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Five Acres and Independence: A Handbook for Small Farm Management
Everyone who has ever dreamed of getting back to the soil will derive from Maurice Grenville Kains' practical and easy-to-understand discussions a more complete view of what small-scale farming means. Countless readers of Five Acres and Independence have come away with specific projects to begin and moved closer to the fulfillment of their dreams of independence on a small farm.
Whether you already own a suitable place or are still looking, Five Acres and Independence will help you learn to evaluate land for both its total economic and its specific agricultural possibilities. There are methods of calculating costs of permanent improvements — draining the land, improving soil, planting wind breaks, putting in septic tanks, cellars, irrigation systems, greenhouses, etc. — and methods of carrying out those improvements. There are suggestions for specific crops — strawberries, grapes, vegetables, orchards, spring, summer, and fall crops, transplanting, timing, repairing what already exists — with methods of deciding what is best for your land and purposes and techniques for making each of them pay. There are suggestions for animals for the small-scale farmer — goats, chickens, bees — and means of working them into your overall farm design. And there are suggestions for keeping your small farm in top production condition, methods of continually increasing the value of your farm, methods of marketing your produce and of accurately investing in improvements — virtually everything a small-scale farmer needs to know to make his venture economically sound.
Some things, of course, have changed since 1940 when M. G. Kains revised Five Acres and Independence. But the basic down-to-earth advice of one of the most prominent men in American agriculture and the methods of farming the small-scale, pre-DDT farm are still essentially the same. Much of the information in this book was built on USDA and state farm bureau reports; almost all of it was personally tested by M. G. Kains, either on his own farms or on farms of the people who trusted him as an experienced consultant. His book went through more than 30 editions in the first 10 years after its original publication. It has helped countless small farmers attain their dreams, and it continues today as an exceptional resource for those who want to make their first farming attempt.
Whether you already own a suitable place or are still looking, Five Acres and Independence will help you learn to evaluate land for both its total economic and its specific agricultural possibilities. There are methods of calculating costs of permanent improvements — draining the land, improving soil, planting wind breaks, putting in septic tanks, cellars, irrigation systems, greenhouses, etc. — and methods of carrying out those improvements. There are suggestions for specific crops — strawberries, grapes, vegetables, orchards, spring, summer, and fall crops, transplanting, timing, repairing what already exists — with methods of deciding what is best for your land and purposes and techniques for making each of them pay. There are suggestions for animals for the small-scale farmer — goats, chickens, bees — and means of working them into your overall farm design. And there are suggestions for keeping your small farm in top production condition, methods of continually increasing the value of your farm, methods of marketing your produce and of accurately investing in improvements — virtually everything a small-scale farmer needs to know to make his venture economically sound.
Some things, of course, have changed since 1940 when M. G. Kains revised Five Acres and Independence. But the basic down-to-earth advice of one of the most prominent men in American agriculture and the methods of farming the small-scale, pre-DDT farm are still essentially the same. Much of the information in this book was built on USDA and state farm bureau reports; almost all of it was personally tested by M. G. Kains, either on his own farms or on farms of the people who trusted him as an experienced consultant. His book went through more than 30 editions in the first 10 years after its original publication. It has helped countless small farmers attain their dreams, and it continues today as an exceptional resource for those who want to make their first farming attempt.
432 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1972
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
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January 24, 2020My farmer friend told me that this was a good book about farming. I don't know if it's a good book about farming because I don't farm, but it was a good book.
October 24, 2014
The title of my memoir will be Between Homestead and Home: The astonishing life of someone who quit manual labor and working the land to return to college and start working at jobs that paid sufficient money to provide food and shelter, yet never stopped thinking that growing things always made more sense and was far more rewarding in a spiritual sense if not in a material way (the astonishing part is pure marketing, although parts were pretty amazing).
So this is another re-read. I carried this book around the country with me as I went from worksite to worksite, and my copy is dogeared and battered and the corner was gnawed off by paper wasps and just looking at this book now brings back decades of mixed emotions about these two extremes of my life.
There is not an ounce of bad advice in this book, if you only have access to 1930s technology, and if you really want to achieve a depression-era standard of subsistence this book will get you there comfortably. I never really made a complete go of the Independence part of the title, but I got close enough to see that it was just possible. That's why I keep this resource around; maybe someday I will need it again.
So this is another re-read. I carried this book around the country with me as I went from worksite to worksite, and my copy is dogeared and battered and the corner was gnawed off by paper wasps and just looking at this book now brings back decades of mixed emotions about these two extremes of my life.
There is not an ounce of bad advice in this book, if you only have access to 1930s technology, and if you really want to achieve a depression-era standard of subsistence this book will get you there comfortably. I never really made a complete go of the Independence part of the title, but I got close enough to see that it was just possible. That's why I keep this resource around; maybe someday I will need it again.
August 21, 2010
There is a reason that this book is still in publication after 75 years:
It works.
MG Kains wrote the book in order to help people who were fleeing the urban centers during the Great Depression, in favor of subsistence farming.
I keep an extra copy of this book on-hand to give as a gift, and it is always well received.
It works.
MG Kains wrote the book in order to help people who were fleeing the urban centers during the Great Depression, in favor of subsistence farming.
I keep an extra copy of this book on-hand to give as a gift, and it is always well received.
September 21, 2018
I love this book. It's both a practical resource for hobby farmers and subsistence farmers.
This is another of those books that I've bought a dozen copies of because people keep making off with mine.
This is another of those books that I've bought a dozen copies of because people keep making off with mine.
March 11, 2008
Want to start a self sustaining farm, grow an orchard, make your own cistern, and pretty much be awesome all around? Read this book.
August 30, 2025
A very broad overview that covers just about everything on a small farm. There is some excellent information contained in this book. There is some that is definitely outdated. Having it on the shelf as a reference won't wasted space.
September 9, 2019
Once upon a time life was hard and still is
Once upon a time, before you were born, my father introduced me to the author. My father owned an early edition of this volume which he used in an attempt to become independent after WW II, which was once merely referred to as the war.
He and my mother bought the five acres with money my mother had scrounged and saved during his wartime absence. But, even when times were not expensive, it was not an easy startup. They first built a large garage which they lived in for a few years before family and friends helped him build a basement with a tarred roof. Of course, the outside privy was standard, but eventually a well was driven and an undependable electrical pump provided running water, so they no longer had to hand pump. In a few years, a two room addition was built on the back of the basement. My parents dreamed of a small National Home being built on the basement, but it was never to come. I went with my father to a finance company which turned him down flat and visited when he talked to the National Homes salesman.
There was no way he could be independent with a five acre small farm. He had to take a low paying job, and that was about all there were, for most of the returning men. Even my uncle who had saved his army money for his entire tour and bought two 80 acre farms side by side, which he farmed with a 1947 Ford tractor, was forced to work a full time factory job.
But, my father incorporated principles from the book, planting strawberries, raspberries, fruit trees (and you can grow old before the little saplings produce fruit), raised two hogs a year which he sugar cured, tried a calf which promptly died, rabbits (which were too cute to eat), chickens for eggs and meat, field corn to feed the hogs, sweet corn for us, watermelons, potatoes, green beans, peas, cantaloupes, etc.
Back then, other opportunities existed. We picked tomatoes, blueberries, picked up potatoes from local farmers and were paid in produce.
My mother canned produce, sewed clothing. But we still had to go to the grocery store, the doctor, buy shoes, etc.
The work, the saving was not enough and when my father died, all he left us was alone.
This is not to discourage Kains’ ideas. But, times have changed. Now, air and water pollution would require a larger fringe area, maybe twenty acres of woods to buffer the pollution, keeping a barking dog and an AR-15 handy. And, still, a nearby CAFO could poison your water and air leaving you with polluted resources and no legal grounds to stand upon.
So, maybe you better locate your hobby farm in a middle of twenty acres of woods in the middle of an Amish enclave, and hope they did not use DDT. Establishing your farm next to a modern farm would expose your family to hazardous chemicals and expedite cancer.
Other modern innovations such as solar panels require additional capital resources probably even more so than a National home. Without a real job, with health care, the hobby farmer is doomed. But, again, in event of another economic disaster, it might be a great place to hang your hat.
There is a large start up cost that could only be covered by legacy money or a good paying job, but the principles of this, now vintage, book are still an excellent hedge against the vagaries of the real world.
The book deserves a shelf spot in any public library.
Once upon a time, before you were born, my father introduced me to the author. My father owned an early edition of this volume which he used in an attempt to become independent after WW II, which was once merely referred to as the war.
He and my mother bought the five acres with money my mother had scrounged and saved during his wartime absence. But, even when times were not expensive, it was not an easy startup. They first built a large garage which they lived in for a few years before family and friends helped him build a basement with a tarred roof. Of course, the outside privy was standard, but eventually a well was driven and an undependable electrical pump provided running water, so they no longer had to hand pump. In a few years, a two room addition was built on the back of the basement. My parents dreamed of a small National Home being built on the basement, but it was never to come. I went with my father to a finance company which turned him down flat and visited when he talked to the National Homes salesman.
There was no way he could be independent with a five acre small farm. He had to take a low paying job, and that was about all there were, for most of the returning men. Even my uncle who had saved his army money for his entire tour and bought two 80 acre farms side by side, which he farmed with a 1947 Ford tractor, was forced to work a full time factory job.
But, my father incorporated principles from the book, planting strawberries, raspberries, fruit trees (and you can grow old before the little saplings produce fruit), raised two hogs a year which he sugar cured, tried a calf which promptly died, rabbits (which were too cute to eat), chickens for eggs and meat, field corn to feed the hogs, sweet corn for us, watermelons, potatoes, green beans, peas, cantaloupes, etc.
Back then, other opportunities existed. We picked tomatoes, blueberries, picked up potatoes from local farmers and were paid in produce.
My mother canned produce, sewed clothing. But we still had to go to the grocery store, the doctor, buy shoes, etc.
The work, the saving was not enough and when my father died, all he left us was alone.
This is not to discourage Kains’ ideas. But, times have changed. Now, air and water pollution would require a larger fringe area, maybe twenty acres of woods to buffer the pollution, keeping a barking dog and an AR-15 handy. And, still, a nearby CAFO could poison your water and air leaving you with polluted resources and no legal grounds to stand upon.
So, maybe you better locate your hobby farm in a middle of twenty acres of woods in the middle of an Amish enclave, and hope they did not use DDT. Establishing your farm next to a modern farm would expose your family to hazardous chemicals and expedite cancer.
Other modern innovations such as solar panels require additional capital resources probably even more so than a National home. Without a real job, with health care, the hobby farmer is doomed. But, again, in event of another economic disaster, it might be a great place to hang your hat.
There is a large start up cost that could only be covered by legacy money or a good paying job, but the principles of this, now vintage, book are still an excellent hedge against the vagaries of the real world.
The book deserves a shelf spot in any public library.
January 1, 2012
Encyclopedic resource for homesteaders. Extremely broad and dense, even after the dated part of the information subtracted. The detailed results, such as numerous tables with firm data just about everything, put many other books about homesteading in shame.
February 10, 2008
Excellent advice on choosing and running a farm for small-scale production.
March 10, 2012
One of the first book I bought when I was thinking of buying a range and moving to Montana. Even with the age of the material they are still useful, I guess inforamtion like this is timelss.
August 24, 2012
Another great classic... figures are obviously dated but the overall info is still very useful
February 3, 2018
Good common sense book on farming & self-sufficiency. Technology is dated, economics are dated, some of the advice is dated but still full of sound advice and worth a read if you are thinking of leaving the rat-race of the city for the bucolic country life (Green Acres!)
April 11, 2020
Recommended to me by a rather intense homesteader. Certainly comprehensive; very intimidating.
March 2, 2021
I’ve dog-eared a number of pages to go back and reference later — this book is meaty, covers a wide range of topics, and provides illustrations for the more complex DIY projects.
Want to read
January 23, 2024Provides practical information on selecting productive acreage, stocking the tool shed, and raising, storing, and marketing a variety of fruit and vegetable crops
July 6, 2025
A practical book fueling my early fantasies of a simple life.
January 22, 2020
I read this book and still have no idea what I am doing with a handful of acres.
January 8, 2009
Written in 1935 and revised in 1940, Kains develops a plan for running a small (let's say, 5 acres or so) farm for a profit. For the prospective homesteader, this is interesting reading, but hardly essential.
The main problem with the book is, of course, that it's dated. There are better books out there to direct the reader toward similar goals that are more up-to-date in terms of the information presented. The dollar figures, of course, are virtually meaningless to the modern reader. The equipment discussed centers are largely antiques now; for that matter, electricity is discussed as a relatively new option for the farmer. It's interest is largely historical, unless one is looking for a conscious reversion toward simpler technologies for one reason or another.
I do not, however, want to discount the value of the information contained here--the basic vision of the book has merit on its own, and many of the techniques are timeless, but it can be difficult for the reader without much prior knowledge of the subject to sort these matters out (and, of course, if you have that background, how much do you really need the book?).
The main problem with the book is, of course, that it's dated. There are better books out there to direct the reader toward similar goals that are more up-to-date in terms of the information presented. The dollar figures, of course, are virtually meaningless to the modern reader. The equipment discussed centers are largely antiques now; for that matter, electricity is discussed as a relatively new option for the farmer. It's interest is largely historical, unless one is looking for a conscious reversion toward simpler technologies for one reason or another.
I do not, however, want to discount the value of the information contained here--the basic vision of the book has merit on its own, and many of the techniques are timeless, but it can be difficult for the reader without much prior knowledge of the subject to sort these matters out (and, of course, if you have that background, how much do you really need the book?).
February 15, 2016
A very strange book to read in 2012 where all the rage is organic veggies, backyard chickens, homemade bread and getting away from the industrialized food system. Originally written in 1935 this book offers a curious combination of 'old' methods and 'new' (conventional) methods. When they say 5-acres and independence they don't mean relative self-sufficiency in food and a happy homestead, they mean making a living farming one or a few crops and selling the products at a profit (financial independence I suppose.) And compared to recently published urban farming books it's disorienting to see chapters on root cellar storage right next to chapters on spraying and dusting insecticides and herbicides, to see the livestock chapter say "chickens are fine, but no sheep and absolutely no cows." An interesting look at a much older way of farming, and there are good nuggets of information in there, but they are ones you have to dig for. Also difficult to read in terms of layout (text with line drawings, but layout is VERY simple.)
December 31, 2012
I bought at a yard sale. It was a hard back ,& published 1930s.
Had a hard time the baby goat tried to eat the pages out of my hands.
I'm already growing a vegetable garden, planted apple, cherry ,almonds & peach trees. also Christmas trees. Also already have alpine goats, chickens. A lot of information ,i can use. I'm starting to dig a small lake for fish, but mainly for me to swim. We already have the kids old swing set, basketball, horseshoe pit. Starting to build a archery targets.
Doing pretty good for a city girl. lol
Had a hard time the baby goat tried to eat the pages out of my hands.
I'm already growing a vegetable garden, planted apple, cherry ,almonds & peach trees. also Christmas trees. Also already have alpine goats, chickens. A lot of information ,i can use. I'm starting to dig a small lake for fish, but mainly for me to swim. We already have the kids old swing set, basketball, horseshoe pit. Starting to build a archery targets.
Doing pretty good for a city girl. lol
August 15, 2012
Great in some areas, out of date or vague in others. Same goes for the figures/drawings. Good read if you happen upon it, not essential.
It encouraged me to further consider the smaller details of starting a farm, providing some good general advice in the areas of finding and buying the right land, choosing what to grow and when, finding a market, etc.
It encouraged me to further consider the smaller details of starting a farm, providing some good general advice in the areas of finding and buying the right land, choosing what to grow and when, finding a market, etc.
June 21, 2012
A realistic wake-up call to would-be managers of micro-ag. While many of the specifics of the book are out of date (understandably), the concepts of managing expectations in agribusiness are timeless.
February 20, 2010
I have not read the whole book from front to back, but it is interesting with some good info for somone who wants to establish a small, self sufficient farm according to 1940's technological standards and methods. Which means some of the information is obselete...
September 3, 2016
This book was originally written in 1935. It is simply awesome. While it is trying to set up financial independence, it succeeds for me as a book of "How to." From how to plant fruit trees to the care of animals it has a great deal of practical information.
January 26, 2008
After I read this I bought my first farm
April 12, 2008
Crazy (the bad kind) advice, little original creative output, and and an enjoyable read.
November 10, 2010
Meh.
It's okay.
It's okay.
October 3, 2012
A guide on how to be self-sufficient on just a few acres of land. A good promo for someone interested in a semi-rural lifestyle.
May 24, 2012
Notes:
I thought this was an off-the-grid book
actually about farming
lots of technical reading
good info but not a book I need
I thought this was an off-the-grid book
actually about farming
lots of technical reading
good info but not a book I need
October 9, 2012
It was an interesting read, but I disagreed with the author on a lot of principles and practises.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews