CUTTING HILL: A Chronicle of a Family...

CUTTING HILL: A Chronicle of a Family Farm by Alan Pistorius (HarperPerennial: $9.95, illustrated). Unlike most of the recent books on life in rural New England, “Cutting Hill” describes the hard work of life on a small dairy farm, rather than the bucolic pleasures of the countryside. The members of the Treadway family have little time to admire the Vermont landscape: They’re too busy attending to the cows, fertilizing the hay fields, cleaning the barn, repairing machinery and coping with dozens of minor crises. Pistorius makes it clear that small- scale farming is not an easy way to earn a living, even for people who are good at it. By using scientific methods, the Treadways have increased their average milk production per cow from 10,375 pounds per year to 17,150 pounds (the national average is 14,400 pounds) in just two decades; but during the late ‘80s their annual net income was only about $27,000. “Cutting Hill” reveals why the small family farm is rapidly disappearing from the American landscape.