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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Herbal Leys and Ley Farming

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  • From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Herbal Leys and Ley Farming
  • Date: Thu, 03 Aug 2006 10:05:51 -0600


Fascinating. I find first editions of Turner's Fertility Farming anywhere
from $60 up to $125 at Alibris. And Turner's Fertility pastures and cover
crops: Based on nature's own balanced organic pasture feeds (Conservation
gardening and farming series: Series C, reprints) at Bookfinder go from
$150 to $400. Must be something to it.


paul tradingpost@lobo.net

Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.
--Henry David Thoreau
*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

On 8/3/2006 at 10:09 AM Steve Diver wrote:

>[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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