permaculture

[Steve Diver <steved@ipa.net>]

In the thread "Definition of area measurement; quarter acre 
in size", I suggested that list participants calculate how many 
rows and beds of vegetables and crops you can fit inside 
a quarter acre.....  a dacha garden, a rood, a country garden
in size.  

It's a practical excercize that could lead into spreadsheets, 
garden planning guides, tables, and crop enterprise budgets 
that you'd want in a permaculture toolbox.  

Along these lines, I call your attention to this classic book of 
agricultural acreage measurements quickly estimated by stepping 
off land in yards, published in 1856, that starts off with the 
following pithy text: 

"The content of land is estimated in acres, roods, and perches, 
forty of which perches make one rood, and four roods make one 
acre."

The Farmer's Land-Measurer, or Pocket Companion: Showing, at 
One View, the Content of Any Piece of Land, from Dimensions 
Taken in Yards. With a Set of Useful Agricultural Tables
by James Pedder 
C.M. Saxton Pub Co, New York.  1856.
Making of America (MOA) collection
http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=moa;idno=AJQ8020.0001.001

This book is part of the Making of America (MOA) collection, which
offers page-views of digitized text.

Steve Diver