‘This book soars… Parikian is a nature writer at the top of his game.’ Steve Brusatte, author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs ‘I didn't want this flight to end.’ Jon Dunn, author of The Glitter in the Green ‘Magical and uplifting’ Ann Pettifor, author of The Case for the New Green Deal ___ This is the miracle of flight as you’ve never seen it before: the evolutionary story of life on the wing. A bird flits overhead. It’s an everyday occurrence, repeated hundreds, thousands, millions of times daily by creatures across the world. It’s something so normal, so entirely taken for granted, that sometimes we forget how extraordinary it is. But take that in for a moment. This animal flies. It. Flies. The miracle of flight has evolved in hugely diverse ways, with countless variations of flapping and gliding, hovering and diving, murmurating and migrating. Conjuring lost worlds, ancient species and ever-shifting ecologies, this exhilarating new book is a mesmerising encounter with fourteen flying species: from the first fluttering insect of 300 million years ago to the crested pterosaurs of the Mesozoic Era, from hummingbirds that co-evolved with rainforest flowers to the wonders of dragonfly, albatross, pipistrelle and monarch butterfly with which we share the planet today. Taking Flight is a mind-expanding feat of the imagination, a close encounter with flight in its myriad forms, urging us to look up and drink in the spectacle of these gravity-defying marvels that continue to shape life on Earth. ___ Praise for Lev Parikian – author of the Wainwright Prize-longlisted Into the Tangled Bank and Light Rains Sometimes Fall: ‘Funny, accessible and full of wonders’ Melissa Harrison ‘Humour, attention to detail and beautifully written prose.’ Stephen Moss

The Papillon - A Complete Anthology of the Dog gathers together all the best early writing on the breed from our library of scarce, out-of-print antiquarian books and documents and reprints it in a quality, modern edition. This anthology includes chapters taken from a comprehensive range of books, many of them now rare and much sought-after works, all of them written by renowned breed experts of their day. These books are treasure troves of information about the breed - The physical points, temperaments, and special abilities are given; celebrated dogs are discussed and pictured; and the history of the breed and pedigrees of famous champions are also provided. The contents were well illustrated with numerous photographs of leading and famous dogs of that era and these are all reproduced to the highest quality. Books used include: Dogs And How To Know Them by Edward C. Ash (1925), Dogs Of The World by Arthur Craven (1931), The Book Of Dogs by Stanley West (1935) and many others.

We live in an increasingly urbanised world, but there are still many magnificent stretches of wilderness unaltered by humankind. From the most remote mountains and valleys in Alaska to the southern tip of Chile and Argentina, from Europe’s primeval forest on the Polish-Belarusian border to Norway’s fjords, and from the Namib Desert to Kamchatka in far-eastern Russia to canyons in Kurdistan and rainforests in Cambodia, The Wild celebrates the beauty of uncultivated landscapes all around the globe. Arranged by continent, the book roams across landscapes and climates, from Antarctica’s dry valleys to African burning deserts, from European marshlands to Arabian rugged peaks and on to Tanzania’s craters, Indonesia’s volcanoes and New Zealand’s bubbling mud pools. Each entry is supported with fascinating captions explaining the geology, geography, flora and fauna. In doing so, the book reveals some of the world’s most naturally bizarre places. Illustrated with more than 200 colour photographs, The Wild leads the reader to the planet’s least cultivated places, from jungles to tundras. Take a step into the wild.

This early work is an absorbing read for any chinchilla owner or historian of the breed, but also contains a wealth of information and anecdote that is still useful and practical today. Contents Include: Introduction; Observations Relative to disease in Chinchillas; Handling and Administering Drugs; How to Submit Specimens to a Diagnostic Laboratory for Examination; Respiratory Conditions Affecting Chinchillas; Nutrition and Its Relation to Disease; Facts to Consider When Feeding; Disease Conditions Affecting the Mouth, Teeth and Esophacus, Diseases Affecting the Gastro-Intestinal Tract; Bacterial Infections; Factors Affecting Reproduction; The Chinchilla Baby; Fur Conditions; Metabolic Disease Conditions; Eye Conditions; Ear Conditions; Liver Conditions; Kidney Conditions; Poisoning Conditions; and Parasitic Conditions. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Originally published in Edinburgh 1892. One of the most important books dealing with the noble breed of Scottish Deerhound. The illustrated contents include detailed chapters on: The Supposed Origin of Dogs From Various Past and Present Day Authorities - Various Theories Respecting the Original Scottish Deerhound - The Modern Deerhound - Deerhounds in Connection with Deerstalking - Plates and Descriptions of Celebrated Deerhounds - Proposed Deerhound Club - Appendix etc. Many of the earliest dog books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Home Farm Books are republishing many of these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

"Whether she's writing about the staccato of a hairy woodpecker echoing through the woods, tapping sweet sap from a cluster of maples during a spring sugaring ritual or mourning the loss of her ox, Tolstoy, Joan Donaldson's sensuous prose shimmers and surprises. Her collection of essays, Wedded to the Land, peels back the skin of her blueberry farm with the precision and eloquence of a Wendell Berry, Edward Abbey, and other agrarian essayists who make us pine for the lost heart of the country." --George Getschow, writer-in-residence, The Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism, former editor for the Wall Street Journal John thought he was building a garage when he erected a timber-frame building only a stone's throw from the house we built on the back of our farm. While washing the dishes, I mulled over how pleasant it would be to look out our kitchen window and watch goats lounge in a paddock. If goats lived in the new shed, the walk wouldn't be far when milking in the winter or during kidding season. Once outside, I scanned the sixteen-by-twenty-foot framework. "You know, a couple of goats would fit nicely in here. There's room for two stalls." John's hammer paused. I continued. "The aspens and honeysuckle on the north would shelter an outdoor pen." I tied on a nail apron and picked up a hammer.

This early guide to incubation and brooding is a fascinating read for any poultry keeper or historian of the breed. Thoroughly recommended for inclusion on the bookshelf of any smallholder or hen keeping enthusiast it contains much information and anecdote that is still useful and practical today. Ten photographs accompany the text. Contents Include: Replacing the Flock; Incubation - Time to hatch, Sanitation in incubation, Selecting hatching eggs, Hatching with hens, Hatching with incubators, Increasing demand for day-old chicks; Brooding - Sanitation in brooding, Brooding chickens with hens, Artificial brooding, Brooder houses, Brooding chicks in confinement, Battery brooding, Necessary precautions, Probable causes of poor results in brooding; Care of chickens after the brooding season. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

This early work is a fascinating read for any goat enthusiast or historian of the breed, but also contains much information that is still useful and practical for the amateur or professional goat farmer today. Extensively illustrated with text and full page photographs and diagrams. Contents Include: Preface; There's Milk in Your Backyard; What Breed to Buy?; How to Buy a Good Doe; The Goat's Quarters; Feeding for More Milk; Grooming the Goat; Milking and Care of Milk and Equipment; Breeding-Good and Bad; The Buck; Kidding; Feeding the Kids; Removing Horns; Chevon; Keeping Goats Healthy; Goat Milk and Cream; Making Butter at Home; Making Cheese from Goat Milk; What to do with Manure; Goats as a Business; and an Index. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Bob Mander was born in 1939. He considered himself fortunate to be educated at Birkenhead School and afterwards at Southampton University where he studied for a B.A. Honours degree in Geography with ancillary History. His main interest was in geomorphology, the structure and formation of the landscape features of the earth. After an education course, he took up a career in teaching, during which he undertook a further education course and one in geology. He spent his whole teaching career with Liverpool Education Authority before taking early retirement in 1996.
In retirement he took a more spiritual approach to life encouraged by his wife, Avis, and others. This led on to a consideration of the effect that the landscape of Britain had on the lives of our ancient peoples and vice versa. This in turn led on to a study of our sacred landscape and the religious experiences of Neolithic and Bronze Age man in Britain.
This book is not a treatment of the archaeology of the British Isles but rather an attempt to draw together the disparate strands of what goes into the making of the sacred landscape and what went into the makeup of the religion of our early ancestors.

The Otterhound - A Complete Anthology of the Dog gathers together all the best early writing on the breed from our library of scarce, out-of-print antiquarian books and documents and reprints it in a quality, modern edition. This anthology includes chapters taken from a comprehensive range of books, many of them now rare and much sought-after works, all of them written by renowned breed experts of their day. These books are treasure troves of information about the breed - The physical points, temperaments, and special abilities are given; celebrated dogs are discussed and pictured; and the history of the breed and pedigrees of famous champions are also provided. The contents were well illustrated with numerous photographs of leading and famous dogs of that era and these are all reproduced to the highest quality. Books used include: The Illustrated Book Of The Dog by Vero Shaw (1879), The New Book Of The Dog by Robert Leighton (1907), About Our Dogs by A. Croxton Smith (1931) and many others.

Before the drought of the early twenty-first century, the dry benchmark in the American plains was the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. But in this eye-opening work, Kevin Z. Sweeney reveals that the Dust Bowl was only one cycle in a series of droughts on the U.S. southern plains. Reinterpreting our nation's nineteenth-century history through paleoclimatological data and firsthand accounts of four dry periods in the 1800s, Prelude to the Dust Bowl demonstrates the dramatic and little-known role drought played in settlement, migration, and war on the plains. Stephen H. Long's famed military expedition coincided with the drought of the 1820s, which prompted Long to label the southern plains a ""Great American Desert"" - a destination many Anglo-Americans thought ideal for removing Southeastern Indian tribes to in the 1830s. The second dry trend, from 1854 to 1865, drove bison herds northeastward, fomenting tribal warfare, and deprived Civil War armies in Indian Territory of vital commissary. In the late 1880s and mid-1890s, two more periods of drought triggered massive outmigration from the southern plains as well as appeals from farmers and congressmen for federal famine relief, pleas quickly denied by President Grover Cleveland. Sweeney's interpretation of familiar events through the lens of drought lays the groundwork for understanding why the U.S. government's reaction to the Dust Bowl of the 1930s was such a radical departure from previous federal responses. Prelude to the Dust Bowl provides new insights into pivotal moments in the settlement of the southern plains and stands as a timely reminder that drought, as part of a natural climatic cycle, will continue to figure in the unfolding history of this region.

"As our knowledge of the passive response to fear in animals deepens, a clearer understanding of the human fear response will emerge. But there is more to science than facts and discoveries and breakthroughs. Scientific research has its own compensation. Doing the work of science is rewarding. Working outside with camera and binoculars while becoming one with nature is awe-inspiring. Discovering the secrets of how animals live and what they do and why they do it is the most satisfying thing I have ever accomplished. Animals do interesting things. Our respect for animals and all of nature increases as we try to fathom the complexities of even commonplace creatures. One of the most exciting aspects of scientific adventure is not knowing where it will lead. My curiosity about how alligators stayed warm started me on a journey of wonderment to how hiding animals respond to fear. And that journey lead to the crib of a baby at risk for an insidious killer. It is impossible to anticipate where future research into the passive fear response will lead. One fact is abundantly clear; it will be an exciting voyage into the unknown."

The Old English Sheepdog - A Complete Anthology of the Dog gathers together all the best early writing on the breed from our library of scarce, out-of-print antiquarian books and documents and reprints it in a quality, modern edition. This anthology includes chapters taken from a comprehensive range of books, many of them now rare and much sought-after works, all of them written by renowned breed experts of their day. These books are treasure troves of information about the breed - The physical points, temperaments, and special abilities are given; celebrated dogs are discussed and pictured; and the history of the breed and pedigrees of famous champions are also provided. The contents were well illustrated with numerous photographs of leading and famous dogs of that era and these are all reproduced to the highest quality. Books used include: My Dog And I by H. W. Huntington (1897), Dogs Of The World by Arthur Craven (1931), The Book Of Dogs by Stanley West (1935) and many others.