Everymans Rules for Scientific
Living: A Novel by Carrie Tiffany
About Life And Nature And How We Can Ruin Both
The Better-Farming Train slides through the wheat fields and small towns
of 1930s Australia, bringing advice to farmers. Amid the swaying cars full
of cows, pigs, and crops, a strange and swift seduction occurs between
Jean Finnegan, a sewing instructor, and Robert Pettergree, a scientist with
an unusual taste for soil. In an atmosphere of heady idealism, they settle in
the impoverished Mallee farmland with the ambition of transforming the
land through science.In luminous prose Tiffany writes about the challenges
of farming, the character of small towns, the stark and terrifying beauty of
the Australian landscape, and the fragile relationship between man,
science, and nature. This is a sensual and startlingly original debut that
establishes Carrie Tiffany as one of the great new voices in fiction.
Personal Review: Everymans Rules for Scientific Living: A
Novel by Carrie Tiffany

One would think a story revolving around soil and agriculture and high
ideas about better farming methods would be incredibly dull. One wonders
also how this book could gather such widespread acclaim. I was more than
pleasantly surprised however, when I ventured into an Australia that I have
never known amid wheat, phosphates, cattle and mice plagues and read
about love, despair, friendship and the inability of man to control the harsh
landscape he loves.
Narrated by a seamstress Jean we meet the characters of `The Better
Farming Train'. The Government has put together a group of experts on
everything from cattle to looking after babies in a propaganda exercise to
encourage people in small towns to work harder to produce better crops,
cattle and healthy members of the population. We may have grown as a
nation on the sheep's back but the train had experts on almost everything
relevant to farm life including a charming Japanese chicken sexer.
Jean soon leaves the train behind though after she falls for the quiet,
unassuming and idealistic scientist, Robert whose expertise lies in soil. His
religion is science and he honestly preaches the use of super phosphates
to improve crop yield so significantly that not using it would be tantamount
to sin. He buys a farm and uses his scientific rules to enhance his crops
and convinces other farmers in the Mallee area to do the same. With no
farming experience we see the scientist fight against the elements he has
never dealt with or considered; a fight which he can only lose.
Jean's commentary is heartbreaking as she talks about her dedication to
her husband; a desperate effort to gain his love through pleasing him by
helping with his experiments as well as patiently putting up with wheat
husks covering the kitchen table.
The relationship is as important to the story as the fight between science
and nature. As Robert desperately fights against drought and mice
plagues, Jean fights against his and her emotional isolation from each
other. They both watch in dismay and shame as year by year the wheat
yield becomes less and less and so the relationship, based purely on a
physical bond deteriorates as well.
Tiffany brings alive the heat, dirt and isolation that is the Australian bush. It
may be the 1930's but the characters fight against what still faces our
farmers; drought, plagues and isolation. Throw in the depression and war
and it is hard to see how anyone survived in this unforgiving environment.
You do not have to appreciate science or be interested in agriculture to
enjoy this book. Tiffany weaves a fabulous tale based on one person's
desire to belong.
Tiffany deserves her many nominations, including being short listed for
The Miles Franklin Award, for this, her debut novel. I am looking forward to
more from this brilliant agricultural journalist become novelist.

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