I have learned far more from my own self-directed studies than my
formal education. From time to time I get enthusiastic about some
topic and voraciously read about it. When I started gardening in the
early 1970s l quickly devoured everything labeled "organic" in the
local public library and began what became a ten-year subscription
to _Organic Gardening and Farming_ magazine. During the early 1980s
the garden books that I wrote all had the word "organic" in the
title.
In the late 1980s my interest turned to what academics might call
'the intellectual history of radical agriculture.' I reread the
founders of the organic gardening and farming movement, only to
discover that they, like Mark Twain's father, had become far more
intelligent since l last read them fifteen years back. l began to
understand that one reason so many organic gardeners misunderstood
Albert Howard was that he wrote in English, not American. l also
noticed that there were other related traditions of agricultural
reform and followed these back to their sources. This research took
over eighteen months of heavy study. l really gave the interlibrary
loan librarian a workout.
Herewith are a few of the best titles l absorbed during that
research. l never miss an opportunity to help my readers discover
that older books were written in an era before all intellectuals
were afflicted with lifelong insecurity caused by cringing from an
imaginary critical and nattery college professor standing over their
shoulder. Older books are often far better than new ones, especially
if you'll forgive them an occasional error in point of fact. We are
not always discovering newer, better, and improved. Often we are
forgetting and obscuring and confusing what was once known, clear
and simple. Many of these extraordinary old books are not in print
and not available at your local library. However, a simple inquiry
at the Interlibrary Loan desk of most libraries will show you how
easy it is to obtain these and most any other book you become
interested in.
Albrecht, William A. _The Albrecht Papers, Vols 1 &2._ Kansas City:
Acres, USA 1975.
Albert Howard, Weston Price, Sir Robert McCarrison, and William
Albrecht share equal responsibility for creating this era's movement
toward biologically sound agriculture. Howard is still well known to
organic gardeners, thanks to promotion by the Rodale organization
while Price, McCarrison, and Albrecht have faded into obscurity.
Albrecht was chairman of the Soil Department at the University of
Missouri during the 1930s. His unwavering investigation of soil
fertility as the primary cause of health and disease was considered
politically incorrect by the academic establishment and vested
interests that funded agricultural research at that time. Driven
from academia, he wrote prolifically for nonscientific magazines and
lectured to farmers and medical practitioners during the 1940s and
1950s. Albrecht was willing to consider chemical fertilizers as
potentially useful though he did not think chemicals were as
sensible as more natural methods. This view was unacceptable to J.l.
Rodale, who ignored Albrecht's profound contributions.
Balfour, Lady Eve B. _The Living Soil._ London: Faber and Faber,
1943.
Lady Balfour was one of the key figures in creating the organic
gardening and farming movement. She exhibited a most remarkable
intelligence and understanding of the science of health and of the
limitations of her own knowledge. Balfour is someone any serious
gardener will want to meet through her books. Lady Balfour proved
Woody Allen right about eating organic brown rice; she died only
recently in her late 90s, compus mentis to the end.
Borsodi, Ralph. _Flight from the City: An Experiment in Creative
Living on the Land._ New York: Harper and Brothers, 1933.
A warmly human back-to-the-lander whose pithy critique of industrial
civilization still hits home. Borsodi explains how production of
life's essentials at home with small-scale technology leads to
enhanced personal liberty and security. Homemade is inevitably more
efficient, less costly, and better quality than anything
mass-produced. Readers who become fond of this unique
individualist's sociology and political economy will also enjoy
Borsodi's _This Ugly Civilization _and _The Distribution Age._
Brady, Nyle C. _The Nature and Properties of Soils, _Eighth Edition.
New York: Macmillan, 1974.
Through numerous editions and still the standard soils text for
American agricultural colleges. Every serious gardener should
attempt a reading of this encyclopedia of soil knowledge every few
years. See also Foth, Henry D. _Fundamentals of Soil Science._
Bromfield, Louis. _Malibar Farm._ New York: Harper & Brothers, 1947.
Here is another agricultural reformer who did not exactly toe the
Organic Party line as promulgated by J.l. Rodale. Consequently his
books are relatively unknown to today's gardening public. If you
like Wendell Berry you'll find Bromfield's emotive and Iyrical prose
even finer and less academically contrived. His experiments with
ecological farming are inspiring. See also Bromfield's other farming
books: _Pleasant Valley, In My Experience,_ and _Out of the Earth._
Carter, Vernon Gill and Dale, Tom. _Topsoil and Civilization.
_Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1974. (first edition, 1954)
This book surveys seven thousand years of world history to show how
each place where civilization developed was turned into an
impoverished, scantily-inhabited semi-desert by neglecting soil
conservation. Will ours' survive any better? Readers who wish to
pursue this area further might start with Wes Jackson's _New Roots
for Agriculture._
Ernle, (Prothero) Lord. _English Farming Past and Present,_ 6th
edition. First published London: Longmans, Green & Co., Ltd., 1912,
and many subsequent editions. Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1962.
Some history is dry as dust. Ernle's writing lives like that of
Francis Parkman or Gibbon. Anyone serious about vegetable gardening
will want to know all they can about the development of modern
agricultural methods.
Foth, Henry D. _Fundamentals of Soil Science, _Eighth Edition. New
York: John Wylie & Sons, 1990.
Like Brady's text, this one has also been through numerous editions
for the past several decades. Unlike Brady's work however, this book
is a little less technical, an easier read as though designed for
non-science majors. Probably the best starter text for someone who
wants to really understand soil.
Hall, Bolton. _Three Acres and Liberty. _New York: Macmillan, 1918.
Bolton Hall marks the start of our modern back-to-the-land movement.
He was Ralph Borsodi's mentor and inspiration. Where Ralph was
smooth and intellectual, Hall was crusty and Twainesque.
Hamaker, John. D. _The Survival of Civilization. _Annotated by
Donald A. Weaver. Michigan/ California: Hamaker-Weaver Publishers,
1982.
Forget global warming, Hamaker believably predicts the next ice age
is coming. Glaciers will be upon us sooner than we know unless we
reverse intensification of atmospheric carbon dioxide by
remineralization of the soil. Very useful for its exploration of the
agricultural use of rock flours. Helps one stand back from the
current global warming panic and ask if we really know what is
coming. Or are we merely feeling guilty for abusing Earth?
Hopkins, Cyril G. _Soil Fertility and Permanent Agriculture.
_Boston: Ginn and Company, 1910.
Though of venerable lineage, this book is still one of the finest of
soil manuals in existence. Hopkins' interesting objections to
chemical fertilizers are more economic than moral.
_The Story of the Soil: From the Basis of Absolute Science and Real
Life. _Boston: Richard G. Badger, 1911.
A romance of soil science similar to Ecotopia or Looking Backward.
No better introduction exists to understanding farming as a process
of management of overall soil mineralization. People who attempt
this book should be ready to forgive that Hopkins occasionally
expresses opinions on race and other social issues that were
acceptable in his era but today are considered objectionable by most
Americans.
Jenny, Hans. _Factors of Soil Formation: a System of Quantitative
Pedology._ New York: McGraw Hill, 1941.
Don't let the title scare you. Jenny's masterpiece is not hard to
read and still stands in the present as the best analysis of how
soil forms from rock. Anyone who is serious about growing plants
will want to know this data.
McCarrison, Sir Robert. _The Work of Sir Robert McCarrison. _ed. H.
M. Sinclair. London Faber and Faber, 1953.
One of the forgotten discoverers of the relationship between soil
fertility and human health. McCarrison, a physician and medical
researcher, worked in India contemporaneously with Albert Howard. He
spent years "trekking around the Hunza and conducted the first
bioassays of food nutrition by feeding rat populations on the
various national diets of India. And like the various nations of
India, some of the rats became healthy, large, long-lived, and good
natured while others were small, sickly, irritable, and short-lived.
Nearing, Helen & Scott. _Living the Good Life: How to Live Sanely
and Simply in a Troubled World._ First published in 1950. New York:
Schocken Books, 1970.
Continuing in Borsodi's footsteps, the Nearings homesteaded in the
thirties and began proselytizing for the self-sufficient life-style
shortly thereafter. Scott was a very dignified old political radical
when he addressed my high school in Massachusetts in 1961 and
inspired me to dream of country living. He remained active until
nearly his hundredth birthday. See also: _Continuing the Good Life_
and _The Maple Sugar Book._
Parnes, Robert. _Organic and Inorganic Fertilizers. _Mt. Vernon,
Maine: Woods End Agricultural Institute, 1986.
Price, Weston A. _Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. _La Mesa,
California: Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation, reprinted 1970.
(1939)
Sits on the "family bible" shelf in my home along with Albrecht,
McCarrison, and Howard. Price, a dentist with strong interests in
prevention, wondered why his clientele, 1920s midwest bourgeoisie,
had terrible teeth when prehistoric skulls of aged unlettered
savages retained all their teeth in perfect condition. So he
traveled to isolated parts of the Earth in the early 1930s seeking
healthy humans. And he found them--belonging to every race and on
every continent. And found out why they lived long, had virtually no
degeneration of any kind including dental degeneration. Full of
interesting photographs, anthropological data, and travel details. A
trail-blazing work that shows the way to greatly improved human
health.
Rodale, J.I. _The Organic Front._ Emmaus: Rodale Press, 1948.
An intensely ideological statement of the basic tenets of the
Organic faith. Rodale established the organic gardening and farming
movement in the United States by starting up _Organic Gardening and
Farming_ magazine in 1942. His views, limitations and preferences
have defined "organic" ever since. See also: _Pay Dirt._
Schuphan, Werner. _Nutritional Values in Crops and Plants. _London:
Faber and Faber, 1965.
A top-rate scientist asks the question: "Is organically grown food
really more nutritious?" The answer is: "yes, and no."
Smith, J. Russell. _Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture._ New York:
Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1929.
No bibliography of agricultural alternatives should overlook this
classic critique of farming with the plow. Delightfully original!
Solomon, Steve. _Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades._ Seattle,
Washington: Sasquatch Books, 1989.
My strictly regional focus combined with the reality that the
climate west of the Cascades is radically different than the rest of
the United States has made this vegetable gardening text virtually
unknown to American gardeners east of the Cascades. It has been
praised as the best regional garden book ever written. Its analysis
of soil management, and critique of Rodale's version of the organic
gardening and farming philosophy are also unique. I founded and ran
Territorial Seed Company, a major, mail-order vegetable garden seed
business; no other garden book has ever encompassed my experience
with seeds and the seed world.
_Waterwise Gardening. _Seattle, Sasquatch Books, 1992.
How to grow vegetables without dependence on irrigation. Make your
vegetables able to survive long periods of drought and still be very
productive. My approach is extensive, old fashioned and contrarian,
the opposite of today's intensive, modern, trendy postage-stamp
living.
Turner, Frank Newman. _Fertility, Pastures and Cover Crops Based on
Nature's Own Balanced Organic Pasture Feeds._ reprinted from: Faber
and Faber, 1955. ed., San Diego: Rateaver, 1975.
An encouragement to farm using long rotations and green manuring
systems from a follower of Albert Howard. Turner offered a
remarkably sensible definition for soil fertility, in essence, "if
my livestock stay healthy, live long, breed well, and continue doing
so for at least four generations, then my soil was fertile."
Voisin, Andre. _Better Grassland Sward. _London: Crosby Lockwood and
Sons, Ltd., 1960.
The first half is an amazing survey of the role of the earthworm in
soil fertility. The rest is just Voisin continuing on at his amazing
best. No one interested in soil and health should remain unfamiliar
with Voisin's intelligence. See also: _Grass Tetany, Grass
Productivity,_ and _Soil, Grass and Cancer._