This is an antique home, farm and garden volume, "RURAL AFFAIRS - A Practical and Copiously Illustrated Register of Rural Economy and Rural Taste, Including Country Dwellings, Improving and Planting Grounds, Fruits and Flowers, Domestic Animals, and all Farm and Garden Processes" by J.J. Thomas. 1872; Luther Tucker & Son; Albany, NY. Volume III. Profusely illustrated with 440 engravings. Nicely illustrated title page.
Here are some examples of the contents: Apple Tree Caterpillar; Designs for Barns; A Model Cellar; Churning Butter; Management of Bees; Culture of Carrots; How to Cure Beef; Bottling Cherries; Langstroth's Bee Hives; Pumpkins for Cows; Rotation of Crops; Laying out Farms; Autumnal Flowers; Hay Sweep; Chapter of Grasses; Hessian Fly; Training Horses; How to Make Young Farmers; Indian Corn; Notes on Manure; Harvesting Peas; Manufacture of Maple Syrup; Facts for Poor Farmers; Bantams; Pens and Coops for Poultry; Nails, Screws and Bolts; Notes on Strawberries; Dimensions of Cattle Stables; Profits of Raising Sheep; The Union Washing Machine; Force of Wind Mills; Best Time to Cut Timber; How to Fatten Swine; Creeping and Perennial Weeds; Useful Tables; Sawing by Horse Power; Pruning Orchards; Suggestions for Winter; Recipe for Sausage...and so much more.
From the Preface: "The design is to include as much practical information as can be condensed within their compass, on various topics of Agricultural, Horticultural and Domestic interest, and to render these subjects as attractive as possible, by the aid of liberal illustrations, calculated at the same time to increase the usefulness as well as the beauty of the work."