NONFICTION - Sept. 20, 1992

AN AMERICAN HOMEPLACE: The Real World of Rural America by Donald McCaig (Crown: $20; 224 pp.). Donald McCaig, probably best known for his books about working border collies--”Nop’s Trials” and “Eminent Dogs, Dangerous Men”--in this volume expands his horizon to encompass the family farm. You’ll encounter many dogs and sheep and trainers here, to be sure, but the best parts of “An American Homeplace” have to do with crops and trucks and floods and community service. Community service? Yes: What comes across loud and clear in this book is the interdependence of farming life, whether through volunteer fire departments or the making of hay, support for the annual county fair or the manning of rural election booths. Back-to-the-land titles are commonplace these days, but McCaig’s is better than most because he remembers the ignorance with which he arrived at an abandoned farm in Virginia (from a job in New York advertising and an East Village apartment, no less) in 1971. We follow right along with the author as he learns how to perform a caesarean on a sheep, locate obsolete car parts, and identify local produce such as the Jefferson Davis apple--so named, apparently, because it was “mealy, tough skinned, and not very flavorful” but “kept forever.” One handy tip for those who live, like McCaig, in homes where the interior temperature can drop into the single digits at night: Store excess beer in the refrigerator . . . where it won’t freeze.