Ploughman's Folly Ploughman's Folly - EcoPort

crop. It should be remembered that when these green manure crops are disced into the land instead of being
ploughed in, they are able to use air nitrogen just as well as the legumes do; therefore, there is no reason to prefer
a legume for green manure. If the farmer has no seeds of any kind and the land is covered with weeds he can disc
them in before they are mature and thus have adequate organic material. Anything that will rot will be
advantageous when disced in and will improve the soil for the production of the next green manure crop.
It is impossible to determine in advance how many crops will have to be put into the soil before the land will begin
to look black again; but discing ought to be continued until that point is reached. A rapid succession of summer and
winter green manure crops should be used until the soil becomes highly granular and absorbent. It is difficult, also,
to predict how many crops of immature weeds will have to be put into the land before the green manure crops will
be free of weed growth, but the desired condition will be realized eventually. Inasmuch as the same few inches of
soil are affected by each successive discing, every weed seed native to the soil zone chosen will finally have
sprouted. Thereafter weeds will be produced only by those seeds which are wind borne or transported by other
means to the area under treatment.
The eventual elimination of much farm work can be predicted on the assumption that weeds can be controlled. If
weeds can be so controlled that the farmer's crops are not forced to compete with them for the plant food in the
soil, then it goes without saying that no cultivation should be undertaken. There are important reasons for this, the
most obvious one being that, since plant roots tend always to develop very near the surface of the soil, cultivation
cannot be accomplished without cutting these roots. Destruction of plant roots is definitely not beneficial to the
plant itself; therefore, if the plants are free from weed competition, to stop cultivating farm crops will be mandatory.
Crop rows are customarily spaced three to six feet apart, partly to permit the destruction of weeds that spring up
between the rows. If few weeds are going to spring up, then it is obvious that the rows in which crops are planted
may be spaced as close together as the supply of available food in the soil will permit. Ordinarily plants are placed
closer together in the row than the rows are placed to each other. Potato plants are usually placed twelve to
eighteen inches apart in the row, but the rows themselves are three to four feet apart. Without weeds to interfere,
potatoes may just as sensibly be spaced eighteen inches apart each way. The ideal arrangement would be to
space the plants close enough to each other that their roots would completely occupy the intervals. This would
prevent the loss of nutrients which otherwise would be released by decay into soil unoccupied by roots.
One important fact deserves consideration at this point. Living plants require in their growth, and their dead bodies
contain in their substance, only about one-tenth as much material by weight from the soil as they do from air and
water. The contribution of the soil, then, to 100 bushels of corn weighing 5,600 pounds would be only about 560
pounds. Even if the entire 100 bushels were produced on one acre, the grain itself would take from that acre only
560 pounds of material. If 100 bushels of corn should be burned, the resulting ashes would weigh about 560
pounds. Therefore, it is evident that the growing of crops cannot be unduly wearing on the land. If, as indicated in
Chapter 11, we can use soil acids formed in the decomposition of organic matter to obtain minerals, and the native
bacteria of the soil to pull in nitrogen from the air, the production of crops several times as abundant as we have
grown is just a matter of sensible technique. Properly handled, farm land can be just as self-sufficient as the soil of
the natural landscape has always been, because, when properly handled, farm land will be maintained in
approximately the same physical condition as soil always is in Nature.
The theories presented in this chapter have not been fully demonstrated, but experiments are under way at the
present time to test the truth of the statements. No prediction can be made now as to when the experiments will be
completed, since there is no basis for knowing positively just how long a time it will take to empty the upper few
inches of soil of its stock of weed seeds, or when the soil will begin to look black again. My guess it that two to five
years will be necessary. In the meantime, the succession of green manure crops will be planted twice a year and
disced in before the weed seeds have matured. Then we shall be in a position to speak of the "when" as well as
the "how" of weed control.
Ch. 14: Mother Earth Can Smile Again
IN the preceding chapters the mouldboard plough has been shown to be the villain of the world's agricultural
drama. In the United States it is suspected of wasting from the ploughsole enough plant food to sustain crops with
which to feed half the other peoples of the world -- a suspicion based upon official reports. Elsewhere the record is
less clearly defined; for nowhere else are mouldboards of the sizes common in the United States in general use.
The "bigger and better" the plough, the more devastating its effect.
When this appraisal of the plough has become official, as eventually it must, American agriculture will undergo
drastic revision. It is hardly possible to make a blueprint, or even to hint at one, in terms more trustworthy than the
usual perspective of greener pastures elsewhere. In this spirit, therefore, I undertake now to forecast some of the
changes that are likely to result from the new agricultural scheme.
The pastures of the land will be greener, literally; crops will grow in better fashion, with immeasurably less attention