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[Bill Jones <billj AT harborside.com>]

Lynda wrote:

> Star thistles on the other hand are a major problem as they are deadly for 
> horses.  We are currently removing star thistle from our place.  We've 
> cleared 6 acres so far.  Patience and pray the back doesn't give out and 
> we'll get rid of the rest of it!
>
>  
There's more than enough reason to conclude that pasture weed problems 
are due in major part to the way people do things nowadays.  In the 
past, before all farms became either animal or vegetable, pasture was 
rotated with grains and row crops, and tilled and replanted.  If this is 
not done, it's hard to see what force keeps the weeds from taking over 
altogether, since livestock are constantly selecting for weeds, the 
surviving plants that aren't grazed!  Fortunately in this case I just 
have to give up star thistle for cut flowers.

You may have heard of the hated citrus spraying programs in S. 
California for the Mediterranean fruit fly.  I was lucky not to live 
right near any of the citrus monoculture happening there.  I'm not sure 
why any non-millionaires are still allowed to grow citrus there, when 
the solution is so simple; why it's not just like the pine blister rust 
or filberts, where they just ban it all.  Maybe the retail nurseries got 
together and came up with some persuasion too.  At this point you're not 
allowed to move fruit out of your backyard, and that's the only 
restriction I've heard of.

I've been told that it's illegal for me to grow tobacco.  Apparently the 
reason given is that it's hard to grow tobacco, and what with all the 
pests and diseases, you could really spoil it for the people who really 
matter, just as with filberts.  The first year I was here I grew great 
tobacco (a nice plant, that is), although it does require a head start; 
mine never set seed and I never grew it again.  I'm sorry that THEIR 
tobacco is so hard to grow.  We found out that the first crop ever 
planted in this area by one group of newly arrived farmers was 
Connecticut wrapper.  It was a smashing success, with record yields, 
after which it was never grown again.  I wonder why.

Inevitably the surprise I alluded to in the previous post always 
involves the same thing: our need to sacrifice, to cover their errors.  
The day could come when the coastal cranberry kings might discover some 
new disease in their giant bathtubs, proving once again that 
employee-free commercial monoculture won't work.  Should one of the 
white coats down at Potion Spray finger potatoes, say, as the 
"alternative host for the disease," then our little Incan-style potato 
farm in the hills is through.  After all, this is not a "commercial 
potato-growing area," so no one THAT MATTERS will be affected.

Bill
S. Oregon coast