From: "alanssloan" <alansloan@maccas.globalnet.co.uk>
>To: <nyej@vt.edu>
>Cc: <curly@mill.net>
>Subject: Pre Raphaelites were there before the Gothic.
>Date: Thu, 6 Aug 1998 16:48:42 +0100
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> Hello, No till rice and beans rotation growing has been done in
>Japan by M. Fukouaka who had access to flooding for weed suppression.
>Are we looking at vast Midwestern acreage here, or do we look towards
>depopulating the cities so that the land can be managed in 5 acre
>parcels?. Your comment about rolling Rye and Vetch reminded me of a Soils
>Association pamphlet put out here years ago in response to vegan concern
>with corn growing systems which did not use animal manure. The story
>was about a German farmer, who because of the inheritance laws did not
>have sufficient to cultivate his rye-cornfields traditionally. The
>timesaving solution that he came up with was to sow tender beans with the
>winter rye. In the spring the hard frosts would cut the beans down and
>leave the hardier rye to grow on. As the temperature rose in the spring,
>the corn took off on the nutrients of the decomposing bean haulms and
>nitrogenous nodules. He was plowing, though. No dig vegetables were
>tried in the UK years ago by a guy called Shewell Cooper, but I don't
>think that it worked for him in the end. Much more successfully they are
>being grown by the HDRA on a highly intensive basis, hand picked slugs
>and carefully individually tended. Do we have the cultural stamina to
>develop a sustainable agriculture, or would we prefer to end up in
>chemical mode? Personally I find it incredible that governments
>internationally aren't putting big money into researching the basic,
>whole cycle food ecology. It is as if the whole thing has no bottom,
>well, show me an animal that does not have an arsehole and I'll show you
>an unsustainable organism. Maybe it's just a picky eater...does such an
>organism exist? For money at the moment I am driving package
>holidaymakers to and from the airport. (Probably doesn't happen in the US
>in the same way.?.) This morning one of my passengers, who works at the
>Port of London Authority and describes the process of shipping rubbish out
>of town. Lots is buried in Essex. That disgusting disrespect for our
>supporting ecology does happen in the US too so I hear, and every other
>city world-wide. It used to be recycled not for fun but there was no
>easier way to do it. The Chinese had a more cultivated approach...Heard
>of a book called Farmers of Forty Centuries? Out of print here, but
>deserves a re-run.:-) It was sort of Modern American Chemico Gothic
>meets sustainable organic horticulture if you see what I mean.
>fascinating account of a trip to China through the eyes of a couple of
>early 20th century american agronomists. But still no successful field
>scale no tillage organic system turns up apart from M.Fukuoaka.:-(
>This is where I came in....Goodbye. .. Alan Sloan PS I'm not sure
>how to post this on SANET, and how to stop miles of repitition being
>downloaded with new contributions. Is there a help site around? pps
>Interested in the results of some research on herbicide free no-till for
>vegetables at Virginia Tech...who and why are they doing that?
>
Donald Trotter
The Organic Resource Centre
295 Neptune Ave.
Encinitas, CA. 92024
curly@mill.net
fax- 760.632.8175
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