THE FARM BOOK

Intended as a guide to small farms, past and present, this has the look of a 1950s textbook and the droning sound of an educational film. The contents--what might be found on a farm--proceed in no apparent order: Honeybees are followed by Patterns of Tillage, Maize or Corn, and Manure Pile; Soybeans precede Origins of Domestic Animals; and subjects related to them appear elsewhere, almost at random. Each is accorded a two-page spread with an arrangement of color, white space, and print that is often unattractive, and the text assumes familiarity with concepts like erosion, crop yield, and animal domestication. A joint effort arising from the Massachusetts Audubon Society's educational farm, quite limited in usefulness and appeal.