Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations - Kootenay Local Agricultural Society

274
Columella, Lucius Junius Moderatus, 60,
61, 66–67
Commoner, Barry, 207
common fields, 89–91, 99; enclosure and,
90, 92, 94, 96, 98–99
composting: French gardening and, 243;
large-scale, 202–3; terra preta soils
and, 142–44
Condorcet, marquis de, 106
conservation tillage, 211–13
contour plowing, 125–26, 134, 160, 173, 175
conventional agricultural methods. See
agrochemistry; industrial agriculture;
plowing
“convertible husbandry,” 94
Cook, Captain James, 221, 222
Cook, Sherburne, 77–78
Coon Creek, Wisconsin, 173–74
cotton cultivation, 125, 128
cover cropping, 127, 175, 213
Craven, Avery, 118
Craven, John, 122–23
Cromwell, Oliver, 108
Crookes, Sir William, 195
cropping systems: British soil improvement
and, 95; development of crop
production and, 35; erosion rate and,
23; profitability of organic vs. conventional
systems and, 201. See also cover
cropping; crop rotation; monoculture;
polyculture
crop rotation: abandonment of, with fertilizer
use, 197; in American agriculture,
124, 173; in European agriculture, 91,
94, 99; as innovation, 180; nitrogen
levels and, 193; under Roman Empire,
60–61, 73; soil fertility and, 175,
200–201; two-field systems and, 55.
See also legume cultivation; polyculture
crop yields. See productivity of soil
Cuba, 227, 230–32
Cultivator, 128
cultural evolution hypothesis, 30
cultura promiscua, 58
cuneiform tablets, 38
cycle of life, 14–16, 202
cytosine, 15
index
dam building: ammonia manufacture and,
196, 197; Nile River and, 42–43
Darwin, Charles: earthworms and, 9–13,
16
da Vinci, Leonardo, 88
Davy, Humphrey, 183
De agri cultura (Cato), 59
de Beaujour, Félix, 126
de Castro, Josué, 110
Deere, John, 146, 150
de Fontanière, Jonsse, 103
deforestation: in African Sahel, 165–68;
Amazon and, 115–17, 244; American
Southwest and, 79–80; in Central
America, 112–13; Easter Island and,
218, 220, 221–22; erosion in China
and, 45; erosion in Europe and, 85,
86–87, 91; in Ethiopia, 169; French
Alps and, 101–2; in Iceland, 224–25;
in Italy, 57; in Middle East, 73;
Yucatan Peninsula, 74–75, 76–77
de Luc, Jean André, 104–5
Denevan, William, 143
de Orellana, Francisco, 143
De re rustica (Varro), 60, 66
desertification: in Africa, 167–70; as global
concern, 170; in Soviet Russia, 164,
165
developed countries, agricultural productivity
in, 4, 197–98
developing countries: agitation for land
reform in, 110–12; labor-intensive
farming and, 242, 244, 245, 246;
urban farming and, 243–44
DeYoung, Dennis, 215
Diderot, Denis: Encyclopédie, 101
Diocletian, 88
disk harrow, 204–5
disk plows, 151
Djang, Y. S., 181–82
DNA, 15
dogs, 35
Douglas, Stephen, 135
drainage. See water control
Dred Scott decision, 135
drought: in China, 44; Ethiopia and, 169;
global warming and, 171; Great Plains
and, 147, 148–49, 151–52, 157; in sub