Book Description
A Dyer's Garden touches on the history and nature of dye plants and walks you through a garden season from design to planting to harvesting for the dyepot.
Customer Reviews:
Great for anyone new to dyeing!.......2007-07-03
This was my first introduction to the world of dyeing with plants. The photography is terrific and gives you a good idea of what you'll get from each plant. Mordants are discussed, and the plants that are included are covered thoroughly for both cultivation and dye recipes. My only regret? That I can't find the seeds for the Japanese Indigo! I recommended this book to several people when we attended our local fiber festival.
Beautiful, well-organized guide to dye plants.......2007-04-10
This book focuses mainly on the home growing and use of dye plants. There is even a section devoted to the layout of the home dye garden. General mordanting and dye bath info is given at the beginning of the book. In the "Portfolio of Dye Plants" which follows, two pages are devoted to each dye plant. For each plant, 4-10 color photos illustrate the results obtained with various mordants on different fibers. The instructions for using different plants are not in traditional recipe form. Instead, Buchanan indicates how much plant material is generally required for a given amount of fiber ("flowers from 8 plants," etc). This fits in with Buchanan's emphasis on diversity of color over reproducibility, but it could be troublesome for users of purchased dyestuffs. In short, this book is nice to look at, easy to use, and appears to contain highly useful information for dyer/gardeners.
gave as a gift.......2006-03-14
the recipient was very happy, & is busy putting in beds of plants to do home dyeing of medieval faire clothing.
Woad-you like to grow your own dye plants? Read on.......2006-01-02
For those doing creative re-enactment (SCA, Renn faires), this is an essential reference for growing and using natural dye plants. The book includes plants to grow, plants NOT to grow (invasive species), and plants that pay off with dye materials in one season. The margins of the book are organized by color family, and there are lovely schematics on how to organize a dye-plant garden for production or for high-intensity cultivation with raised rows--or just a pretty border. There are some basics of plant dyeing, information on mordants (salts that change color or cause it to stick to fiber.) A small but potent book, probably a must for anyone doing authentic reproduction of antique fibers or for anyone who likes the idea of home-dyed fiber but with naturally-obtained materials. Great for home schooling. Highly recommended.
Great for re-enactors.......1999-10-27
I particularly recommend this book as a visual source for historical re-enactors.
Too often there are descriptions of what dye-plants were used to color garments, but, no examples of what those colors would look like. This book provides clear, vivid color photos on a whole range of dye-plants grown during pre-medieval, medieval, Colonial, and later times. Additionally, it shows the same dye used on different fibers, sometimes with different mordants (fixers). Fiber samples include linen, wool, silk, and cotton.
I recommend this book to people interested in making clothing from "modern" material...it gives them the best opprotunity possible to try to find close color-matches. Alternately, it provides solid information to dye cloth by hand.
Also, the low price can't be beat!
Book Description
A rich, colorful history of California centering on the untold story of America 's biggest farmer, J.G. Boswell, who controls more than $1 billion worth of water rights and real estate in the heart of the state.
J.G. Boswell is the biggest farmer in America. Over the past fifty years he has built a secret empire while thumbing his nose at nature, politicians, labor unions and every journalist who ever tried to lift the veil on the ultimate "factory in the fields." Now eighty years old, with an almost pathological bent toward privacy, Boswell has spent the past few years confiding one of the great stories of the American West to Mark Arax and Rick Wartzman. The King of California is the previously untold account of how a Georgia slave-owning family migrated to California in the early 1920s, drained one of America 's biggest lakes in an act of incredible hubris and carved out the richest cotton empire in the world. Indeed, the sophistication of Boswell 's agricultural operation--from lab to field to gin--is unrivaled anywhere.
Much more than a business story, this is a sweeping social history that details the saga of cotton growers who were chased from the South by the boll weevil and brought their black farmhands to California. It is a gripping read with cameos by a cast of famous characters, from Cecil B. DeMille to Cesar Chavez.
Customer Reviews:
The king of California.......2006-11-04
This book is way too long and somewhat redundant and boring. The basic story is good, but the author takes too much time and too many pages to tell it.
History, Biography and Expose?.......2006-06-23
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in politics, agriculture, or water rights. It is a well-written and very readable.
It follows four generations of the Boswell family to trace how they assembled the largest industrial farm in the world. Along the way, the authors explore the history of the San Joaquin valley and those who came there to farm it, those who left and those who got left behind. For every group that made a fortune, there were many others who were disappointed. There are plenty of interesting stories of Washington and Sacramento politics, and stories of common people following dreams.
The book examines the effect of large scale farming on farm owners, on those who work the farms now and those who worked them in the past. It provides some good background on the politics of water rights and government involvement in farming, and on the involvement of agriculture in local, state and federal politics.
If you are interested in the politics and history of water in the western states, Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner is one of the best books I have read on any subject.
Overstuffed but Worth Reading.......2005-11-26
I grew up in Fresno, in the shadow of agribusiness. The story behind "King of California" is a fascinating and important one but I'm not sure this "biography" does it justice. I disliked the awkward mixture of history and journalism. Is this an expose, a biography or history? Its never really clear and the way the book is organized, around the four seasons, is particularly opaque. What does it mean to call a section, "winter?" when it is covering history spanning decades and contains interviews with living people? That said, the material is fascinating. From the role the Boswell's played in taming Tulare Lake, to the development of modern cotton farming, the politics of agriculture and the way big business in general got access and results in subsidies and favorable policy. Early on, Tulare Lake and by extension, the San Joaquin Valley in its pre-U.S. days is described with a vividness I've rarely read elsewhere. However, the description of the Boswell's roots in racism and its legacy in the Central Valley is definitely worth telling but I think it gets too little space here and competes with so many other subjects. Frankly, I'm surprised that this book has gotten the acclaim that it has. While its clearly well researched, the writing is spotty lucid in some places and sensationalized elsewhere. I think the book tries to cover far too many topics; Water politics, cotton farming, racism in California, family history, corporate intrigue, labor issues, flood control and company towns. Had it narrowed it focus to just water, cotton and corporate intrigue, I think it would have been a far more powerful book.
Surfaced and Harpooned.......2005-04-26
This far-reaching book is quite an accomplishment in biography and investigative journalism. Arax and Wartzman cover the history of the immense Boswell farming company of California, and the two guys named J.G. (the founding uncle and the current chairman, his nephew) who built the company into the largest cotton operation on Earth. Through cutthroat competitive instincts and political wheeling-and-dealing, the Boswells amassed tens of thousands of acres in California's Central Valley, and were instrumental in eliminating what was once the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi, as the former Tulare Lake was transformed into a festering network of levees, canals, and cesspools dedicated to the mass production of cotton. Thus, the Boswells built the area's environment, culture, and economics for their own profitability.
The book also serves as a great exploration of the business of factory farming, detailing the racism and poverty experienced by Black and Mexican workers, as well as the shifty agricultural and hydrological politics of Big Ag in California - as the Boswells and their competitors/allies buy politicians, stack laws and regulations in their favor, and claim flood control as a reason to alter the natural course of rivers and to completely drain the vast Tulare Lake. Best of all, we see how big business really works out West, with the hypocrisy of so-called rugged outdoorsmen (actually pampered CEO's) who incessantly rail against government interference while also taking in millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies that are meant to help the little guy. This book is immensely informative but does often get tied up in unnecessary details, such as descriptions of petty political shenanigans in the construction of a nearby dam. But the motto of the Boswell clan has been that a whale can't be harpooned if it doesn't come to the surface (a legacy of silence and obfuscation), but Arax and Wartzman have deftly cracked into the wall of secrecy surrounding the Boswells and their often ill-gotten empire, [~doomsdayer520~]
Tremendous historical, political, and social epic.......2004-11-09
The book centers around three generations of Boswells as they migrated from Green County Georgia to Kings County California and became the largest producers of cotton in the world, without becoming a household name.
The book also tells of the natural, social, and political histories of the San Joaquin Valley from the days of indigenous peoples and the first Spanish invaders to the present day.
The epic is a fascinating study of twentieth century American history, society, economics, business, finance, management, politics, public policy, labor relations, mechanization, technology, modernization, and nature.
The more personal stories of family, romance, crime, and punishment read more like a good novel.
Some have found the authors liberally biased, but as a conservative, I found the authors well balanced in their presentations of all sides of the stories.
As others have said, the scope is huge and the research extensive. As someone who was born and raised in Kings County California, I found this heretofor unknown local history to be quite fascinating. Nevertheless, I believe this book will have broad appeal to many readers.
Customer Reviews:
a rare find.......2005-08-03
a beautiful and intelligently written book that is actually printed on hemp paper ("This endpaper is 50-percent hemp/50-percent cotton paper") and with hemp-oil-based inks!!!
When you pick the book up, it actually feels more durable than many other books; and the cover is printed on recycled stock.
So the book really embodies the message, and the message is resounding: there are innovative and sound methods of growing this economy while working to protect the planet. There are wonderful black and white illustrations throughout.
The chapters are well-organized and highly informative.
I could have done without the cheesy "hemp model shot" on the back of the book, but it's not enough to avoid giving this marvelous book a five star rating!
Excellent intro to hemp!.......2002-06-23
This book is an outstanding easy to understand source for learning the history of and the many different uses of hemp.
I'm compelled to become a more vocal advocate of the product!
Dusk of Dawn.......2002-06-20
With this book, Roulac has given us THE complete and definitive book of hemp's past, present to future. It traces hem's historical roots, details the hundreds of uses of hemp, explains the historical legal underpinnings of hemp's brush in with the law, examines the global hemp industry, and shows hemp in the modern marketplace. In effect, this book provides readers with the most factual, historically comprehensive, and even-handed presentation of this controversial crop to date. To give an understanding of how useful and potentially revolutionary this crop is, allow me to quote one of my favorite parts of the book:
"So imagine that one day within the next ten years, you wake up in a house whose walls, roof, flooring, insulation, and paint are derived of hemp. You feel great after sleeping on your hemp-stuffed mattress, covered with soft linens spun from hemp fiber. Your feet sink into the hemp carpeting as you get out of bed and open the hemp drapes. It's a beautiful morning.
"You jump into the shower, where you soap, shampoo, and hair conditioner made from hemp. You step out onto the hemp bath mat, drying yourself with a superabsorbent hemp towel. You clean your ears with H-Tips (better than the old cotton swabs), and apply hemp-oil lotion, moisturizer, and lip balm. You make a mental note to buy some more hemp toilet paper, recalling how it wasn't too long ago that we were still cutting down centuries-old trees just to flush them away.
"Opening your closet, you dress in hemp jeans, shirt, and jacket; put on hemp socks and shoes; tie the hemp laces; and grab your hemp wallet, which holds checks and currency printed on hemp paper.
"You're hungry, so you walk into the kitchen with its hemp-based linoleum floor. You make some wheat-and-hemp-flower toast, and pour a glass of fresh, organic hemp milk. After eating, you make a salad with hemp-oil dressing to take to work. Then you wash your dishes, using hemp-oil dish soap and a hemp pot-scrubber, and put the dishes away in a cabinet built of hemp fiberboard. Sitting down on the hemp-framed and upholstered couch, you glance at a newspaper printed with hemp ink on hemp recycled paper, and learn that the hemp industry is now the largest agribusiness and the major job provider in your state. You turn on the stereo, which sits on a hemp fiberboard cabinet, and listen as music vibrates from speakers also made from hemp fiberboard. They contain specialty hemp paper for the speaker cones and are covered with black hempen cloth.
"Leaving the house for work, you open the door of your car, built of strong, lightweight composites that include hemp. Relaxing into the driver's seat, luxuriously upholstered with hemp textiles, you rest your feet on floor mats that look like rubber but are made from hemp. As you drive to your job at the new hemp-fiber processing facility, you pass farmers harvesting some of the locally grown hemp that is revitalizing your community's rural economy."
A beautiful morning indeed, but it would be even more beautiful if you knew how environmentally friendly and healthy your new hempen life actually is. The rubber-like mats in your hemp mobile are all natural and 100 per cent biodegradable; the roots of the hemp plants that line the fields of your county help enrich and solidify much-needed topsoil and therefore increase the yield of other rotational crops. You smile while spreading hempseed hummus on your hemp-wheat toast knowing it is the single most complete source of non-animal protein on the planet - and tastes much better than tofu. The smile increases as you pour hemp oil on your salad, knowing it is high in essential fatty acids that help you think better, boost your immune system, decrease your chances of cancer, and reduce the risk of high blood pressure, platelet coagulation, and hardening of the arteries. Lastly, before heading off to work, you opt for your hemp skateboard instead of the hemp mobile, as it is a brilliant, bright and sunny day.
The fact of the matter is, this beautiful morning has no imaginative end. The only thing keeping us from achieving the dawn of a new tomorrow is our monopoly cotton and paper industries, and a government which seems to be supporting those industries by restricting and limiting hemp production permits and also by unleashing the DEA on would-be hemp producers (despite the fact that it has NEVER been illegal to grow hemp in America). Whatever you want to know about hemp is in this book. A must read.
This book outlines a compelling case for re-examining hemp........1998-11-25
This book is an eye opener for those who appreciate the potential for every thing old to be new again. It outlines a compelling case for re-examining the value of hemp as an agricultural renewable resource. The book's tone is very "straight" and specifically eschews the mixing advocacy of herb and fiber. Along with a thorough overview history of hemp use, cultivation, and current purposes, the book offers a product directory, strong bibliography, and access to its web site.
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Cotton (Agronomy)
R. J. Kohel
Manufacturer: Amer Society of Agronomy
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ASIN: 089118077X |
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Bacterial Blight of Cotton
J. P. Verma
Manufacturer: Crc Pr I Llc
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ASIN: 0849359325 |
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Cotton (Biotechnology in Agriculture Series)
Manufacturer: Springer-Verlag Telos
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ASIN: 3540627286 |
Book Description
Cotton is a multipurpose crop and produces lint, the most important source of fiber used in the textile industry, oil, seed meal, and hulls. Twenty-three chapters on various aspects of in vitro manipulation and other biotechnological approaches to the improvement of cotton are arranged in six sections. Special emphasis is placed on interspecific hybridization, somaclonal variation, transgenic cotton resistant to insects and herbicides, and re-engineering of fiber. This book is of special interest to advanced students, teachers, and research workers in the field of cotton breeding, genetics, tissue culture, molecular biology, and plant biotechnology in general.
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Cotton Diseases (Cabi Publishing)
Manufacturer: CABI
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ASIN: 0851987494 |
Book Description
Cotton grown in numerous countries over five continents, the top five producers being China, the former Soviet Union, India and Pakistan. It is an important cash crop in several African countries, and production in Australia has increased greatly over the last fifteen years. Crop losses due to disease are significant, and this book provides a comprehensive review of work published on the subject. Six chapters are written by the editor, who also has extensive experience in Africa, and the remainder by authorities from the UK and USA. Diseases caused by fungi, bacteria, viruses and nematodes, as well as nutrient deficiency disorders are covered, and illustrated with a number of color plates. The book is a definitive reference volume for plant pathologists and cotton agronomists.
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Cotton Fibers: Developmental Biology, Quality Improvement, and Textile Processing
Manufacturer: Haworth Press
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ASIN: 1560228679 |
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Cotton in Africa: An Analysis of Differences in Performance (M a D I a Discussion Paper)
Uma Lele ,
Nicolas Van De Walle , and
Mathurin Gbetibouo
Manufacturer: World Bank
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0821313231 |
Book Description
Portuguese officials forced nearly a million African peasants to grow cotton in colonial Mozambique under a regime of coercion, brutality, and terror. The colonial state sought to control almost every aspect of peasant life: growers were told not only what they should produce, but where they should live, how they should organize their labor, and with whom they should trade. A privileged few managed to prosper under the cotton regime, but the great majority were impoverished, as cotton cultivation earned them next to nothing and exposed them to hardship and famine. Despite their efforts at control, the colonial state could only partially subordinate the rural population. This book explores the lives of Mozambique's cotton producers--their pain and suffering, their coping strategies, and their struggles to survive. Because the study is concerned above all else with the lived experiences of cotton growers, their stories figure prominently; the documentation for this book includes more tha
Customer Reviews:
Rural resistance to Colonial oppression.......2000-05-04
To try and summarize this book in a few short lines would not do it justice. There are many aspects to this account of colonial regime in Mozambique whose sole reason for being was the extraction of raw resources from the land.
The reader is introduced to the physical landscape of Mozambique, which in itself was as responsible for the success or failure of the Cotton Regime in the differing regions as any human agency. More land under cultivation meant production so the Regime sought to extend the planting of cotton to new regions, irrespective as to whether these places could sustain intensive agriculture. In the north, under-development and isolation helped local residents to resist the Regime more effectively than those in the south. It was in the south where Cotton Regime was to alter the social customs of the local population by forcing out migration of males.
This exodus of men left the majority of work to be done by women and children. This started to blur the lines in regards to what had been gender specific jobs before the Regime. As Issacman says; women were perpetually on the front line in peasant struggles against the Cotton Regime.
There are many things that I am leaving out in this review. Issacman goes into detail about how the Regime tried to control peasant access to their own fields to produce food for survival. These moves inevitably lead to food shortages as cotton fields were moved further away from villages in order to more easily control peasants. In this the Portugeuse were aided by local chiefs who would be rewards with people to work their own cotton fields.
What I found to be one of the most interesting aspects of the book was Issacman's assertion that the peasants were not helpless victims of the regime. That they did indeed find ways to "cope", a term which is distinguished from "resisting" by the author. Coping strategies are seen to have the unintended affect of proping up the Regime. This can be seen as a strategy akin to a work slow-down in a contemporary labour environment. For the peasant growers in Mozambique these options were thus very limited, such as escaping the regime by fleeing to neighboring countries, holding back some of the labour, or by boycotting the system at strategic moments. Issacman saw these "Hidden" protests as the weapons of the weak.
Thus, there were to be no great rebellions or revolts. The structual position of the cotton growers was not to change. These forms of resistance are seen by Issacman as a type of safety valve, which perpetuated the system of exploitation.
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