In the fall after the plants are gone, farmers and gardeners look for next year. What can I do to improve or make it easier to farm or garden?  One method is to read books and one which was recently read was The Gardener’s Guide to Better Soil by Gene Logsdon published by Rodale Press Inc, Emmaus, Pennsylvania, 1975.

If you are fortunate to live and work in rich, black loam full of humus, all you  really need to do is start your planning. If you are similar to the rest of us, the quality of the soil will depend on how well your plants do. The better the quality, the better they will do.

If you consider the book was written in 1975 and om 2018 we are still dealing with the problem when the solutions are know, it sometimes makes you wonder.

Man is 7 inches from starvation is an old but true saying and it means we grow on the top 7 inches of the earth.

The fall of almost every civilization is largely an account of raping natural resources until all the easy profit goes out of them. The history books from Roman times to modern times are filled with examples.

We do not set up to intentionally do it but man finds a good land and establishes a civilization. His flocks graze the grass; he tills the soil. Increased populations put more demand on the productive capacity of the land. Overgrazing and over-tilling both follow. Plant life becomes too weak to restore itself, and the soil grows yearly more deficient in plant food and tilth. Weak plants can not control erosion – note wind and rain do not cause farm erosion, lack of nitrogen and organic matter do. Deforestation, over-grazing, intensive tillage all then contribute to a hard soil where water runs off quickly. Summer soils become drier, winter floods more destructive.

In the 1930’s many people heard of the dust bowls. Once alarmed the answer was technology. Technology included dams, grass waterways, contoured slopes, chisel plowing, terraces. Chemical fertilizers were used on a giant scale. By the middle 60’s, America had a surplus of food. The areas that showed the greatest increase in agricultural production was the Great Plains and California. How was it done – irrigation.

Water comes from somewhere and is it being replenished?

The issues remain, which is a shame – we know how to fix it.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, we all like to believe we have made progress but sometimes the answer is not so much. History does not always have to repeat itself. Mulching and using composting to continually enrich the soil is similar to collecting dividends. The company makes a profit, pays dividends to you – you are enrich once again and can either put more money into the business (buy shares) or have other alternatives to save or spend the money.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.