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livingontheland - [Livingontheland] Herbal Leys and Ley Farming

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Steve Diver <steved@ipa.net>
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Herbal Leys and Ley Farming
  • Date: Thu, 3 Aug 2006 10:09:31 -0500 (GMT-05:00)

[Subject was: Wheat is the new oil: Nutrient Cycling]


Bob Monie -

Thanks for remembering the herbal leys from Britain, the use of
mixed forages containing deep-rooted herbs and forbes, along
with grasses, to increase pasture fertility and animal nutrition.

The farmer's name was Newman Turner. Here is one of his
classic books. A reprint was sold by the late Bargyla Rateaver
for many years. Acres USA now distributes some of those
books from The Rateavers.


Turner, Newman. 1955. Fertility Pastures: Herbal Leys as the
Basis of Soil Fertility and Animal Husbandry. Faber and Faber,
London. 204 pp.


Also see:

The Clifton Park System of Farming, and Laying Down
Land to Grass
by Rober Elliot (Faber and Faber, London; 1953; 261 pp.

Via Journey to Forever
http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/elliot/cliftonToC.html

Via Soil and Health Library
http://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrary/010128elliot/010128toc.html


Ley farming is a similar term that describes a rotation between
arable crops and grass/legume pastures. It has made a huge
impact on soil fertility and improved soil quality in cereal cropping
systems in Australia and related Mediterranean climates, as well
as the agroclimatic region of the Northern Great Plains and
Intermountain West.

Actually, the same concept has been widely practiced by
farmers and promoted by agronomists as "forage-based
rotations," rotating crops to pastures and hay fields for
two or three years before going back to row crops.

Sod-forming grasses and legumes provide
multiple benefits to soils through the action of their
massive root systems, root sloughing, deposition of
organic matter and rhizosphere glues and slimes,
soil aggregation, and "soil building" processes.

Soil and Health Library carries an historical book on
"ley farming" that also provides seed mixtures for
herbal leys.

Stapledon, Sir R. George and William Davies. 1948.
Ley Farming. Faber and Faber, London.
http://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrary/01aglibwelcome.html

Regards,

Steve Diver
Northwest Arkansas



-----Original Message-----
>From: Robert Monie <bobm20001@yahoo.com>
>Sent: Aug 1, 2006 11:07 AM
>To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
>Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Wheat is the new oil: Nutrient Cycling
>
>Hi Paul,
>
> Robert Eliot, Norm Turner, and the other ley farmers following the
> "Clifton Park System" believed that they had found, by trial and error, the
> best nutrient recycling plants and the best deep rooted cover crops to
> produce humus. Their selection is, from our point of view, surprising. They
> found the cover crops most commolnly used today--white clover, hairy vetch,
> rye, buckwheat--to be valuable but of limited use, something like "icing on
> the cake." The real substance of the "cake" was for them very aggressive,
> deep rooting plants like chicory, burnet, red clover, sweet biennial
> clover, and cocksfoot grass. They preferred these even to alfalfa and
> comfrey as the main actors in soil conditioning and humus production.
> Could it be that they knew something that we have forgotten?
>
> The ley farmers believed that in 4 years their ley crops would not only
> bring up minerals from deep in the soil; they would also, with their deep
> roots, virtually "double dig" the soil, cutting aerating channels,
> and--when killed--their decomposing roots would compost in the soil down to
> a foot or more. Chicory, burnet, red clover, biennial sweet clover and
> cocksfoot grass would be vegetal workhorses pumping minerals, digging soil,
> composing their own biomass below ground, and making humus. A regular
> soil-growing factory they had in their fields! For forage (and still more
> variety in deep rooted cycling) the ley farmers often threw in sheep's
> sorrel, dandelion, and many other "herbal" ingredients. Impatient farmers
> (like most Americans) often let the leys grow for just two years before
> killing them and planting in the main crops, but they too reported
> significant improvement in soil tilth and richness.
>
> For the past year I have been trying to grow my own experimental ley
> crops. I planted several kinds of chicory (including the red stemmed
> variety) along with burnet, red and sweet clover and American orchard
> grass. I have also--in the traditional spirit of ley farming--thrown in a
> few oilseed radishes, some dandelion and plantain, and yellow and white
> mustard. as well as very thick-rooted biennial sweet cover. I'm going to
> let these follow their natural cycles for at least another year, then kill
> them by mowing. So far, I have observed some extraordinary networks of
> roots driving into the ground from this plant combination that I have never
> seen from the usual buckwheat, rye, clover, vetch alternations. I would
> not be surpised if, after another year, the soil covered by the ley crops
> turned out to be richer in nutrients and humus than any other soil I have.
> In a year, I can tell you if this was wishful thinking or not.
>
> It is fun to look at the British website still devoted to ley farming and
> seed supplies.
> They stoutly maintain to this day that nothing builds humus like the
> stalwart trio of
> red clover, chicory and cocksfoot grass. See
> http://www.cotswoldseeds.com/longtermGM.htm for their "Long Term Green
> Manures" especially the "Soil Structure Imrpovement Two-Four Year Mixture."
> They boast that their Clifton Park ley mix utilizes "very strong tap root
> species for massive improvement in soil structure and humus."
>
> I suggest that American farmers and gardeners might set aside a forgotten
> corner of their fields, put in some chicory, burnet, red clover, orchard
> grass seeds and other deep-rooted ley crops to see what alchemy they can
> work in 2 to 4 years. Some of the Fukuoka farming cognoscenti in Japan have
> even suggested that a few years' soil preparation with ley crops may be
> what farmers need to get the famous but elusive Fukuoka no-till method
> working in North America.
>
> Bob Monie
> New Orleans, LA








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