Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Gloria Baikauskas <gcb49@flash.net>]

From my reading I have read that there was really only the one group in South America that did agriculture right.  The Kakopki....can't for the life of me remember their name....though I know it is something in that region of the alphabet.   I have been forgetting lots of things of late because of personal stress unfortunately.    These were the ones who planted around trees on mounds.  They then left....came back to tend the plants and top the trees so they would get sun before harvest. 

 

The terra preta folks apparently did something right since their soil is still fertile.  It was my understanding that they did not slash and burn....but rather that they buried wood in clay pots in the ground and covered it after starting it on fire to create charcoal.  Something about the mixture made the terra preta.  I haven't read the article for a while...so my memory is a bit fuzzy.   I know scientists have tried repeatedly to reproduce it and have not exactly gotten it right....but close. 

 

The Amazon is infertile....but it was planted intentionally in rows.  It only sustains the plants that grow within it which have adapted to the soil and surroundings.   It may have at one time been a great farm. Dunno.  They are still trying to figure that one out....and ripping it down to try farming it, ranching it....and failing. 

 

Yeah.....we did make quite a mess of the land in the US.  Twas those brilliant folks in the 40s and 50s who didn't listen to the leaders in their field on how to fix the problem....but who instead turned to the new guys with their saving grace chemicals.....with stupid planting ideas like monocropping.  Better to go back to the small farms again which did produce....and to let the small farmers grow hemp again so if the food crop fails they still have something that won't to pay the bills. 

 

Gloria, Texas