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Re: Permaculture International (fwd) (fwd)



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. Rateaver



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