The Soil and Health: A Study of Organic Agriculture

356 Pages·2007·14.64 MB·English

by  Albert Howard

The Soil and Health
Culture of the Land
A Series in the New Agrarianism
This series is devoted to the exploration and articulation of a new agrarian
ism that considers the health of habitats and human communities together.
It is intended to demonstrate how agrarian insights and responsibilities
can be worked out in diverse fields of learning and living: history, science,
art, politics, economics, literature, philosophy, religion, urban planning,
education, and public policy. Agrarianism is a comprehensive worldview
that appreciates the intimate and practical connections which exist between
humans and the earth. It stands as our most promising alternative to the
unsustainable and destructive ways of current global, industrial, and con
sumer culture.
Series Editor
Norman Wirzba, Georgetown College, Kentucky
Advisory Board
Wendell Berry, Port Royal, Kentucky
Ellen Davis, Duke University, North Carolina
Patrick Holden, Soil Association, United Kingdom
Wes Jackson, Land Institute, Kansas
Gene Logsdon, Upper Sandusky, Ohio
Bill McKibben, Middlebury College, Vermont
David Orr, Oberlin College, Ohio
Michael Pollan, University of California at Berkeley, California
Jennifer Sahn, Orion magazine, Massachusetts
Vandana Shiva, Research Foundation for Science,
Technology and Ecology, India
William Vitek, Clarkson University, New York
The
Soil
and
H e a l t h
A Study of
Organic Agriculture
SIR ALBERT HOWARD
With a New Introduction
by Wendell Berry
THE UNNJRRSJTY PRFSS OF KENTUCKY
Publication of this volume was made possible in part by a grant
from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Copyright © 1947 by The Devin-Adair Company
New Introduction copyright © 2006 by Wendell Berry
Published in 2006 by The University Press of Kentucky
Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth,
serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky,
Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown
College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead
State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University,
Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville,
and Western Kentucky University.
All rights reserved.
Editor;,al and Sales OffiCI's: The University Press of Kentucky
663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008
www.kentuckypress.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Howard, Albert, Sir, 1873-1947.
The soil and health: a study of organic agriculture / Sir Albert Howard.
p. cm. - (Culture of the land: a series in the new agrarianism)
Originally published in 1947 by The Devin-Adair Company.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8131-9171-3 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-lO: 0-8131-9171-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)
I. Organic farming. 2. Organic gardening. 3. Plant diseases.
1. Title. 11. Series.
S605.5.H67 2007
631.5'84--dc22 2006025168
This book is printed on acid-free recycled paper meeting
the requirements of the American National Standard
for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials.
§®
Manufactured in the United States of America.
~• ••' . ~ Member of the Association of
'IA:! _ American University Presses
"The civilized nations-Greece, Rome, England
have been sustained by the primitive forests which
anciently rotted where they stood. They survive as
long as the soil is not exhausted."
-Thoreau, Walking and the Wild
"The staple foods may not contain the same
nutritive substances as in former times ....
Chemical fertilizers, by increasing the abundance
of the crops without replacing all the exhausted
elements of the soil, have indirectly contributed to
change the nutritive value of cereal grains and of
vegetables .... Hygienists have not paid sufficient
attention to the genesis of diseases. Their studies
of conditions of life and diet, and of their effects
on the physiological and mental state of modern
man, are superficial, incomplete, and of too short
duration. They have, thus, contributed to the
weakening of our body and our soul."
-Alexis Carrel, Man the Unknown
"The preservation of fertility is the first duty of
all that live by the land .... There is only one rule
of good husbandry-leave the land far better than
you found it."
-George Henderson, The Farming Ladder

CONTENTS
List of Illustrations Xl
New Introduction by Wendell Berry Xlll
Preface xxv
I. INTRODUCTION
An Adventure in Research 1
PART I. TilE PART PLAYED BY SOIL FERTILITY IN AGRICUlTURE
II. TilE OPERATIONS OF NATURE 17
The Life of the Plant 20
The Living Soil 22
The Significance of Humus 26
The Importance of Minerals 29
Summary 30
1II. SYSTEMS OF AGRICUlTURE 33
Primitive Forms of Agriculture 33
Shifting Cultivation 35
The Harnessing of the Nile 36
Staircase Cultivation 36
The Agriculture of China 38
The Agriculture of Greece and Rome 39
Farming in the Middle Ages 41
IV. TilE MAINTENANCE OF SOIL FERTILITY IN GREAT BRITAIN 43
The Roman Occupation 43
The Saxon Conquest 44
The Open-Field System 45
The Depreciation of Soil Fertility 46
The Low Yield of Wheat 48
The Black Death 49
Enclosure 50
The Industrial Revolution and Soil Fertility 53
The Great Depression of 1879 55
The Second World War 56
v. INDUSTRIALISM AND THE PROFIT MOTIVE 57
The Exploitation of Virgin Soil 57
The Profit Motive 60
The Consequence of Soil Exploitation 61
The Easy Transfer of Fertility 63
The Road Farming Has Travelled 65
VI. THE INTRUSION OF SCIENCE 69
The Origin of Artificial Fertilizers 69
The Advent of the Laboratory Hermit 72
The Unsoundness of Rothamsted 72
Artificials during the Two World Wars 75
The Shortcomings of Present-day Agricultural
Research 77
PART II. DISEASE IN PRESENT DAY FARMING AND GARDENING
VII. SOME DISEASES OF THE SOIL 85
Soil Erosion 85
The Formation of Alkali Land 94
VIII. THE DISEASES OF CROPS 103
Sugar-cane 104
Coffee 109
Tea III
Cacao 118
Cotton 121
Rice 127
Wheat 129
Vine 132
Fruit 138
Tobacco 147
Leguminous Crops 148
Potato 150
Some Parasitic Flowering Plants 156
IX. DISEASE AND HEAlTH IN LIVESTOCK 158
Foot-and-Mouth Disease 158
Soil Fertility and Disease 163
Concentrates and Contagious Abortion 166
Selective Feeding by Instinct 167
Herbs and Livestock 169
The Maintenance of Our Breeds of Poultry 171
x. SOIL FERTILITY AND HUMAN HEAlTH 173
XI. TIlE NATURE OF DISEASE 187
PART 1Il. TIlE PROBLEM OF FERTILIZING
XII. ORIGINS AND SCOPE OF THE PROBLEM 193
The Phosphate Problem and Its Solution 197
The Reform of the Manure Heap 204
Sheet-composting and Nitrogen Fixation 207
The Utilization of Town Wastes 209
Summary 210
XIII. THE INDORE PROCESS AND ITS RECEPTION BY THE FARMING AND
GARDENING WORLDS 211
Some Practical Points 213
The New Zealand Compost Box 216
Mechanization 220
The Spread of the Indore Process in the Farming
and Plantation Worlds 223
South Africa 224
Rhodesia 233
Malaya 234
India 236
New Zealand 237
Great Britain 238
The United States of America 241
XIV. THE RECEPTION OF TilE INDORE PROCESS BY THE SCIENTISTS 245
PART IV. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
Xv. A HNAL SURVEY 257