Steadwise — Agriculture: every guide & article inside

Drawn from time-tested public-domain sources — U.S. government manuals, agency bulletins and classic references — then authored, illustrated and indexed for the AI. Supplement this domain anytime with your own books, videos and notes.

Guides — long-form chapters (5)

Erosion Control Engineering for the 60-Acre Property

Most erosion problems on a small Texas homestead can be solved with vegetation. The cases that require engineered structures are the cases where…

NRCS Conservation Practice Standards: A Homesteader's Working Subset

The Natural Resources Conservation Service maintains a numbered library of Conservation Practice Standards — CPSs — that describe, in unambiguous…

Reading the Soil Survey: From the NRCS Manual to Your Property

Every parcel of land in the continental United States has been mapped, classified, and described by the National Cooperative Soil Survey. The work…

The Bailey Gardening Canon: 1910 Wisdom Tested in 2026

Liberty Hyde Bailey wrote Manual of Gardening in 1910 and revised it through several editions, the last in 1919. He was the dean of American…

The Pre-1929 USDA Farmers Bulletins: A Survival Library in 13 Pamphlets

The USDA Farmers' Bulletin series ran from 1889 to the 1980s, producing more than two thousand short, focused pamphlets aimed at working farmers.…

Manuals & references (8)

NRCS Composting Chapter2

Reference document.

NRCS Conservation Practices Small Scale

Reference document.

NRCS Gardening Soil Health

Reference document.

NRCS Mapping Plant Hardiness Heat Zones

Reference document.

NRCS Soil Health Principles

Reference document.

NRCS Soil Health Starter Kit

Reference document.

Soil Carbon Amendment (NRCS Conservation Practice)

Reference document.

USDA Community Garden Vegetable Planning

Reference document.

Source library (public domain) (107)

Advanced Beekeeping

Basic beekeeping establishes hives and harvests honey. Advanced beekeeping aims for hive growth, sustainability, genetic improvement, and integrated…

Aerated Compost Tea (AACT)

title: "Aerated Compost Tea (AACT)"

Agriculture Supplement: Downloaded Extension PDFs

Manifest Date: 2026-04-12

Agriculture Supplement: Organic Pest & Weed Management — Sources & Attribution

All field guides, pest profiles, spray recipe cards, and SVG diagrams in this supplement are original authored content — Steadwise intellectual…

Aphids

title: "Aphids (Multiple Species)"

Baking Soda Fungicide Spray

title: "Baking Soda Fungicide Spray"

Beneficial Insect Field Guide

On a 60-acre homestead in Fannin County, North Texas, your greatest asset is not a pesticide but an ecosystem. Beneficial insects and…

Birds on Fruit

title: "Birds on Fruit (Mockingbirds, Grackles, Cedar Waxwings)"

Bordeaux Mixture (Copper Fungicide)

title: "Bordeaux Mixture (Copper Fungicide)"

Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) Caterpillar Spray

title: "Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) Caterpillar Spray"

Cabbage Worms

title: "Cabbage Worms: Looper and Imported Cabbageworm (Trichoplusia ni and Pieris rapae)"

Companion Planting Guide

Companion planting is the practice of growing two or more plant species in close proximity to provide mutual benefits—pest suppression, improved…

Compost Tea Brewing Protocol

Actively Aerated Compost Tea (AACT) is a liquid extract of finished compost, brewed with continuous forced aeration to multiply beneficial aerobic…

Composting Vermicomposting

Hot composting uses microbial activity to generate heat (130-160°F), which kills weed seeds, pathogens, and insect larvae. The finished product is…

Corn Earworm

title: "Corn Earworm (Helicoverpa zea)"

Cover Crops Fannin County

Location: Fannin County, North Texas (USDA Zone 8a)

Cucumber Beetles

title: "Cucumber Beetles (Spotted & Striped)"

Dormant Oil Spray

title: "Dormant Oil Spray"

Eastern Cottontail Rabbit

title: "Rabbits (Eastern Cottontail)"

Fire Ant Mound Drench

title: "Fire Ant Mound Drench"

Flea Beetles

title: "Flea Beetles (Multiple Species)"

Food Forest Permaculture

A food forest mimics the structure of a natural forest, with multiple layers each serving specific functions.

Foraging Texas Wild Plants

Never consume a wild plant unless you are completely certain of identification. Many plants have toxic look-alikes. When in doubt, do not eat it.…

Fungal Diseases of Garden & Orchard

title: "Fungal Diseases (Powdery Mildew, Blights, Black Spot, Downy Mildew)"

Garden Planning Succession

Before designing beds, evaluate the site:

Garlic-Pepper Repellent Spray

title: "Garlic-Pepper Repellent Spray"

Grain Growing Homestead

stats

Grasshoppers

title: "Grasshoppers (Multiple Species)"

Hunting Trapping Basics

All hunting in Texas must comply with state regulations enforced by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD).

Insecticidal Soap Spray

title: "Insecticidal Soap Spray"

IPM Decision Framework

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a systematic approach to pest control that uses multiple strategies in order of least intervention and least…

Milk Spray Fungicide

title: "Milk Spray Fungicide"

Molasses Soil Drench

title: "Molasses Soil Drench"

Neem Oil Spray

title: "Neem Oil Spray"

Nine-Banded Armadillo

title: "Armadillos (Nine-Banded Armadillo)"

No Till Garden Methods

Tillage breaks soil aggregates—clumps of sand, silt, and clay particles held together by fungal hyphae and organic glues. These aggregates create…

Organic Fungicide Disease Control

Fungal and bacterial diseases are the silent killers of the homestead garden. Unlike insect damage, which is obvious and often tolerable, diseases…

Organic Herbicide Weed Management

Weeds are inevitable on 60 acres. Without herbicide options, successful homesteading in North Texas comes down to understanding what actually…

Organic Pesticide Toolkit

stats

Organic Soil Amendments

North Texas soil presents a unique challenge: alkaline clay (pH 7.5–8.2) with low organic matter and poor drainage. Store-bought fertilizers work…

Pecan Weevil & Pecan Scab

title: "Pecan Weevil & Pecan Scab"

Photo Credits & Attribution

All illustrative images in this domain are original works generated for Steadwise

Red Imported Fire Ant

title: "Red Imported Fire Ant (Solenopsis invicta)"

Root-Knot Nematodes

title: "Root-Knot Nematodes (Meloidogyne spp.)"

Season Extension Structures

A cold frame is a bottomless box with a transparent lid, set over garden soil. Sunlight enters through the lid, heats the soil and air inside, and…

Soil Biology Primer

Soil is an ecosystem layered from the largest visible organisms down to bacteria so small you'd need an electron microscope to see them. Every layer…

Soil Building Texas Clay

Before improving soil, test it to understand baseline conditions.

Source Log: USDA Farmers' Bulletins (1895-1897)

All items pre-1929 USDA federal publications, public domain.

Spider Mites

title: "Spider Mites (Tetranychus urticae)"

Squash Vine Borer

title: "Squash Vine Borer (Melittia cucurbitae)"

Stink Bugs

title: "Stink Bugs (Halyomorpha halys and Native Species)"

Texas Planting Calendar

Average last spring frost: April 15 (conservative planning: May 1).

Texas Root Rot

title: "Texas Root Rot (Phymatotrichopsis omnivora)"

Texas Top 20 Garden Pests

Gardening in North Texas means contending with a specific set of pests shaped by our hot, often-dry summers, alkaline clay soils, and year-round…

Tomato Hornworm

title: "Tomato Hornworm (Manduca quinquemaculata)"

Usda Bull1309 Experiments Small Grains 1925

Reference document.

Usda Canada Bluegrass 1910

Reference document.

Usda Dry Farming Wheat 1919

Reference document.

Usda Eradication Bermuda Grass 1918

Reference document.

Usda Farm Practice Columbia Basin 1907

Reference document.

Usda Fb Alfalfa Lucern 1895

Reference document.

Usda Fb Bee Keeping 1897

Reference document.

Usda Fb Conservation Farming Bennett 1936

Reference document.

Usda Fb Controlling Small Gullies Bluegrass 1931

Reference document.

Usda Fb Crimson Clover 1914

Reference document.

Usda Fb Feeding Farm Animals 1895

Reference document.

Usda Fb Fowls Care Feeding 1896

Reference document.

Usda Fb Gullies Control Reclaim 1922

Reference document.

Usda Fb Important Insecticides 1895

Reference document.

Usda Fb Irrigation Humid Climates 1896

Reference document.

Usda Fb Meats Composition Cooking 1896

Reference document.

Usda Fb Onion Culture 1896

Reference document.

Usda Fb Potato Culture 1896

Reference document.

Usda Fb Sewage Disposal Farm 1896

Reference document.

Usda Fb Sheep Feeding 1897

Reference document.

Usda Fb Silos Silage 1895

Reference document.

Usda Fb Soil Conservation 1910

Reference document.

Usda Fb Soil Moisture Semiarid 1906

Reference document.

Usda Fb Soil Water Conservation Pnw

Reference document.

Usda Fb Strip Cropping Soil Conservation 1937

Reference document.

Usda Fb Sweet Clover 1917

Reference document.

Usda Fb Weeds How To Kill 1895

Reference document.

Usda Fb1386 Terracing Farm Lands 1924

Reference document.

Usda Interpreting Rangeland Health V3

Reference document.

Usda Meadows Pastures 1899

Reference document.

Usda Orchard Irrigation 1927

Reference document.

Usda Reseeding Depleted Grazing 1913

Reference document.

Usda Rhodes Grass 1919

Reference document.

Usda Soil Defense Piedmont 1937

Reference document.

Usda Soil Erosion National Menace Bennett 1928

Reference document.

Usda Soil Survey Manual 1937

Reference document.

Usda Tb347 Cover Surface Runoff Erosion 1935

Reference document.

Usda Tb402 Blue Grama Range Reseeding 1936

Reference document.

Usda Tb412 Plants Wildlife Erosion 1936

Reference document.

Usda Tb430 Emergency Wind Erosion 1937

Reference document.

Usda Tb490 Soil Erosion Karst Ky 1938

Reference document.

Usda Tb85 Strip Cropping Erosion 1931

Reference document.

Usda Terracing Cultivated Lands 1939

Reference document.

Usda Yearbook Agriculture 1923

Reference document.

Usda Yearbook Agriculture 1924

Reference document.

Usda Yearbook Agriculture 1925

Reference document.

USDA Yearbook of Agriculture (1922)

Reference document.

Usfs Range Improvement Notes 1974

Reference document.

Vinegar Herbicide Safety

Vinegar-based herbicide is one of the most popular and most misunderstood organic weed control tools available to the homesteader. The gap between…

Vinegar-Oil Herbicide Spray

title: "Vinegar-Oil Herbicide Spray"

White-Tailed Deer

title: "Deer (White-Tailed Deer)"

Whiteflies

title: "Whiteflies (Bemisia tabaci and Trialeurodes vaporariorum)"

Books (4)

Bailey Farm Garden Rule Book 1919

Reference material.

Bailey Manual Of Gardening 1910

Reference material.

Morris Ten Acres Enough 1906

Reference material.

Source Log: Agriculture Books (April 2026)

All items pre-1929 publication, US PD by age, retrieved from archive.org as non-dark items.

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