Last Person Rural

Essays discuss rural life, county fairs, stone walls, acid rain, mulching, barns, ponds, pollution, and progress

Deft essayist Perrin is a Vermont organic farmer, a mulcher, a dowser and a Dartmouth professor. In this fourth collection in a series that began with First Personal Rural , he writes engagingly about such practicalities of farming as felling trees, buying equipment and maintaining a farm pond. Extolling the nonutilitarian pleasures of watching turkeys at dawn or of building stone walls, he also analyzes New England's soul as "fiercely determined" and "fiercely protective." That spirit is evinced in the author as he discusses the peril of acid rain, journeys from Kansas to Massachusetts and taps the moral reserves required of a small farmer in an age of mechanized agribusiness. Perrin proposes a hefty "pay-to-pollute" tax on toxic pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers, a move that he says would create more space for healthy farming. Illustrations.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

One of the authors currently reviving the essay is New England teacher, writer, and part-time farmer Noel Perrin. In this new collection ( Third Person Rural, LJ 8/83, was supposed to end the series), Perrin offers his appealing mix of practical advice, humor, interesting facts, poetic observations, and alarming reports. He explains, for example, how he has saved his farm legally from development. He describes the silvery beauty of winter mornings. He laughs at his own attempts at gardening as "mulcho man." Only a few of the essays seem a little contrived. Although there is much here of interest to farmers, gardeners, and New Englanders, the book will appeal to a broad readership--to anyone interested in American life and character, ecology, the country or idea of it, or just good reading. Educational, funny, frightening, and recommended.
- Nancy Shires, East Carolina Univ., Greenville, N.C.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.