Subject: Applications

From: Mike Skinner <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 7 Oct 1997 08:36:03 -0500

Pardon me, in advance,
    But could a poor educated peasant farmer like myself get an
answer to my "animal tractor on strip cropped" question or is this
not the appropriate forum?
    What few of us farmers that are left here and as misguided as
I know we have been, are in the midst of continual battles risking
all that we have worked for for generations--weather, prices (cheap food policy)
, etc., and now corporate hog farms. That is why I'm asking a somewhat vague
and purposely dumb question about a better way of protein production
as a viable and healthy system and one which will better unite "green"
people. Don't get me wrong, I love intellectual discourse, but now I must
roll up my sleeves and put to the test what I've learned.
     Gotta move.....
        Mike Skinner

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From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 7 Oct 1997 16:36:17 -0400 (EDT)

> not the appropriate forum?

Now that's an interesting concept: strip cropping (as opposed
to row crops, broadcast sowings (i.e. greens, cover/forage crops)
no-till raised bed cropping). This sounds like a quick and possibly
effective way to prepare an area for later preparation of raised beds.
Take an area, weed seed bank and all, cut over existing weeds, distribute
soil amendments/compost, digging fork/spade fork/U-Bar dig the area
quickly, plant crop seeds. In the above example forage crops intended for
chickens would be planted. Weeds would be allowed to regrow/germinate
then be thinned or removed depending on appropriateness/usefullness or
whether they are part of a guild or have companion, biocontrol, medicinal
or food use. Strip cropping would give you an excellent opportunity to
sample your weed seed bank and experiment with integrating various weeds
into your permanent cropping schemes, whether they be row, raised bed or
strip. You would also have the opportunity to see which weeds are good
forage crops for chickens and then start saving their seeds for planting
ahead of the path of the chicken tractor. If they like weeds that
are miners of subsoil-located nutrients, all the better.

Re: Bill Mollison: I agree with Jack that Bill's writings and teachings
should, by example, encourage aspiring permaculturists to find solutions
for themselves in the regions where they are working, using his methods
when applicable. 

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 Lawrence F. London, Jr. - InterGarden - Venaura Farm
 mailto:[email-masked] - mailto:[email-masked]
 http://sunSITE.unc.edu/InterGarden
 http://sunSITE.unc.edu/InterGarden/permaculture.html
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