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An Agricultural Testament by Sir Albert Howard An Agricultural Testament - Albert Howard - ToC Small farms An Agricultural Testament by Sir Albert Howard, C.I.E., M.A. Formerly Director of the Institute of Plant Industry Indore, and Agricultural Adviser to States in Central India and Rajputana 1943 Oxford University Press New York and London Copyright 1943 by Oxford University Press, Inc. First published in England, 1940 First American edition, 1945 To Gabrielle Who is no more The Earth, that's Nature's Mother, is her tomb; http://www.journeytoforever.org/farm_library/howardAT/ATtoc.html (1 of 4)11/30/2009 5:53:19 PM An Agricultural Testament - Albert Howard - ToC What is her burying grave, that is her womb. Romeo and Juliet. And Nature, the old nurse, took The child upon her knee, Saying: 'Here is a story-book Thy Father has written for thee.' 'Come, wander with me,' she said, 'Into regions yet untrod; And read what is still unread In the manuscripts of God.' Longfellow The Fiftieth Birthday of Agassiz. Contents Preface 1. Introduction Nature's Methods of Soil Management The Agriculture of the Nations Which Have Passed Away The Practices of the Orient The Agricultural Methods of the Occident Part I The Part Played by Soil Fertility in Agriculture 2. The Nature of Soil Fertility 3. The Restoration of Fertility Part II The Indore Process 4. The Indore Process The Raw Materials Needed Pits versus Heaps Charging the Heaps or Pits Turning the Compost The Storage of Humus Output http://www.journeytoforever.org/farm_library/howardAT/ATtoc.html (2 of 4)11/30/2009 5:53:19 PM An Agricultural Testament - Albert Howard - ToC 5. Practical Applications of the Indore Process Coffee Tea Sugar-cane 5. Practical Applications of the Indore Process (cont.) Cotton Sisal Maize Rice Vegetables Vine 6. Developments of the Indore Process Green-manuring The Safeguarding of Nitrate Accumulations The Production of Humus The Safeguarding of Nitrates Followed by the Manufacture of Humus The Reform of Green-manuring 7. Developments of the Indore Process, Cont. Grass-land Management 8. Developments of the Indore Process, Cont. The Utilization of Town Wastes Part III Health, Indisposition, and Disease in Agriculture 9. Soil Aeration The Soil Aeration Factor in Relation to Grass and Trees The Root System of Deciduous Trees The Root System of Evergreens 9. Soil Aeration (cont.) The Harmful Effect of Grass The Effect of Aeration Trenches on Young Trees Under Grass The Cause of the Harmful Effect of Grass Forest Trees and Grass The Aeration Of The Sub-soil 10. Some Diseases of the Soil Soil Erosion http://www.journeytoforever.org/farm_library/howardAT/ATtoc.html (3 of 4)11/30/2009 5:53:19 PM An Agricultural Testament - Albert Howard - ToC The Formation of Alkali Land 11. The Retreat of the Crop and the Animal before the Parasite Humus and Disease Resistance The Mycorrhizal Association and Disease The Investigations of Tomorrow 12. Soil Fertility and National Health Part IV Agricultural Research 13. A Criticism of Present-day Agricultural Research 14. A Successful Example of Agricultural Research Part V Conclusions and Suggestions 15. A Final Survey Appendixes A. Compost Manufacture on a Tea Estate in Bengal B. Compost Making at Chipoli, Southern Rhodesia C. The Manufacture of Humus from the Wastes of the Town and the Village Next: Preface To Albert Howard review and index Back to Small Farms Library index Community development | Rural development City farms | Organic gardening | Composting | Small farms | Biofuel | Solar box cookers Trees, soil and water | Seeds of the world | Appropriate technology | Project vehicles Home | What people are saying about us | About Handmade Projects Projects | Internet | Schools projects | Sitemap | Site Search | Donations | Contact us http://www.journeytoforever.org/farm_library/howardAT/ATtoc.html (4 of 4)11/30/2009 5:53:19 PM An Agricultural Testament - Albert Howard - Preface Small farms An Agricultural Testament Sir Albert Howard (Inside cover note, Rodale Press edition, US, 1976) SINCE this book first appeared in 1940, it has been regarded as one of the most important contributions to the solution of soil rehabilitation problems ever published. More important, it has been regarded as the keystone of the organic movement. The late Louis Bromfield called it "the best book I know on soil and the processes which take part in it." Soil Science called it "the most interesting and suggestive book on soil fertility which has appeared since King's Farmers of Forty Centuries." And Mother Earth News recently called it "the most basic of all introductions to organic farming by the founder of the modern movement." The object of the book was to draw attention to the loss of soil fertility, brought about by the vast increase in crop and animal production, that has led to such disastrous consequences as a general unbalancing of farming practices, an increase in plant and animal diseases and the loss of soil by erosion. Howard contended that such losses can be repaired only by maintaining soil fertility by manufacturing humus from vegetable and animal wastes through the composting process. He stressed, too, a little-known nutritional factor, the mycorrhizal association, which is the living fungous bridge between humus in the soil and the sap of plants. "Howard's work is based upon the premise that good agricultural practice is based upon the observation and the use of natural processes," wrote farmer-poet Wendell Berry in The Last Whole Earth Catalog. "Howard's discoveries and methods and their implications are given in detail in An Agricultural Testament. They are of enormous usefulness to gardeners and farmers, and to anyone else who may be interested in the history and the problems of land use. But aside from its practical worth, Howard's book is valuable for his ability to place his facts and insights within the perspectives of history. This book is a critique of civilizations, judging them not by their artifacts and victories but by their http://www.journeytoforever.org/farm_library/howardAT/ATpref.html (1 of 6)11/30/2009 5:53:36 PM An Agricultural Testament - Albert Howard - Preface response to 'the sacred duty of handing over unimpaired to the next generation the heritage of a fertile soil.'" It was a reading of this book which led the late J.I. Rodale to publish his flrst copy of Organic Farming and Gardening (now Organic Gardening and Farming), the bible of the now wide-spread organic movement in America. Howard's work remains the keystone of that movement. "In the reading of An Agricultural Testament, I was affected so profoundly that I could not rest until I purchased a farm," wrote Rodale. "The reading of this great book showed me how simple the practice of the organic method could be." (Back cover note, Rodale Press edition, US, 1976) SIR Albert Howard was the flrst pioneer of the organic method. The son of a Shropshire farmer, he studied agriculture at Cambridge University, then expanded his knowledge in a lifetime of practical research and study in the West Indies, India and England. An Agricultural Testament, his exposition of his practice theories of agriculture, remains a landmark work nearly 30 years after its original publication. "Can mankind regulate its affairs so that its chief possession -- the fertility of the soil -- is preserved?" he asked. "On the answer to this question the future of civilization lies." The organic method can trace its roots to this question. For Sir Albert examined the history of agriculture in many societies and in nature. He observed that those societies which most closely approximated nature's methods of husbandry had the longest histories. In nature he noted that "the forest manures itself." In India he observed that the natives with the healthiest crops and animals were those who eschewed chemical fertilizers for natural manures. As a generalist, Sir Albert shunned the conventional -- now almost traditional -- forms of agricultural research for practical testing. He was opposed to research conducted by teams of specialists, each working on a fragment of the whole, each contributing an isolated splinter of knowledge. In his major experiment, conducted over a period of 25 years in India, Sir Albert Howard farmed 75 acres, observing and testing the parts and the whole. His work suggested a system of farming -- the organic method -- which offered what is still the best answer to his question. http://www.journeytoforever.org/farm_library/howardAT/ATpref.html (2 of 6)11/30/2009 5:53:36 PM An Agricultural Testament - Albert Howard - Preface Preface SINCE the Industrial Revolution the processes of growth have been speeded up to produce the food and raw materials needed by the population and the factory. Nothing effective has been done to replace the loss of fertility involved in this vast increase in crop and animal production. The consequences have been disastrous. Agriculture has become unbalanced: the land is in revolt: diseases of all kinds are on the increase: in many parts of the world Nature is removing the worn-out soil by means of erosion. The purpose of this book is to draw attention to the destruction of the earth's capital -- the soil; to indicate some of the consequences of this; and to suggest methods by which the lost fertility can be restored and maintained. This ambitious project is founded on the work and experience of forty years, mainly devoted to agricultural research in the West Indies, India, and Great Britain. It is the continuation of an earlier book -- The Waste Products of Agriculture, published in 1931 -- in which the Indore method for maintaining soil fertility by the manufacture of humus from vegetable and animal wastes was described. During the last nine years the Indore Process has been taken up at many centres all over the world.
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