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Re: Permaculture International (fwd) (fwd)



BRateaver wrote:
> 
> Dear Dr. London, I should like to see her succeed.
> 
> I grew up in Madagascar, in a seacoast town, in this very primitive
> country. Water had to be carried, in 2 pails on a pole on shoulders, from
> 3 miles away--whether to use for drinking or for watering the garden.
> 
> There was no electricity.
> 
> Like Guatemala, Madagascar is also in the tropics, and the people also
> extremely poor, having no way to earn money except growing or fishing, and
> that meant exchanges among each other, since there were very few
> foreigners to whom things could be sold.
> 
> What my father, a super green thumb, showed was how to build soil with
> manure and compost.  I must say, tho, that most of the natives did not
> want to learn any routine that required that much effort. It was easier to
> just depend on whatever they had. Altnough his successes were spectacular,
> even in the southern arid region of xerophytic forest, as well as in a
> mountain village, I never saw any of the natives willing to put out the
> effort to improve their lot by using manure as fertilizer, or composting,
> both very easy in such cattle country.
> 
> So it seems to me her main effort would be to get people to expend the
> energy to improve the soil. There is always diluted urine available,
> manure from some animals, and some weeds--always at least something green,
> and food residues for composting.
> 
> B. RateaverHi, B.Rateaver.. who are you talking to?



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