Baby chicks—can anything be more adorable? So cute, so soft, so helpless! Give your baby chicks a great start by reading the only book devoted to them, Success With Baby Chicks. 
Robert Plamondon had to read over a hundred poultry books to discover the sure-fire techniques in Success With Baby Chicks, and he tested them on his farm to find the ones that will work best for you. These techniques were used on millions of family farms in the golden age before factory farming, and were then forgotten—until now! Learn how to choose a good hatchery and a good breed, what kind of heat source to use, how to prepare the brooder area for your baby chicks, what to feed them, and how to avoid common mistakes. All of this is explained so clearly and completely in one slim volume that it has received praise from children, hobbyists, farmers, and poultry scientists alike. 
Whether you brood five chicks or five thousand, this is the book for you, because its practical methods work with flocks of any size. And it will save you money. Learn how to build an insulated brooder in two hours for $20, keeping your chicks warmer and more comfortable than with overhead heat lamps, and saving two-thirds of the electricity into the bargain! 
Robert Plamondon is a writer/farmer/engineer who has been awarded 17 U.S. patents and raises free-range chickens on his farm in Oregon.

Success With Baby Chicks: A Complete Guide to Hatchery Selection, Mail-Order Chicks, Day-Old Chick Care, Brooding, Brooder Plans, Feeding, and Housing

Business & Money

Robert Plamondon

Industries

Norton Creek Press

THE DOLLAR HEN is America's classic handbook on free-range egg production. First published in 1909, it walks the reader through valuable concepts available in no other source. With an emphasis on simplicity, practicality, and synergy between hens, crops, soil, and farmer, the book is a timeless guide to poultry farming as it ought to be practiced.

The Dollar Hen: The Classic Guide to American Free-Range Egg Farming

Hastings, Milo M.

FEEDING POULTRY is required reading for anyone interested in giving their flocks a better diet. First published in 1955, this book is modern enough that no important point is overlooked, yet old enough that free range, green feed, home-grown grains, and small flocks are given due attention. Written by pioneering poultry scientist G. F. Heuser of Cornell University, the book is aimed at practical poultrymen in addition to poultry scientists, and this makes it more accessible than more recent works. This book is part of the Norton Creek Classics series; books from our past with an important role to play in our future.

Feeding Poultry: The Classic Guide to Poultry Nutrition for Chickens, Turkeys, Ducks, Geese, Gamebirds, and Pigeons

Heuser, G F

Genetics of the Fowl is still the most useful work on poultry genetics. Just the last chapter, "Genetics in Practice," provides the best introduction to successful poultry breeding ever written, covering the difference between breeding for dominant vs. recessive characteristics, individual selection vs. progeny testing, inbreeding vs. crossing, and much more. 
F. B. Hutt was sympathetic to the needs of practical farmers, show breeders, and researchers, so this book is far more than a compendium of genes, and yet this aspect is covered in loving detail. Chapters include the genetics of plumage, egg production, body type, disease resistance, and much more, with many illustrations and examples of how the genes work in practice. 
Other works have come and gone since Genetics of the Fowl's first publication in 1949 (most notably R. D. Crawford's 1990 Poultry Breeding and Genetics, now out of print, for which Hutt himself wrote the preface at the age of 91), but Genetics of the Fowl is still the first book everyone should read on poultry genetics. New information has come to light since its publication, but it builds upon the solid foundation laid down by Hutt. 
This Norton Creek Press book is an exact reproduction of the original edition.

Genetics of the Fowl: The Classic Guide to Chicken Genetics and Poultry Breeding

Hutt, F B

Cookbooks, Food & Wine

As World War II was ending, Alfred Leatherbarrow, a wounded Canadian veteran, and his nurse, Margaret, fell in love. They married, bought their dream farm—and discovered that their crops would not grow. The farm’s soil had been exhausted through years of destructive tillage practices. 
Faced with certain defeat, they used innovative farming techniques—including a prototype forage harvester to gather grass for silage—to restore the fertility of their farm. 
This early experiment in sustainable agriculture not only saved the farm in a rags-to-riches turnaround, but showed other farmers in their region how to pull out of the death spiral of decreasing fertility, yields, and income. 
Gold in the Grass is a love story, a back-to-the-land adventure, and an inspirational example of how conservation tillage can restore the fertility of a used-up farm. This is a great book, and has spent far too many of its sixty years out of print. 
Gold in the Grass is Volume 3 of Norton Creek Press' Back-to-the-Land Adventure series. It's an example of the Norton Creek Press motto: “Most of the best books are out of print and forgotten, but we can fix that!" 
Check out our offerings on http://www.nortoncreekpress.com.

Gold in the Grass: Rags to Riches Through Soil Reclamation and Sustainable Farming

Biographies & Memoirs

Margaret L Leatherbarrow

Arts & Literature

Fresh Air or Bust! To stay healthy, your chickens need plenty of ventilation—probably more than they’re getting today.
This was discovered over 100 years ago, but has been largely forgotten. Today’s small-flock housing tends to be dank, dark, and smelly. Chickens, like miners’ canaries, are easily harmed by poor air quality. Wet litter breeds disease. Darkness forces chickens, like parrots, to be artificially inactive. “Dank, dark, and smelly” is a deadly combination! Closed chicken houses are so harmful that knocking out a wall can cause an immediate improvement, even in winter. Chickens, after all, have a thick coat of feathers to keep them warm, but are vulnerable to poor air quality and pathogens in the litter; and their unwillingness to eat in the dark means they can starve in the midst of plenty. 
Fresh-Air Poultry Houses was written by Dr. Prince T. Woods, a noted poultry health expert. Dr. Woods describes not only his own poultry houses, but those of many of his clients, giving the book a breadth of experience that makes it a unique resource. 
This 1924 book is old-fashioned and a little eccentric, but in a good way.
Fresh-Air Poultry Houses is a good example of the Norton Creek Press motto: “Most of the best books are out of print and forgotten, but we can fix that!” 
See our Web site at http://www.nortoncreekpress.com

Fresh-Air Poultry Houses: The Classic Guide to Open-Front Chicken Coops for Healthier Poultry

Prince T. Woods

Through Dungeons Deep: A Fantasy Gamers' Handbook

Through Dungeons Deep delves into the art of role-playing, showing players and Game Masters how to have more fun and excitement with fantasy role-playing games. First published more than 25 years ago, this book was an instant classic, and is now part of the old-school revival. Long out of print, the original edition sells for several times its cover price. This Norton Creek Press reprint makes the book available (and affordable) again. Robert Plamondon wrote Through Dungeons Deep after realizing that the most important part of role-playing games—role playing—is barely mentioned in gaming systems. When it is, role-playing is often confused with "following the rules." But role-playing really boils down to make-believe—or perhaps "interactive fiction" is the right term—and the real fun in role-playing games comes from unlocking your imagination. But it's also important to carry a length of rope and wear shoes you can run in. This Norton Creek Press book is an exact replica of the original edition. Visit http://www.nortoncreekpress.com for more of our classic reprints.

Computers & Technology

Plamondon, Robert

Games & Strategy Guides

Ten years after Henry David Thoreau learned how to be a poor farmer, Edmund Morris learned how to be a good one. Ten Acres Enough is the personal story of how Morris quit the publishing business and achieved happiness and prosperity by farming ten acres of fruits and berries. Rather than glorifying poverty and isolation, Ten Acres Enough shows farming as the path to financial security, while still providing all the benefits of country life—provided that the farmer understands that the key lies in producing crops of the highest possible quality, while living within striking distance of a major market. Ten Acres Enough has left its mark on generations of back-to-the-land farmers. Its influence on both the title and the contents of M. G. Kains' classic Five Acres and Independence (1935) is obvious. And it is benefiting readers today, whether as a piece of Americana or as a source of small-farm ideas and inspiration. Though 150 years old, Ten Acres Enough remains a fascinating book. However, the passage of time is making the original edition increasingly inaccessible due to its archaic vocabulary and style. This "Revived Edition" has been copy-edited to restore its clarity. This book is Volume 1 of Norton Creek Press' Back-to-the-Land Adventure series.

Ten Acres Enough: Small-Farm Self-Sufficiency Through High-Quality Produce. A Back-to-the-Land Adventure from 1864

Morris, Edmund

Best known for his classic handbook, Five Acres and Independence, M. G. Kains contributed a second gem to back-to-the-land literature: his true-life adventures in We Wanted a Farm. Kains shows how he and his family moved from New York City apartments to a full-fledged farm in easy stages: first to a rented suburban house where they grew a large vegetable garden, then in a purchased suburban house where they concentrated on fruits and berries, and finally on a full-blown farm where they went into fruits and berries in a big way. 
Kains’ “Don’t quit your day job” approach allowed them to gain experience without betting the farm: not until they were ready. 
First published in 1941, Norton Creek Press is proud to bring this charming book back into print.

We Wanted a Farm: A Back-to-the-Land Adventure from the Author of Five Acres and Independence (Back-to-the-Land Adventures)

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

M. G. Kains

Gardening & Landscape Design

"Tom Slade, Boy Scout" is the first volume of the Bridgeboro Series, a forgotten gem of American fiction. Written in 1915 when the Boy Scout movement was new, the book glows with the freshness of the movement and the optimism of an age when everything seemed possible. 
Young Tom Slade is a latter-day Huck Finn, always in trouble. Everyone expects him to grow up to be as worthless as his father. Connover Bennett is a latter-day Little Lord Fauntleroy, whose sheltered upbringing leaves him without skills or sense. What will it take to make something out of this unpromising material? A miracle not being available, the task falls to the Bridgeboro Scouts. 
Percy Keese Fitzhugh wrote dozens of Bridgeboro Scouts novels, including nineteen Tom Slade books. The main characters are based on real people, giving the books an authenticity unusual in juvenile fiction (or any fiction). The self-reliant boys are reminiscent of the heroes in Robert A. Heinlein's early fiction (not surprising because both authors' work was serialized in "Boys Life").

Tom Slade, Boy Scout: Adventures of the Bridgeboro Scouts

Literature & Fiction

Fitzhugh, Percey Keese

Black, Karen L

Literary

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