Dear Jeff:
Laying tillage on Jethro Tull is a bit naive, old
man. Plows and hoes have been around so long that really ancient poetry can be
found expressing a dispute between the two of them....
Plows were depicted in ancient Babylon as well,
see
Plows were known in ancient China, and in the
New World among the Inca, as well as in the Middle East.
The Wikipedia defines tillage as "the agricultural
preparation of the soil to receive seeds".
I would also refer you to Eliot Coleman's The New
Organic Grower, 2nd edition, for a very up to date discussion of the need for,
and better ways to perform, tillage in field scale vegetable
production.
Coleman, and many other organic growers, also
practice cultivation of the soil to eliminate weed pressure on crops. Such
surface cultivation, while not as problematic as deep tillage, also plays havoc
with normal foodweb interactions, but it is hard to avoid the reality that weed
pressures can seriously affect quality and yield of crops.
I know Elaine has met with Eliot at least a few
times and I know that Eliot presents as a difficult to achieve ideal a no-till
approach, but as Elaine has said many times, there are times when tillage is
necessary. We therefore should not utter simplistic absolutes, but adopt a more
supple 'Canadian comprise' approach---tillage if necessary, but not necessarily
tillage.
Can ya dig it?
;-)
Frank Teuton---who has been Faulknered, Pfeiffered
and Stouted on tillage, not to mention Uncle Billed (that'd be Mollison) and Wes
Jacksoned, as well as Gene Logsdoned....
Here's a pithy quote from a dead white guy
found on a live compost guy's home page:
"The plow is one of the most ancient and most valuable of man's
inventions;
but long before he existed the land was in fact regularly plowed, and still continues to be thus plowed by earthworms. It may be doubted whether there are many other animals which have played so important a part in the history of the world, as have these lowly organized creatures." Darwin, C.R. 1881. The Formation of Vegetable Mould
Through the Action of Worms, with
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