Shipman's reading list: radical agriculture

Due to my long exposure to the Whole Earth Catalog and associated publications like the Whole Earth Review, I've run across some agricultural theories that could hardly be more contrary to the way ag is usually practiced in the USA these days.

I'm not really much of a practitioner of these off-the-wall ideas, but have had some surprising successes with them in my own yard. I think any home gardener or even small landholder might benefit from trying some of these ideas. Why are so many important books out of print?!

• The one-straw revolution: an introduction to natural farming by Masanobu Fukuoka (Rodale Press, 1978, ISBN 0-87857-220-1). A wu-wei (do very little) approach that dispenses with insecticides, fertilizers, and all turning of the soil. Long out of print, but available again, in an edition from India, from Plants Of The Southwest, 6680 4th St NW Albuquerque, NM 87107, (505) 344-8830.
• Tree crops by J. Russell Smith (Devin-Adair, 1987, ISBN 0933280440). Why not plant perennials that drop the food right on the ground for you? Exhaustive analyses of different trees and their merits. Among the unusual ideas: instead of planting an orchard of small stunted nut trees, why not plant five nut trees on an acre so they all get plenty of light? It takes a longer-term approach to get the benefits, obviously.
• The Ruth Stout no-work garden book by Ruth Stout and Richard Clemence (Rodale Press, 1971, 0-87857-000-4). The bible of the mulchers. Put down a foot of rotting straw (around these parts, I can almost always find poor hay for $2 a bale). When it rots down to six inches deep, add another six inches, repeat. To plant, dig down through the mulch to the ground, plant the seeds, and when they get tall enough, push the mulch back against the stems. In places with adequate rain, this is just about all you need to do, and the soil just gets better every year. Here in the arid West, I think it works great if you just add drip irrigation lines on top of the mulch.
• Carrots love tomatoes and Roses love garlic by Louise Riotte. All about companion planting, where you plant multiple species that get along, and avoid planting together those plants that don't get along. I grew some great corn and soybeans under mulch one summer with this method combined with the Ruth Stout method.

Last updated: 2002/08/09 23:04:16
URL: http://www.nmt.edu/~shipman/reading/ag.html