Recommended reading on organic agriculture and farming in general. Recommended reading on organic agriculture and farming in general. Barry Lia wrote: Lord Northbourne Look to the Land Northbourne seems to have first coined the term "organic farming" in 1940. Sir Albert Howard An Agricultural Testament Farming and Gardening For Health or Disease The Soil and Health BIODYNAMICS Rudolph Steiner Ehrenfried Pfeifer Wolf Storl Herbert Koepf Masanobu Fukuoka One Straw Revolution zero till farming, let the weeds grow and plant within them, SEEDBALLS F.H. King Farmers of 40 Centuries The Soil Lady Eve Balfour http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Eve_Balfour Images: http://www.google.com/images?q=Lady+Eve+Balfour&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rlz=1R1GGLL_en___US365&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=H975S_DTN4GC8gbd_pHTCg&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CDcQsAQwAw Lady Evelyn Barbara "Eve" Balfour (1899-1990) was an English farmer, educator, organic farming pioneer, and a founding figure in the organic movement. She was one of the first women to study agriculture at an English university, graduating from the University of Reading. The daughter of the second Earl of Balfour, she began farming in 1920, in Haughley Green, Suffolk, England. In 1939, with her friend and neighbor Ryan Nelson, she launched the Haughley Experiment, the first long-term, side-by-side scientific comparison of organic and chemical-based farming. In 1943, she published the organics classic, "The Living Soil", a book combining her research with the initial findings at Haughley. In 1946, she co-founded and became the first president of the Soil Association, an international organization claiming to promote sustainable agriculture (and the main organic farming association in the UK today). She continued to farm, write and lecture for the rest of her life. Louis Bromfield Malabar Farm J.I. Rodale The Healthy Hunzas Pay Dirt The Organic Front W.R. Thompson (The Pasture Man) The Pasture Book pps. 8-9: Calendar of pasture activities (fascinating and diverse activities - LL) April 7. Move livestock from kudzu-crimson or kudzu-winter pea area. 8. Set kudzu crowns September 13. Harvest Dallis grass seed. P. Aquatias Formerly French Gardener to A.J. Molyneux, Esq. Intensive Culture of Vegetables on the French System London, 1913 (The Bible, along with the works of Chadwick, Jeavons, Coleman and others - LL) MM. Vilmorin-Andrieux of Paris The Vegetable Garden Illustrations, Descriptions and Culture of The Garden Vegetables Of Cold and Temperate Climates London, 1885 Edward Faulkner Plowman's Folly Liberty Hyde Bailey Andrew Jackson Downing Books by: Richard Langer Gene Logsdon Cyril Hopkins Soil Fertility and Permanent Agriculture Country Life Education Series Chapter: Theories Concerning Soil Fertility P. 341Fertility of Soil Artificial Fertilizers Said To Be All Wrong Special Correspondence. Washington, Nov. 17 "Artificial fertilizers - phosphates and nitrates, chiefly - act upon the soil as drugs act upon the human body, according to investigations just completed by the Bureau of Soils of the Department of Agriculture. Although there are some experiments and some tabulation of results yet to be made, the scientists have gone far enough to evolve a theory that may upset present-day methods of agriculture. The new theory is based on a series of experiments that have been conducted during the summer and for several years prior to this season. They intend to show that there are natural agencies at work in the soil that will replenish worn-out 'soil tissues' just as the worn out tissues of the body in man are replaces by agencies inside. Only in the case of man there is usually a limit to this process, whereas, in soils, the scientists have observed some wonderful results from soils long ago abandoned as useless. Sensible rotation of crops will produce much better and more lasting results than the artificial fertilization of soils, say the experts." -- Freport (Illinois) Daily Bulletin, November 19, 1909 [He seems to be advocating polyculture, culture of annual, perennial, orchard and forest crops and crop rotation within farming systems utilizing permaculture methods - LL] Founders of the Permaculture movement: Bill Mollison: Permaculure Designer's Manual The Permaculture Book of Ferment and Human Nutrition David Holmgren Eliot Coleman Books on home, market and all seasons gardening (all classics) John Jeavons How To Grow More Vegetables (a classic) Firman Bear Earth: The Stuff Of Life Charles Piper Forage Plants and Their Culture The Rural Text-Book Series Edited by L.H. Bailey See a few scanned pages from this book, http://picasaweb.google.com/venaura/BOOKS# notably pictures of pigs on kudzu in a pasture: http://picasaweb.google.com/venaura/BOOKS#5469848478333184642 http://picasaweb.google.com/venaura/BOOKS# Newman Turner Fertility Pastures Peter Tompkins & Christopher Bird The Secret Life of Plants Secrets of the Soil