If a farming family from a hundred years ago were to visit a modern farm, there would be plenty to amaze them. Cows in a milking parlour, huge bales of silage coming off a machine already wrapped in plastic, feed for animals being delivered in eight-wheeled lorries. And yet, many farming tasks would still be familiar, beacause the year's pattern remains unchanged. Most farming families will still be keeping and caring for animals, they will be planting and harvesting crops, they will be watching the weather, and they will be selling what the farm produces. Christ Stephens has selected a wide range of farming traditions and customs that stand out on the farming calendar. For generations, farming communities have been expert at so many skills: dairying and droving, ploughing and poultry-feathering, sowing and shearing. Many of the traditions described are within living memory and will give readers of every age a fascinating slice of social history.
