Ploughman's Folly Ploughman's Folly - EcoPort

a "beard" of exposed material, if need be. That condition will eventually become beauty in the soil. "Handsome is
as handsome does" is not a new saying. It is particularly applicable here, for debris-filled soil alone is capable of
the highest quality yields. The ancestry of a soil is a very minor matter in comparison with the present ability of that
soil to supply to hungry roots a soil solution enriched by abundance of decay products.
An alternative to double ploughing land that cannot be managed by discing is to leave the area wholly undisturbed.
This may seem an acknowledgment of failure, but the matter should not be prejudged. Much will happen to an
intractable soil while the crop it has produced is decaying. The decay of a green manure crop, in place, will of itself
serve to start a heavy soil surface on its way toward granulation. When granulation has proceeded sufficiently, a
clay soil can be worked like sand. Moreover, if the crop in question produces seeds -- which any annual crop will
do -- it will reseed itself naturally; and, without any work whatever, the farmer will have a second, volunteer crop of
green manure to reckon with. This second crop will be very easily managed when the time comes to disc it in.
It has to be admitted frankly that the preceding paragraph is a deduction from the known effects of the practices
described. For this reason, the conclusion may be considered vulnerable. My best suggestion is that anyone who
is inclined to doubt the feasibility of the plan advanced should try it on an area of supposedly unmanageable clay. I
have seen clay become so friable, under conditions that were comparable to those suggested here, that it could be
raked about like sugar. The same clay, before treatment, was so solid that a sharp spade, with a man's weight
upon it, was scarcely enough to make an impression upon the surface. I am certain, therefore, that further
experimentation will sustain my contentions.
The abandonment of the first season's work in order to let nature cure the ills of the sod may seem a waste of time.
The economy of such a procedure must await confirmation until the outcome of subsequent crops can be
observed. The eventual result will contain its own proof. And my guess is that those who know soils best will be the
last to doubt the eventual outcome, for the renovating effect of decaying organic matter, which induces granulation
of the soil, is well known and accepted. The only new thing about it is the method proposed for securing that effect.
Doubtless, the creation of soil where none now exists, through incorporation into the surface of materials grown
upon the particular area, presents many difficulties not touched upon in this chapter. The idea is entirely too new to
have been thoroughly investigated in all of its ramifications by a single unsponsored student in a single season of
work. It is extremely doubtful, though, that the actual re-creation of soils presents any technical difficulties which
cannot be surmounted. The only requirement for the establishment of a new tillage system, apparently, is
investigation along one or both of two lines: first, the adaptation of our customary use of existing surface-stirring
implements to the job of incorporating liberal quantities of green manure; or, second, the invention of new
equipment capable of disposing of all organic matter by surface mixing. No further time should be lost from the
accomplishment of one or both of these objectives.
Ch. 8: King Weather Disposed
ALL practising farmers and students of agriculture are well aware of the controlling influence of weather in the
growing of crops. To the city man a sunny day in midsummer may be a thrilling event, because it provides the ideal
conditions for picnicking, hiking, and swimming. For thousands of farmers nearby the same day may be an
occasion of disaster involving the local food supply, in which the city dweller, as well as the husbandman, has a
vital stake. Rains that arrive a day too late to save potatoes, beans, and lettuce affect both producer and
consumer, but the producer more seriously.
Weather has always been considered in the category of "acts of God," and so it may very well be. Equally, how.
ever, it may be said that "God helps those who help themselves." There is nothing to be achieved here by bringing
up once again the famous dispute between the Forest Service and the Weather Bureau as to whether forests
actually increase the rainfall. Nor is it to the point, perhaps, to conjecture with the scientists concerning the effect of
England's deforestation in past centuries on present-day climate in the British Isles. But it may be useful to point
out that man has it in his power to disturb some of the moisture conditions essential to plant growth, and that, by
extension, he partly controls some of those conditions.
Man can conserve the moisture laid down by the heavens, or he can waste it. The earth he took over originally was
covered everywhere by a water-soaked, sometimes odorous sponge of humus. Nature maintained this watercatching
cover through successive plant generations, wherever man did not disturb, and continues to maintain it
down to this very hour. By imitating nature, man could have enjoyed such benefits as he has never dared hope for;
by disregarding the obvious example she set for him, he has courted disaster.
Irregular moisture has been regarded as the most important weather condition controlling crop growing. With
respect to moisture, the absorbent mat we find everywhere in nature serves a purpose which has not been
recognized in agricultural literature. For lack of a better term, we may call this its "reservoir" purpose.
Farmers leave their hay stacked in the field exposed to all the rain that falls. They know that none of the rainfall