Common-Sense Compost Making |  | Creator: Natan Snider
Category: eBooks
This item is no longer available
Sales Rank: 278442
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
ASIN: B003OIBNYW
Publication Date: May 28, 2010
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Product Description
Introductory Note
Here is a curious fact. It has taken a World War to revive and strengthen the human love of the soil.
Throughout the ages, we find that work on and with the soil has meant fertility, health, prosperity; but as soon as man began to exploit it for gain, or neglect it from sloth, fertility ceased, the life departed from the earth, soil erosion followed, and vast tracts of land were invaded by sand and dust, with the result that once fertile country was turned into desert and dust bowl, and the process still goes on.
Nature is slow to retaliate, but terribly sure. The lesson may be learnt on every continent, either as the result of neglect in the long past, or from the concentrated and constant exploitation of a century. The first, neglect, is typified by the deserts of North Africa -- once the granary of Rome -- and by the derelict lands in Palestine, and Transjordania, once 'the land flowing with milk and honey'. The second, exploitation, is shown by the dust bowls of America -- here was virgin soil, rich in natural humus; the utmost was extracted from the land, no living matter was returned, and consequently the life went out of the soil and it returned to dust. The results are being faced at last, and taken to heart with courageous enterprise and a stirring of national conscience. In New Zealand deep anxiety is expressed, because of the exploitation of land by the use of chemical fertilizers and of widespread deforestation. In Australia great tracts are suffering from drought, soil erosion, diminishing fertility from the same causes. From East Africa come accounts of virgin land exploited, doped with chemicals, till it becomes useless, then left derelict for a repetition of the same procedure a little farther on.
If we turn from the large to the small, we find the majority of small-holders and gardeners are up against the same difficulties. They cannot get natural humus, i.e. farmyard manure. They try chemicals -- manure from a bag. It has all the right chemical ingredients, but no life, no inherent power of growth; has anyone ever heard of a mineral growing? The result after a few seasons is a steady decrease of fertility and increase of pests and disease. Mercifully, the compost heap is now being recognized as 'the heart of the garden'. This is a change of attitude of the past three years, and one which will surely save the situation, if the practice of using this compost becomes universal. In the midst of this world-wide sickness of soil, there are areas of fertility, and some in most unpromising natural conditions.
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