Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations - Kootenay Local Agricultural Society

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layers, ’till we arrive to the barren, and impenetrable Rock.” Of the eight
or nine basic types of soil, the best was the rich topsoil where mineral soil
mixed with vegetation.
I begin with what commonly first presents it self under the removed
Turf, and which, for having never been violated by the Spade, or received
any foreign mixture, we will call the Virgin Earth; ...we find it
lying about a foot deep, more or less, in our Fields, before you come to
any manifest alteration of colour or perfection. This surface-Mold is
the best, and sweetest, being enriched with all that the Air, Dews,
Showers, and Celestial Influences can contribute to it.
The ideal topsoil was a rich mixture of mineral and organic matter introduced
by “the perpetual and successive rotting of the Grass, Plants, Leaves,
Branches, [and] Moss ...growing upon it.” 3
Regaling his audience with the works of Roman agriculturalists, Evelyn
described how to improve soil with manure, cover crops, and crop rotations.
Like the Romans, Evelyn used odor, taste (sweet or bitter), touch
(slippery or gritty), and sight (color) to evaluate a soil. He described different
types of manure and their effects on soil fertility, as well as the
virtues of growing legumes to improve the soil.
Echoing Xenophon, Evelyn held that to know the soil was to know what
to plant. One could read what would grow best by observing what grew
naturally on a site. “Plants we know, are nourished by things of like affinity
with the constitution of the Soil which produces them; and therefore
’tis of singular importance, to be well read in the Alphabet of Earths and
Composts.” Because soil thickened as organic material supplied from
above mixed with the rotting rocks below, sustaining good harvests
required maintaining the organic-rich topsoil ideal for crops. Mineral subsoil
was less productive, but Evelyn believed that nitrous salts could resuscitate
even the most exhausted land. “I firmly believe, that were Salt
Peter ...to be obtain’d in Plenty, we should need but little other Composts
to meliorate our Ground.” 4 Well ahead of his time, Evelyn anticipated
the value of chemical fertilizers for propping up—and pumping
up—agricultural production.
By the start of the eighteenth century, improving farmland was seen as
possible only through enclosing under private ownership enough pasture
to keep livestock capable of fertilizing the plowed fields. Simply letting the
family cow poop on the commons would not do. The need for manure
imposed an inherent scale to productive farms. Too small a farm was a
let them eat colonies