Subject: [compost_tea] Re: Web of Life

From: "Steve Diver" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 07 May 2004 04:31:27 -0000

Siegfried and Uta Luebke in Austria developed the Controlled

Microbial Composting system.

When I studied under the Luebkes they alluded to the work

of Raoul France and his wife, Annie France-Harrar. They

especially referred to Raoul France's book "Bios, die Gesetze

der Welt" (Bios: The Laws of the World).

Since Raoul France's body of work is published in German,

it is not readily accessible.

However, an English-language biography was published in 2000

and it provides a fascinating account of Raoul France's

lifetime achievements in microbiology, accompanied by an

extensive bibliography.

See:

Raoul France' and the Doctrine of Life. 2000. By Rene'Romain

Roth.  1st Books Library, Bloomington, IN. 320 p.

France' is considered the father of soil ecology, and coined

the terms and underlying concepts for "edaphon," "biocenotics",

"biotechnik", "bionics," and "psychobiology."

This is an excellent biography; it is fascinating. It provides

insight to Raoul France's studies in microbiology, microscopy,

soil ecology, and onwards to the unifying philosophical

systems he developed resulting in "Bios: The Laws of the World",

and so forth, dating from 1892 to 1943.

Raoul, who was director of the Munich Biological Institute,

published dozens of papers and books, for example:

"Forays into a Drop of Water"

"Edaphon - A New Biological Community"

"Studies on Edaphic Organisms"

"Edaphon - Studies in the Ecology of Soil-inhabiting

Microorganisms"

In 1950, Annie France-Harrar published "The Last Chance for

a Future Without Want" through the Bavarian Agricultural

Publishing House.  The book "created a sensation among

soil scientists and agronomists because it sounded an alarm

for the future food supply of humanity by drawing attention

to the danger of humus destruction and soil erosion."

This resulted in an invitation from the Mexican government

to help remediate soils in Mexico.  Annie subsequently worked

in a microbial laboratory in Mexico from 1955 to 1961. They

developed a new type of fertilizer called "Edaphon-humus"

bricks which "contained a selection of soil-inhabiting

microorganisms in pure culture and which were used

to inoculate agricultural soil with humus-producing

microbionts."

"Besides, she also created "Petrfil" bricks which

contained lithobionts; i.e., microorganisms that

inhabited rock surfaces and caused rocks to disintegrate

into soil."

On the web, when you look for Annie France-Harrar,

many of the websites pertain to wurmhumus, regenwurm,

regenwurmfarm, humusproduktion, and so forth.

Altogether, 36 books by Annie and 84 books by Raoul;

one together; plus hundreds of articles and journal

papers.

Thought ya'll might find these people interesting as

a resource on earlier developments in soil ecology,

humus, and microbes.

Regards,

Steve Diver

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