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["Marie McHarry" <mmcharry AT gmail.com>]

On 6/18/06, Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com> wrote:
>

> Most large operators cannot economically produce as we home gardeners
> do. The best they can do, and it is a good way, is to plant a cover
> crop that produces a large amount of plant material, and then at the
> appropriate time disc that into the soil.
Interestingly, no-till farming is steadily returning organic matter to
the soil. In no sense of the word is no-till as it is practiced
commercially today organic -- this is the process that brought us
Round-up Ready soybeans -- but it has it's good points.

I vaguely remember reading about some pioneer in the field developing
-- I think it was in the 1930s -- a method of no-chemical no-till
farming. Of course, it took a lot of planning to bring off, IIRC.
Anyone have a clue about this? Or is it a memory brought on by faulty
chemicals in my system?

There was also a farmer who figured out that grassy waterways would be
better than mechanical forms of soil conservation, but his methods
ended up being adopted eventually. All around me the farmers have just
finished baling their waterway grass -- tough stuff, but cows will eat
it.

Marie, rambling on a Sunday morning