Learning-Living [learning-living.com]: LOUIS BROMFIELD: MALABAR FARM2

Sunday 29 April 2018

LOUIS BROMFIELD: MALABAR FARM2

2018 0429 17 Louis Bromfield: Malabar Farm2

Malabar Farm: The Main Dairy Barn and Petting Farm

Malabar Farm continues the story begun in Pleasant Valley of the author's efforts of restoring a worn out farm to productivity, covering the years from 1944 to 1947 and going deeper into his philosophy of agriculture and the all-important matter of the soil.

Louis Bromfield with "Prince"

In Pleasant Valley, Bromfield rhapsodized to some degree about farming. In Malabar Farm, he gets down to describing in detail the hard work of actually farming the land in an intelligent manner.

Bromfield wades into the intricacies of agricultural policy, farm economics, as well as the extended passages on the care of the soil.

If someone is contemplating doing what Bromfield did, the first book provides motivation and vision, and this book a healthy dose of realism. Both are important, even if the latter is tougher reading.

History: Nestled in the hills of Pleasant Valley, Malabar Farm was built in 1939 by Louis Bromfield and was his home until his death in 1956. The Bromfield family moved to Pleasant Valley in 1939 and lived in the “Fleming house” until their “Big House” was built. Bromfield chose architect Louis Lamoreux of Mansfield to help him design and construct a Greek revival style home. The original Herring house was used as the center of the construction.

The 32-room western reserve, where Bromfield wrote many of his books, attracted film stars, artists, politicians, writers, and conservationists annually. Bromfield developed a technique known as conservation farming. This was based on grass farming, which produced large quantities of forage and pasture. Malabar Farm became a national model for sustainable agriculture.

In addition to this, Bromfield experimented with composting using manure from livestock on the farm. In 1958, Bromfield’s children sold the farm to a conservation foundation—Friends of the Land. In August 1972, the deed of Malabar Farm was accepted by the state of Ohio after the Louis Bromfield Malabar Farm Foundation—which had been operating the farm—faced foreclosure. In 1976, the farm became a state park.