The One-Straw Revolution - Multiworld India

next year and reported that the test had failed. After listening carefully tohis account, I found that he had laid the straw down straight and neat likea Japanese backyard garden mulch. If you do it like that, the seeds willnot germinate well at all. With the straw of rye and barley, too, if it isspread too neatly the rice sprouts will have a hard time getting through. Itis best to toss the straw around every which way, just as though the stalkshad fallen naturally.Rice straw works well as a mulch for winter grain, and the straw ofwinter grain works best for the rice. I want this to be well understood.There are several diseases of rice which will infect the crop if fresh ricestraw is applied to the field. These diseases of rice will not infect thewinter grain, however, and if the rice straw is spread in the fall, it will becompletely decomposed by the time the rice sprouts up the followingspring. Fresh rice straw is safe for other grains, as is buckwheat straw,and the straw of other grain species may be used for rice and buckwheat.In general, fresh straw of winter grains, such as wheat, rye, and barley,should not be used as mulch for other winter grains, as disease damagemay result.All of the straw and the hulls which remain after threshing theprevious harvest should be returned to the field.Straw Enriches the EarthScattering straw maintains soil structure and enriches the earth sothat prepared fertilizer becomes unnecessary. This, of course, isconnected with non-cultivation. My fields may be the only ones in Japanwhich have not been plowed for over twenty years, and the quality of thesoil improves with each season. I would estimate that the surface layer,rich in humus, has become enriched to a depth of more than48