On Wednesday, July 31, 2013 10:58:37 AM UTC-4, songbird wrote:
having read through:



_the One Straw Revolution_

_the Natural Way of Farming_

_the Road Back to Nature_

_Sowing Seeds in the Desert_



it would be difficult to give a long review of

them. much is similar/identical between the four.



if you had to read them i would go with 2 and 4,

with more time 1,2 and 4 (2 is the most practical).



if you are a hard core scientist then i'm not

sure you would be able to understand his views.



if you have had some exposure to eastern

philosophies and methods of thought then you may

have more success.



overall his approach is to do as little as

possible (yay!):



no tilling, no fertilizers, no pesticides and

no weeding.



this is very misleading, but it does make the point

he is after (doing as little as possible). he may not

till his rice field, but he does dig holes to plant

fruit trees and he does dig in his vegetable garden

nearer to his house. he also does thin around selected

plants to discourage weeds and to encourage the plants

(but supposedly he doesn't pull them he just cuts them

back). he has used chicken manure as fertilizer, and

he does use machine oil concoctions at times on trees

for controlling outbreaks of certain pests (rarely).



also there are comments about not getting too

involved with composting (nature knows how to break

stuff down).



the wikipedia is currently wrong too (it says that

he is not in favor of terracing -- in several of the

above writings he says terracing is good, but that it

is best to use materials available at the site).



his specific rotation for the rice field was to

plant the rice and barley at the same time (using

clay pellets made out of certain materials including

the rice, barley and white clover seeds). then after

specific periods of time he would harvest the barley,

let the clover grow for a bit, then flood the field

to weaken the clover and to give the rice a chance

to get going (for a few days). he also returns all

the straw from the crops to the fields (not compacted

or put down tightly, but just scattered loosely to

discourage weeds).



his method does not leave the rice paddy flooded

for large parts of the growing season (in stark

contrast to his neighbors).



for his fruit tree methods, i would say that

he and Sepp Holzer are somewhat similar. he talks

about the natural form of a fruit tree and that

once a tree is damaged or pruned then it can be

much more work. growing from seed, planting a

mixed community of understory plants/vegetables

and green manure/legumes to keep the soil active

and fertile.



i'm not really a rice/grain farmer so that means

i'm not familiar with the plants/methods of

harvesting and the work involved in getting the

crop planted and taken back in. so much of what

he does detail is theory to me, not anything i've

attempted to practice.



in the middle of a rainy spell, when faced with

little to do other than wait for sunshine, it's a

good thing to ponder different methods and to see

what others have to say. it would take quite a bit

of time to summarize and do a scholarly review of

his whole works, to winnow out redundencies and to

trace the progression/changes of methods. i think

even he would say it is not worth it. that his

ideas are for his place/climate/crops/etc.



to do something else in another place he puts

forth the idea to take seeds of all types and soil

from a healthy forest and to mix them together and

make seed balls. then to scatter all of that and

see what happens. he comments about the California

grasslands (taken over by non-native species) that

they could be reforested and restored by such a

method. would be interesting to see it attempted

on a large enough scale...



overall, at least he is not damaging the land and

is building topsoil and fertility. he is using his

land as a refuge for other creatures and not poisoning

them. i give him high marks for that and for paying

attention enough to what nature is saying.



as he lived a good long life and practiced his

methods for many years he's certainly gotten the

practical mark needed for any one i would consider

listening to when it comes to using such methods

(many years longer than i).



he has passed away (at 95 yrs) and now his son and

family are continuing, i hope they will do as well.



i will have these books for a few more weeks if you

have specific questions (before i move on to other

authors/topics). looks like more rain...





songbird

Makes me thing of a Farm in Virginia that was featured on the show Farm Kings. Has anyone seen this show? I find it very interesting.
MJ