Soil and Health Library

Soil and Health Library
Soil And Health Library

Health begins in the soil; Healing begins with hygiene; Liberty begins with freedom.
This website provides a large number of free e-books available for immediate download. The books are mainly about holistic agriculture, holistic health and selfsufficient homestead living. There are secondary collections about social criticism and transformational psychology. No fees are collected for this service. Upon special request the Soil and Health Library provides custom-made digital copies of a far wider range of books in the same subject areas for its patrons, delivered on CDROM by post. There is a small fee for this service. All the library's subject areas can be comprehended as an inter-related whole and when this is done its books constitute a self-guided course of study or a self-teaching curriculum that connects agricultural methods to the health of animals and humans, shows how to prevent and heal disease and increase longevity, suggests how to live a more fulfilling life and reveals social forces working against that possibility.
The Free Digitalized Library:

There are four major subject areas:
Radical Agriculture. The nutritional qualites of food and consequently the health of the animals and humans eating that food are determined by soil fertility. This section's interest is far wider than organic gardening and farming; other health-determined approaches to food-raising are also included. Go to the Agriculture Library The Restoration and Maintenance of Health. Nutritional medicine heals disease, builds and maintains health with dietand sometimes heals with fasting or other forms of dietary restriction. There are many approaches represented in this collection. There is also a collection concerning longevity and nutritional anthropology. Go to the Health Library Achieving Personal Sovereignty. Physical, mental, and spiritual health are linked to one's lifestyle. This collection focuses on liberating activities, especially homesteading and the skills it takes to do thatsmall-scale entrepreneuring, financial independence, frugality, and voluntary simplicity. There is also a collection of social criticism, especially from a back-to-the-land point of view. Go to the Personal Sovereignty Library
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Achieving Spiritual Freedom. There are many seemingly-different self-betterment roads. The books in this collection seek to empower a person to effect their own development in an independent manner. Go to the Spiritual Freedom Library.
Additionally
Clippings and Miscellaneous. Since this library's beginning patrons have sent information and URLs where interesting bits of information and viewpoints could be found. Here you will find articles and essays and etc. that support and enhance the information found in our book collections. Go to the Clipping File. Latest E-Books Added. Digitalized titles added to the online Soil and Health Library in the last few months, click here:
The Actual Library

The "actual" Soil and Health Library is in Tasmania, Australia. After June 15th, 2007 it will be open to contributing members who wish to read one of these books or just to visit the librarian and have a cuppa. The library does not yet have regular hours; an appointment must be booked. Write to Steve Solomon, PO Box 524, Exeter, TAS 7275 Australia or ring 03 6330 1113. Eventually, most of the titles in the in-print-on-paper collection will be converted to searchable-text e-books. Until these books are made into free-to-download e-texts a copy of most of them may legally be delivered to patrons who request one in an electronic format similar to a photocopy. The copy is delivered in the form of a PDF containing a high resolution scan burned on to a CD-ROM (or DVD-ROM). Scanning-upon-demand and mailing a PDF recorded on a CD-ROM costs considerably less than making and mailing a traditional library photocopy on paper. PDF documents can be printed out at any copy shop that can process digital files, may be printed on your own PC's printer, or viewed on your PC monitor without using up any paper or other supplies. To view a low-resolution sample of what you will receive if you request a custom made copy, a few pages of a book rendered into this PDF format, maybe be downloaded by clicking here. The sample download is 500 kb. If you request a copy you will receive high-resolution images of the complete book, in its original pagination, including front matter, index (if the book has one), etc. Every title in the "actual" library catalogue that is labeled "public domain" or "out of print," is available to be scanned upon your request. To view a catalogue of the holdings of the Soil and Health Library click here:
How To Obtain a Copy

To see a schedule of copy fees and instructions for ordering a copy, click here: The actual library collection is being expanded as fast as income is received by the library through
membership contributions and other donations of both cash and books. To see our financial statement, click here.
Books (in-print-on-paper) Wanted

To see a list of books wanted for inclusion in the Soil and Health Library click here. Most of the funds received from membership contributions will be spent upon acquiring these titles. You are invited to assist us in this area in two ways. The easy part of building this library is acquiring important books that are known about, but are not possessed yet. These are listed here. If you have any of these titles, please consider donating them. The intention is that the actual library will become a permanent planetary resource housed in a safe and stable environment. It is not absolutely necessary to donate the actual book; a scan made to our specifications can serve. Please contact the librarian about this. The harder part is finding out about important books that fit the library's subject area but that are not yet known to the librarian. If you know about any books that should be in the Soil and Health Library but are not, and are not listed in "Books Wanted," please advise the librarian.
Soil And Health Discussion Group

Here, a wide ranging discussion goes on about how different agricultural and gardening methods change nutritional qualities of the foods being grown, about the resulting health of the animals and humans that eat those foods, about the best ways to homestead, to grow food, about how the current New World Order is suppressing homestead success. This Yahoo group is gently moderated by Steve Solomon. All points of view and opinions are welcome so long as they exhibit a respect for sustainability and human health and respect the viewpoints of others. You are welcome to post your own essays, refer to other's writings, engage in dialogues. To join the group, click here.
Chat with the librarian

Contributing members who wish to discuss the materials in the library or the subjects it is concerned about are invited to engage the librarian, Steve Solomon, in written chat, to talk via internet telephony using Skype or Google or to use ordinary telephone. To set this up, contact Steve Solomon via email.
ALSO:
Scans are made into e-books using ABBYY FineReader software. The library uses a Xerox Document Centre 286 to scan books at a high speed. Use of this machine is donated by Steve Solomon. The skills to convert scans to e-books are provided by the librarian, Steve Solomon, who once owned a typography business specializing in scholarly and trade books. Despite great care taken to eliminate inaccuracies there will almost certainly be some typos remaining. If you find any errors, or anything that even seems it might be an error, please let us know exactly what and where it is. Be specific, please. We will check it and fix it. Errors. The Soil and Health Organisation maintains links to other sites that support its aims and goals. Updating and correcting these links get little attention; most energy is put into adding to the books offered. Please accept apologies in advance for any non-current links on this list. Letters from patrons of the Soil and Health Library: a sampling of positive responses received. How to enjoy reading these books more. To make access as broad as possible this library has intentionally been primitively designed at a level of WIN95-era internet formats. The books it contains carry no html coding for the display of any particular fonts and only in a few cases are line lengths specified. Unfortunately, web users usaually set their browser windows quite wide so that whilst visiting most sites they can see all the display at once. But when reading a book on this site, it is suggested that you reset your browser window to be quite narrow, so as to better mimic the line length found in ordinary books. Some complain that reading books on a PC monitor is hard on the eyes and have asked for various "cures" such as tinted backgrounds. The real problem is too much contrast. Contrast and brightness can rapidly and easily be reduced with the settings of your own monitor. Many do not realise that post WIN95 web browsers allow specifying default fonts. Most people's default font is Times Roman, because Times is the original default provided by Microsoft. This paragraph is formatted to display in Bookman Oldstyle no matter what your browser's default setting may be. Bookman is a particularly easy font to read. To change Internet Explorer's default font this is the path: Tools/Internet Options/General/ Fonts . . . and then choose what ever font you wish. In an increasing number of cases, the books are offered as PDFs. To download the reader program, "Adobe Acrobat Reader" at no cost, click the Adobe image immediately below this paragraph. The default settings on earlier versions of Adobe's PDF reader make saving of downloaded pdfs a bit awkward. To fix this use the path Edit/Preferences/Options and then untick the box that says "display pdf in browser."
The Purpose of Soil And Health Library

The wisest student learns from the originators of a body of knowledge because those who later follow in the founders' footsteps are not trailblazers of equivalent depth. This is especially true of the writings from many post WWII academics and professors who mainly write because they must publish . . . or perish. Even when the earliest works in a field contain errors because their authors lacked some bit of data or had a fact wrong, their books still contain enormous wisdom. If nothing else, study of older books lets us discover that the conditions that prevail today aren't the way things always werewhilst on some levels, some things hardly ever change at all. There are powerful forces on Earth obscuring the foundations of knowledge. That would be okay if there were better knowledge and wiser wisdoms coming on line to replace them. But usually the opposite is the case. As the sort of person Sir Albert Howard called "the laboratory hermit . . . someone who knows more and more about less and less" . . . increasingly dominates ever-wider areas of scholarship, the focus of scholarship gets ever narrower, and less wise. Manipulative social-political-economic interests attempt to create Orwellian realities that suit them; their domination of academia and media makes people forget the fundamentals. Ferdanand Lundberg's book The Rich and the Super Rich explains exactly how this works. You may find Lundberg's book in the Social Criticism collection. Here's an example of the result of foundation- and industry-influenced "science." Despite all the apparent advances in broadacre industrial agriculture, the nutritional qualities of our basic foodstuffs have been declining during this century. That's largely because most agronomists focus on bulk yield and profitability of the crop, whilst knowing next to nothing about animal/human nutrition. However, there's a little-appreciated "law" about this area: nutritional value usually drops in direct relationship to the increase in bulk production. Or, in agriculture at any rate, "quality" seems the opposite of "quantity." Industrial agriculture has devastated self-sufficient, independent lifestyles. Take the U.S. as an example. In 1870, something like 90 percent of all Americans lived on free-and-clear farms or in tiny villages. And in consequence, enjoyed enormously greater personal liberty than today. The current decline in personal rights in America, Canada and in Australia is NOT the result of there being more people dividing up a fixed and limited amount of total possible liberty into smaller and smaller slices. It is a consequence of financial insecurity, financial dependency and wage slavery. Persons lacking financial independence rarely possess the strength to forthrightly demand social liberties. This is what happened: since 1870 as the industrial food system became ever more "efficient" it lowered the price of basic agricultural commodities. Consequently most country folk rejected their self-sufficient-farm birthright for a better-paying job in town, abandoned their technologically primitive free-and-clear homestead in favour of a city apartment (with electric power and running water) and soon became wage-enslaved. The ones who remained on the farm borrowed to invest in capital-intensive production methods and so became debt slaves. Wage- and debt-slaves, like all other kinds of slaves, feel insecure and think that in order to survive they must not reveal their true feelings, must suppress themselves whilst pleasing those in authority. The global industrial system's imperative is balance-sheet efficiency in all areas, including farming, but the apparent cheapness of economically-rational agriculture does not reflect a true accounting of costs. Despite the statistical increase in average lifespan, our average health and feelings of wellness have been declining. Consider as an example the large proportion of your neighbours whose mental awareness seems wrapped in fat. Americans
especially are disdained world wide for being hugely obese. Australians and Canadians are going the same way, spending ever-larger portions of their productivity on the treatment and cure of disease. This whole activity of "health" care is not a productive use of human attention, but in reality constitutes enormous waste, pain, and suffering, suffering whose main source, poor nutrition, is almost entirely unappreciated. Dr. Isabelle Moser, who spent 25 years conducting a clinical practice using holistic approaches, suggested in private conversations that what she termed the "constitution" of her older patients was typically much stronger than the constitution of her younger ones. Each generation got a poorer start than the one before it as each generation built the foundation of their health from foods produced on ever-more degraded soils grown ever-more "scientifically," and more and more consisting of processed, denatured fodder. (The full text of Dr. Moser's book How And When To Be Your Own Doctor, is in the Health Library.) (For a good discussion of the concept of "start," read Wrench's Wheel of Health in the Longevity Library. See also: Shelton's Orthotrophy, Chapter 36.) It was a sage who quipped: "if they can stop you from asking the right questions, you'll never come up with the right answers." In this library you will encounter individuals who DID ask the right questions and even came up with some of the answers. Modern higher education points people's attention away from the Truth and toward an ever-increasing confusion created by too much data. This library restores the availability of key books written by amazing individuals, books that offer major illumination to those who can already see, books that speak the truth to those who can still hear.
How You Can Help

If you admire what is being done here and wish to assist this effort:
You can suggest titles for acquisition (or donate the books). You are invited to discuss the content and direction of this library. Suggested titles may be old enough to be public domain or at least out of print. By Australian copyright rules we usually cannot copy books for our users that are currently in print (unless they are also old enough to be public domain material). Perhaps you can lend a book for processing into an e-book after discussing the proposed title with the librarian. All lends are returned within a few weeks of receipt and return postage is paid. E-books can also be scanned from very clean, sharp photocopies; photocopies need not be returned and sending a photocopy does not place a rare book at the slight risk of loss in the post. Another way to "lend" a book without much postage cost is to scan it for us and then send the scan burned on a CD-ROM. If you wish to undertake this, it would be wise to first clear the title with the librarian. To permit accurate optical character recognition such scans must be done in greyscale, at 300 dpi, preferably in the form of TIFs.
You can become a contributing member by making a once-in-a-lifetime contribution of ten Euros. Expenses of this library are not large, but having a domain name, offering significant amounts of bytes for free download and buying old books do cost. The most important aspect of patron contributions is the motivation they provide to increase the scope of this library. See the financial statement.
Who Is Creating This Site?

This site is created by Steve Solomon. Click here to go to his personal page and find out about him. Click here to communicate via email. Write via ordinary mail to: Steve Solomon P.O. Box 524 Exeter, Tasmania 7275 Australia
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Health begins in the soil.
Welcome To The Holistic Agriculture Library

Albrecht, William A. "Loss Of Soil Organic Matter And Its Restoration". Soils and Men: USDA Yearbook of Agriculture. Washington, D.C., United States Department of Agriculture, 1938. Each year, the practice going on for several decades, the United States Department of Agriculture published a yearbook. This particular Yearbook of Agriculture, Soils and Men, is widely considered the best of the lot. And this article by William Albrecht may well be la crme de la crme. It is our hope to eventually present the entire yearbook online. PUBLIC DOMAIN Albrecht, William A. "The Drought Myth: The Absence of Water Is Not The Problem." Pinched from the Acres.usa website. It is not possible at this time to determine the complete citation for this article; it could be one of three different original publications. However, Acres has put it online and thus, effectively, tossed it into the public domain. Explains that much of the apparency of moisture stress is subsoil infertility. Some have experienced that foliar feeding of apparently moisture-stressed crops will "cure" them. Downloads as a small PDF. Albrecht, William A. Soil Fertility And Animal Health. Webster City, Iowa: Fred Hahne Printing Co, 1958. Reprinted by Acres, USA as The Albrecht Papers, Vol. II, currently in print. To contact Acres, click here. If only this book could be offered online in its entirety it would be clear to the online reader that here is one of the most important books in the Soil And Health Library. As it is, Australian copyright law allows presentation of only a small portion, so the best and perhaps most famous of Albrecht's statements was chosen, "Chapter 8, Cows Are Capable Chemists" downloads as a PDF of 311 kb. COPYRIGHTED, IN PRINT, SAMPLE
ONLY.
Albrecht, William A. A collection of journal and magazine articles, experiment station and other government publications.
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Find here what probably is Albrecht's single most important statement connecting soil fertility with animal and human health, a chapter from Nutrition and Physical Degeneration Albrecht wrote, articles he wrote for Lets Live magazine, etc. Baker, C. Alma. The Labouring Earth: A survey of agricultural conditions at home and abroad. London: Heath Cranton Ltd., 1940. As the title states, this is a broad, world-wide survey. The title does not state that it is primarily done from a biodynamic point of view, and with considerable acknowledgment for the contribution of Sir Albert Howard. Downloads as a PDF of 969 kb. OUT OF PRIONT. Balfour, Lady Eve. "Toward a Sustainable Agriculture--The Living Soil". A talk about the Haughley Experiment, given by Lady Balfour at an IFOAM conference in Switzerland, 1977. Balfour, Lady Eve. The Living Soil: London: Faber and Faber, 1948 An organic classic. Among other things this book narrates how Lady Balfour organized a farm, Haughley, where comparative experiments were done to prove the superiority of organic methods. It also states the organic case as thoroughly and passionately and reasonably as could be done. Downloads as a PDF of 1.47 mb. OUT OF PRINT Balfour, Lady Eve. 9,600 Miles Through The U.S.A. In A Station Wagon. London: The Soil Association, 1954. Reprinted from Mother Earth, Journal of the Soil Association, July and October 1953 and January, April and July, 1954. A stapled booklet of over 100 pages chockablock full of photos taken by Lady Balfour. Lady B and her travelling companion drove from East Coast to West Coast and return, visiting many agriculturalists and meeting with notables of the era, including Francis Pottenger, William Albrecht, E. Pfeiffer, Cocanouer, etc. Contains descriptions of many agricultural activities as well as a most lucid and cogent presentation of the ideas of William Albrecht. Downloads as a PDF of 4.75 mb. OUT OF PRINT. Biodynamics Journal. Published from various locations since 1941. Soil And Health Library, in collaboration with BD Now, is working towards providing all issues of the American BD Journal. About 100 or so issues are available at this time and will be processed in the next months (as of January, 2008). Anyone possessing copies that do not appear in this collection are requested to lend or donate them for scanning. Issues download as PDFs of about 5 mb each. OUT OF PRINT. Burbank, Luther. Partner of Nature. Ed. Wilbur Hall. New York: D. Appleton-Century Co., 1939.
Burbank, a brilliant and self-educated plant breeder wrote voluminously about his work. One day more of his writings may be found on this site. Meanwhile, this abridgment by Wilbur Hall will have to suffice. Written for the person of good intelligence but a non-specialist; Burbank's intention here was to both romanticize his profession while inspiring the young to follow in his footsteps. Downloads as a PDF of 896 kb. OUT OF PRINT. The Case for Organic Food: an extensive collection of articles, bibliographies and miscellany. Compiled by Arun Shrivastava CMC, Director, Meristem Consultants Pvt Ltd, General Secretary, Society for Economic Development & Environmental Management, New Delhi, Director (Projects), All India Panchayat Parishad. Arun Shrivastava has been passionately involved in attempts to upgrade Indian agriculture from its currently desperate situation. His work has demanded a full comprehension of farming systems and their effects on human and environmental health, so, a natural scholar, he has searched the world for information. Arun's personal book collection includes most of the titles in the Soil and Health library collection and then some. He has thousands of articles and other smaller bits of information in a computer database. The cream of this collection is now made available here. This collection will powerfully help satisfy the curiosity of anyone asking the questions: is organically grown food better? In what way? How is food quality connected to health? We all owe a debt of thanks to Arun Shrivastava for sharing this material. Cato, On Farming. A classic of farming lore and practice from the golden era of the Roman Empire. Scholars usually call this book De Re Rustica (On Agriculture). A Critical English Translation by Andrew Dalby, author of Siren Feasts, a book on classic Greek cuisine. Cato has information for everyone: on planting and maintaining olive groves, on supervising the staff, on making various loaves or gruels out of grains, on the manifold curative properties of cabbage, on getting good prices at market, and much, much more. Although modern translations exist, this is better: more readable, more accurate, more alert. The sensitive translation of this text and the translator's notes, and the work of putting it online were all cheerfully contributed to this library by Tom Jaine, who creates a small publishing company called Prospect Books. We hope you will visit their website and perhaps purchase an in-print paper copy of Cato or other books whose focus is on food. Anyone interested in working on a project to add other farming classics such as Varro, Columella, Ibn al Awam's Book of Agriculture, Jethro Tull's Horse-Houghing Husbandry, etc., please contact us. WITH PERMISSION OF COPYRIGHT
HOLDER.
Joseph A. Cocannouer. Weeds: Guardians of the Soil. Old Greenwich, Connecticut: The Devin-Adair Company, 1950. Long a much admired title amongst holistic gardeners and homesteaders. Thanks due
to Keith Addison, creator of the Journey To Forever website, for supplying this fine scan. Downloads as a PDF of 1.58 mb. OUT OF PRINT Darwin, Charles. The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the action of worms with observations of their habits. London, 1881. A classic in naturalist observation. A grasp of the common earthworm's importance is essential to a full understanding of soil fertility and plant health. Thanks to David Price for doing such an accurate scan of this book. Contains an interesting introduction by Sir Albert Howard, taken from a Faber & Faber edition, published about 1945. PUBLIC
DOMAIN
Dale, Tom and Veron Gill Carter. Topsoil and Civilization. Norman, Oklahoma, University of Oklahoma Press, 1955. This classic survey of world history should never have been allowed to fall out of print. It demonstrates how every civilization from Mesopotamia to Rome has destroyed its agricultural resource base and thus destroyed itself. The book also looks at modern-day Europe and the United States with considerable uncertainty about the sustainability of our own system. Downloads as a PDF of 1.56 mb. OUT OF PRINT Elliot, Robert. The Clifton Park System Of Farming. London, Faber & Faber, 1943. Originally published in 1898 as Agricultural Changes, this book's thesis was broadened by Sir Albert Howard, Newman Turner, Louis Bromfield, etc. Elliot developed a system of laying down land to grass, dependent on little input but a complex mixture of deep-rooting pasture seeds. The pasture rotations would be broken after four to eight years, row crops grown until the humus levels declined to a threatening level, and then the field would be restored to grass/clover/herbal mixtures. There is a very interesting forward by Sir R. George Stapledon. PUBLIC DOMAIN Ernle, Lord. English Farming Past and Present. Fifth Edition. London: Longmans, Green & Co., Ltd. 1936. THE classic summary of English Farming History. Helpful, among other things, to understand the development of modern farming systems. Also, this book is plain great writing, of similar quality to Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. PUBLIC
DOMAIN
Faulkner, Edward H. Plowman's Folly. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1943. Faulkner's book created a flurry of popular interest in alternatives to "scientific" agriculture. It is probably most important for what happened in American consciousness because of the interest it created rather than because of what the book
says. Downloads as PDF of 387 kb. OUT OF PRINT. Faulkner, Edward H. A Second Look. Norman, Oklahoma: University Of Oklahoma Press, 1947. In this book Faulkner adds to and reconsiders his opinions on the topics raised in his two earlier titles, Plowman's Folly and Uneasy Money. Especially interesting is his review of the literature which makes up the essential core of this library--Balfour, Albrecht, Bromfield, Howard, etc. Downloads as a PDF of 570 kb. OUT OF PRINT. Faulkner, Edward H. Soil Restoration. London: Michael Joseph, 1953. Faulkner's last summary of how to farm, to improve soil and to restore highly degraded farms. Downloads as a PDF of 685 kb. OUT OF PRINT. Fukuoka, M. One Straw Revolution: The Natural Way of Farming. Emmaus, Pennsylvania: Rodalel Press, 1978. Fukuoka describes an unusual approach to farming with a very Zen philosophy of living. Downloads as a PDF of 3.03 mb. OUT OF PRINT. Fukuoka, M. The Natural Way of Farming: The Theory and Practice of Green Philosophy. Tokyo and New York: Japan Publications, 1985. Highly unusual viewpoints with a cult following. Downloads as a PDF of 6.16 mb. OUT
OF PRINT.
Graham, Michael. Soil and Sense. London, Faber & Faber, 1941. Graham wrote before there was an understanding of the vital importances of both micorhizzal associations and production of phytamins by soil bacteria. But he still did a very good job of explaining the essences of sustainable holistic farming to the general public. This book can be considered a popularized companion to Elliot's Clifton Park System and may be valuable to gardeners seeking a better understanding of broad-acre farming. Downloads as a PDF of 686 kb. OUT OF PRINT. Hamaker, John D. and Donald Weaver. The Survival of Civilization. Hamaker-Weaver Publishers: Michigan/California, 1982. Special PDF edition prepared by Weaver for the www, 2002. Entire books downloads as a single PDF, about 1.7 mb. A modern book but already a classic. This study of the soil-mineralization cycle and world-wide climatic changes is made available here courtesy of Don Weaver, who generously granted permission for world-wide-web distribution of this book. Don asked that special mention be made here of another website, this one created by Joanna Campe, where The Survival of Civilication and one other supporting title, To Love and
Regenerate the Earth, can be found. That is: http://www.remineralize.org/. Hart, Robert. De "Bostuin": Mogelijkheden om te leven en telen in harmonie met de natuur. Nederlandse vertaling: Robert Hundscheidt. 444 kb PDF. Bijgewerkte versie 2007. Vertaling van het bekende boekje van Robert Hart, over het opzetten van een Bostuin in de stad of op het land, met een minimum van arbeid en hoofdzakelijk bestaande uit fruit- en notenbomen, en -struiken, samen met zelfuitzaaiende groenten en kruiden. Het verhaal van Hart's eigen Bostuin in Shropshire, en over het gezonde 'salade'dieet. Henderson, George. Farmer's Progress: A Guide to Farming. London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1950. The writer, a very successful and sagacious livestock farmer with a facility for the literary, provides excellent advices to the young who may wish to enter farming as a life-work, instructions for the existing farmer that they might be more successful, and suggestions for the general public in that they might more wisely avoid interfering with the proper conduct of farming thorugh absurd bureaucratic regulation. Henderson was a crusty, enjoyable person well worthy of spending a few hour's time with. Downloads as a single PDF file of about 1.5 mb. OUT OF PRINT Henderson, George. The Farming Ladder. London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1944. Henderson's first book, the story of his own youth and farming career. Contends that the farmer must also be a sagacious businessperson, personnel manager, etc., and provides sagely advice on how to so do. Great guide to creating a success as a farmer-or in any other business. Downloads as a single PDF file of 1.25 mb. OUT OF PRINT Hills, Lawrence D. Russian Comfrey: A Hundred Tons an Acre of Stock or Compost for Farm, Garden or Smallholding. London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1953. The definitive and thoroughly referenced study of the growing, harvest and feeding results using all varieties of comfrey on numerous kinds of livestock and for making compost. Handsomely illustrated. Downloads as a single PDF file of 1.78 mb.Total time
to prepare this book: 7 hours, 10 minutes. OUT OF PRINT.
Hopkins, Cyril G. The Farm That Won't Wear Out. Champaign, Ill, self-published, 1913. Originally a series of four magazine articles appearing in The Country Gentleman, and later, responding to popular demand, published as a small book by the author himself. Explains in very few pages the way to achieve a permanent agriculture. PUBLIC DOMAIN Hopkins, Cyril G. The Story of the Soil. Boston, Richard G. Badger, 1910.
One of the best "made-simple" holistic soil manuals ever written, all wrapped up as a romance about a bright young man with a solid ag-school education, going out to buy a farm and falling in love. WARNING. This book expresses views on race that in its day were considered normal and acceptable but in our day are viewed as incorrect, perhaps even shockingly racist. Those who cannot view such expressions as "historical documents," should not read The Story of the Soil. PUBLIC DOMAIN Hopkins, Donald P. Chemicals, Humus and the Soil. Brooklyn, NY: Chemical Publishing Company, 1948. Hopkins makes the point that chemical fertilizers are effective and positive to the degree that humus remains in the soil; that the real problem with chemicals has been with some who suggest that chemicals can replace farmyard manure. Hopkins takes on the Howardites point by point and demolishes many of their positions. The book's arguments are cogent and largely correct, although Hopkins "scientific" biases distort his objectivity in areas relating to human health. This book should by carefully read by anyone that considers themselves "organic." Attached to the end of this copy are two articles from Rodale's Organic Gardening Magazine that highlight the intense antagonisms existing about this controversy at the time. Downloads as a PDF of 1.0 mb. OUT OF PRINT. A frequent correspondent of this library, Justin Naylor, has written a short and worthy article that appeared in Acres, USA about the organic/chemical controversy, using Donald Hopkin's book as a springboard. To read this piece, click here. Hopkins, Donald P. Chemicals, Humus and the Soil: a simple presentation of contemporary knowledge and opinions about fertilizers, manures and soil fertility. London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1957. Why does this library offer two editions of the same title? The dust jacket fly-leaf promo says: " . . . is a new and extensively revised edition of a book which has already proved its worth. Mr. Hopkins has rewritten more than 30,000 words of it, adding several new chapters and a new preface. It . . . contains much fresh information about fertilizers and their sensible use." The 1957 edition is markedly superior to Hopkins' 1948 effort. Downloads as a PDF of 1.24 mb. OUT OF PRINT. Howard, Sir Albert and Yeshwant D. Wad. The Waste Products Of Agriculture: Their Utilisation As Humus. London: Oxford University Press, 1931. Thanks to Joan Harrison for converting this book to a PDF of about 1 mb. Probably Howard's most important scientific publication, detailing the nature, practice and significance of Indore composting, especially to Indian agriculture. OUT OF PRINT. Howard, Sir Albert. Farming And Gardening For Health Or Disease. London: Faber and Faber, 1945.
This book is also known by the title it was given by Rodale Press in its American edition--The Soil and Health. It chronicles Howard's life history and outlines the complete breadth of his contribution. Downloads as a PDF of 1.57 mb. OUT OF PRINT Howard, Sir Albert. Miscellaneous Papers. Articles from periodicals by and about Sir Albert Howard. These have been supplied by numerous patrons and friends of the library. If you have any, or library access to any of Howard's agricultural journal articles (references to them can be found in his larger works) not yet available here, please contact Steve Solomon. Howard, Sir Albert. An Agricultural Testament. London: Oxford University Press, 1943. Howard wrote this book for the general public with the intention of creating a new form of farming. It has gone out of print and thus is again available in this online library. Downloads as a PDF of 2.2 mb. OUT OF PRINT. Howard, Louise E. The Earth's Green Carpet. Emmaus, PA: Rodale, 1947 A poetic and concise statement of the beliefs behind the Organic Farming system. Helps to understand the spirit and passions of the early organicists as well as to better comprehend the entire cycle of soil fertility and the creation of a permanent agriculture and permanent civilization. Downloads as a PDF of 735 kb. OUT OF PRINT Howard, Louise E. Sir Albert Howard in India. London: Faber & Faber, 1953. A thorough and scholarly review of Albert and Gabrielle Howard's scientific career encompassing all the scientific literature and journal articles that would otherwise be virtually unobtainable. Following the print-on-paper book's style, the extensive quotations from the Howards' other publications are in smaller type; the serious reader of this book is advised to reset their web browser program to display type a few point sizes larger. (Louise Howard was the sister of Gabrielle, and became Howard's second wife and ardent supporter after the death of Gabrielle.) Downloads as a PDF of 904 kb.
OUT OF PRINT
Ingham, Elaine, Dr. The Soil-Food Web. A publication of the USDA, pinched from their website. An excellent primer/introduction to the amazing ecology living in soil, especially as it pertains to the production of food crops. PUBLIC DOMAIN. Jenks, Jorian. The Stuff Man's Made Of: The positive approach to health through nutrition. London: Faber and Faber, 1959. Starting about the year 1920 new data made it increasingly clear that soil fertility, the
nutritional qualities of food and the consequent health of animals and humans were tightly inter-linked. The people at the leading edge of these discoveries wrote the books found in the Soil and Health Library. Jenks' book organises and popularises these discoveries and introduces these discoverers, put them into perspective and supplies interesting titbits of gossip and side-lights on their lives and work. The Stuff Man's Made Of will be especially useful to someone newly interested in this area of study. Thanks to Dr. John Fielder who practices near Cairns, Queensland, for the lend of this book. Downloads as a PDF of about 675 kb. OUT OF PRINT Jenny, Hans. Factors Of Soil Formation: A System of Quantitative Pedology. New York: Dover, 1994. One of the most important books about soil ever written. It should be thoroughly studied by anyone seeking a full understanding of soil fertility and how to handle agricultural soils. This is a scientific text that can be understood without high level maths, however, a well grasped secondary school science education and a touch of geology will go a long way towards making this book fully comprehensible. Dover has published a paperback reproduction of the original 1941 McGraw-Hill printing that sells for a very modest price. Missing from our Soil and Health Library online copy will be the modern Forward in the Dover edition, which is copyrighted material. Rendering this book has been laborious, requiring painstakingly close attention to minute details; as of mid-January, 2006, it is complete, but still probably needs a thorough proofreading to eliminate any minor errors. Downloads as a PDF of 4.89 mb. Total time invested so far to scan and format this text: 29:35 hours. PUBLIC DOMAIN. King, F.C. The Weed Problem: a new approach. London: Faber and Faber LTD., 1951. With a forward by Lady Howard. Another take on the subject of Cocannouer's more popular book. Downloads as a PDF of 600 kb. OUT OF PRINT. King, F.H. Farmers of Forty Centuries: or Traditional Agriculture in China, Korea and Japan. 1911. A famous classic in holistic agricultural literature. King was a masterful observer of farming; this is, if nothing else, a great travel book. To accelerate downloading this book is reproduced here without its many illustrations. PUBLIC DOMAIN Koepf, H. H., B. D. Petterson and W. Shaumann. Bio-Dynamic Agriculture: An Introduction. Spring Valley, NY: Anthroposophic Press, 1976. A complete introduction to the history, philosophy, techniques, and benefits of the BioDynamic school of farming and gardening, which has its origins in two of Germany's creative geniuses: Goethe and Rudolf Steiner. Downloads as a PDF of 1.33 mb. OUT OF
PRINT.
Kolisko, Eugen and L. Kolisko. Agriculture of Tomorrow. Stroud, Gloucester, England: Kolisko Archive, original publication,1939. A Steinerian/biodnyamic viewpoint on the way agriculture should evolve. This is a rather rare book, and quite a large download, so it is divided into five parts. OUT OF
PRINT.
Front matter, Table of Contents, Introduction. PDF 324 kb. Part 1: Cosmic Influences. PDF 3.38 mb Part 2: Smallest Entities in Agriculture. PDF 3.27 mb Part 3: Rudolf Steiner's Suggestion . . . PDF 3.83 mb Part 4: Where do we stand today . . . PDF 284 kb Krasil'nikov, N.A. Soil Microorganisms and Higher Plants. Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow 1958. Translated in Israel by Dr. Y. Halperin. Printed in the USA by the Government Printing Office. This, the ultimate study of the microbial process in soil, is one of the most important books in the library. It has been little known since its publication. Rendering it into html took hundreds of tedious and rewarding hours. The book contains 100 photographic illustrations and heaps of tables, so downloading the chapters can be a bit time consuming. Here's my "take" on this book. In the Soviet Union of the 30s, 40s and 50s, industrial production was scanty. Had Soviet agronomic research focused upon increasing yields through the use of chemicals, spread voluminously, the result would have been massive crop failures; chemical fertilizers and pesticides could not have been produced in large enough quantity. So Krasil'nikov focused on the biological process, and he found ways to improve plant growth by crop rotation and the production of special composts and microbial ferments of the sort that could be produced by the farmer in an old barrel. All these "primitive" solutions are based on a very high-level understanding of the microbial process in soil and the interactions between soil microbes with each other, of how crop species interact with each other via long-lasting soil residues (root exudates), and how plants and microbes interact with each other. Soil Microorganisms and Higher Plants is public domain material. Anyone wishing to publish the book in print on paper is invited to contact this library. They will receive all possible assistance. Apologies in advance for the many errors that despite very careful proofreading must still be in the html text. PUBLIC DOMAIN von Liebig, Justus. Chemical Letters, 2nd corrected edition. London: Taylor and Walton, 1844. A few years after publication of the Chemical Letters, Liebig presented Chemistry and its applications to Agriculture and Physiology . It goes into much more detail about soil fertility, manures, etc.; eventually it is hoped to include this book too in Soil and Health Library. Our thanks to Peter Childs, for making this fine scan of the Chemical Letters available. Peter publishes Chemistry In Action, a chemistry magazine for secondary school teachers. PUBLIC DOMAIN
Lievegoed, Bernard. The Working of the Planets and the Life Processes in Man and Earth. Lecture transcript. Famous Biodynamic lecture given about 1950 by Lievegoed that discusses the planetary forces and their effects on plant growth and compost preparations. The document was supplied by Arjen Huese, who is a course leader in Organic and Biodynamic Agriculture at Emerson College, E. Sussex, England. Downloads as a PDF of 1.26 mb. Lowdermilk, Walter C. Conquest of the Land Through Seven Thousand Years. Soil Conservation Service Misc. Pub. No. 32, February, 1948. A classic review of worldwide soil erosion. Many remarkable photos showing the ruins of what were once fertile, productive places that are now desert or semi-desert that can barely support struggling people--the remnants of what were once great, flourishing civilizations. PUBLIC DOMAIN
McDonald, Angus. Early American Soil Conservationists. Soil Conservation Service Misc. Pub. No. 449, October, 1941. During the Roosevelt administration, many uniquely-talented people worked to improve the United States through involvement with the Federal Government. In this short, well-written "book" you can meet the people who foresaw the catastrophe of soil erosion and foresaw how to solve it. And learn a few things about farming, past and present. PUBLIC DOMAIN Mitchell, Elyne. Soil And Civilization. Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1946. Mitchell, an Australian, was one of the first to attempt an integration of the new knowledge of holistic agriculture with a strong concern for the threat soil erosion posed to the sustainability of techological society. Her world view was strongly influenced by a most thorough classical education; thus the small (but deeply significant) book encompasses the whole history of western civilization. Downloads as a PDF of 431 kb.
OUT OF PRINT.
Oliver, George Sheffield. Friend Earthworm: Practical Application of a Lifetime Study of Habits of the Most Important Animal in the World. Oceanside, California: Oliver's Earthworm Farm School, 1941. One of the all-time classics on the earthworm. Many thanks to Keith Addison, creator of Journey To Forever, for doing this fine scan/OCR job.Other interesting ag-related
documents can be found in Keith's online library. Downloads as a PDF of 451 kb. OUT
OF PRINT.
Pieters, Adrian J., Ph.D. Green Manuring Principles and Practice. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1927. A thorough review of all known information about green manuring and its contribution to the maintenance of soil fertility and the improvment of agricultural productivity. Replete with tables and photographs of great historical interest. This text took a daunting 18:10 hours to scan/ocr and format. Downloads as a PDF of 5.05 mb. PUBLIC
DOMAIN.
Pfeiffer, Ehrenfried. Soil Fertility, Renewal & Preservation. London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1947. With an introduction by Eve Balfour. Seminal book in the Bio-dynamic farming movement with statistical reports on impressive replicated studies on the effects of BD practices on health and yields. The discussions of BD preparations predates and superceeds the current fad of EM sprays and drenches. Downloads as a PDF of 1.06 mb. Total time involved in preparing this book
for the internet: 11hours, 20 minutes. OUT OF PRINT.
Rayner, M.C. Trees and Toadstools. London: Faber & Faber, 1945. The classic study of the relationships between tree roots and fungi. Rayner's work formed the basis of the organicist contention that supporting a complete and healthy population of soil microlife is essential to plant health. Thanks to Keith Addison, Creator of Journey to Forever, for doing a fine, accurate scan/OCR job on this classic book. Other interesting ag-related documents can be found on Keith's online library. Downloads as a PDF of 1.47 mb. OUT OF PRINT Rodale, J.I. The Organic Front. Emmaus, Pennsylvania, Rodale Press, 1948. Tens of thousands were swept up by the intense enthusiasm of J.I. Rodale at the inception of the American organic gardening and farming movement. Almost immediately there developed intensely polarized antagonism between the innocent "organicist" and the technologically-proficient "chemicalist." Hostilities persisted at least into the 1980s and perhaps even longer. Some of the causes of this conflict occurred because J.I. strongly and directly opposed powerful economic interests, but still, a great deal of this hostility may have been created by J.I. Rodale's own attitudes. The Organic Front will be very interesting to anyone seeking to understand the history and personalities involved in the organic gardening and farming movement. Most of this book probably consisted of articles in early issues of Organic Gardening Magazine. Downloads as a PDF of 642 kb. OUT OF PRINT Rodale, J.I. Pay Dirt: Farming & Gardening With Composts. New York: Devin-Adair, 1946.
A collection of pro-humus-farming and gardening odds and ends, mostly from early Organic Gardening Magazines. Downloads as a PDF of 1.23 mb. OUT OF PRINT. Stapledon, Sir R. George and William Davies. Ley Farming. London: Faber and Faber, 1948. Revised edition. Frst published in 1941, this edition was updated with the assistance of William Davies. A thorough look at the use, establishment and management of grass leys, in the tradition of Robert Elliot. Downloads as a PDF of 609kb. Total time needed to process
this book: 05:25. OUT OF PRINT.
Stapledon, Sir R. George. The Way of the Land. London: Faber and Faber, 1943. Revised edition, 1947. This is a collection of Stapledon's lectures and short essays, issued mainly in response to the stress WWII placed on feeding the population. In his time he was regarded as a highly progressive commentator, much as Wendell Barry is currently viewed. In the perspective of today's world scene Stapledon's reactionary views on the righteousness of British imperialism certainly give one doubts about how the future might look at our current crop of progressive thinkers. Downloads as a PDF of 867 kb. Total time needed
to process this book: 04:45. OUT OF PRINT.
Strong, Richard. Soil Health Based on Organic Matter. This brief article considers climatic and land-use factors in determining organic matter levels in soil and the consequent health of the ecosystems supported on those soils. The research underlying this article is still in progress, developing as Richard Strong can manage to afford to visit other areas. Contributed to this library by the author. PUBLIC
DOMAIN.
Sullivan, Preston. Sustainable Soil Management: Soil System Guide. Fayetteville, Arkansas, ATTRA. A very understandable introduction to soil science and soil management that will feel comfortable to holistic food crop growers. ATTRA is an effort of the US Department of Agriculture to assist alternative farming. PUBLIC DOMAIN Sykes, Friend. Humus and the Farmer. London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1946. Sykes ran his prosperous and successful farm on Albert Howard's composting principles; the health and quality of his livestock was extraordinary. Readers should keep in mind that Sykes made a typical enthusiasts mistake in making prescriptions for all farmers. His farm was blessed with a fertile subsoil underlain with chalk. His practices might not works so well on properties without that endowment. Also contains
much information about mechanized production of compost on the farm. Downloads as a PDF of 1.84 mb. Total time needed to process this book: 08:05. OUT OF PRINT. Thomas, Chan. The Adam and Eve Story. Los Angeles: Emerson House, 1965. Thgis title is in this collection for two reasons: to offset Hamaker's Survival of Civilization; and because few who read this short booklet ever look at life the same way again. The most imaginative and fascinating story of a periodic catastrophe that nearly wipes all life off the face of our planet about once every six thousand years. Downloads as a PDF of 204 kb. Total time needed to process this book: 01:30. OUT OF
PRINT.
Trow-Smith, Robert. English Husbandry: From the Earliest Times to the Present Day. London: Faber and Faber Ltd, 1951. A more concise and more factually up-to-date history than Lord Ernle's English Farming Past and Present. In pleasantly reading narrative tells what Trow-Smith considers the general progress of English farming with attention paid to social/ economic conditions from the time of pre-history. as well. Downloads as a PDF of 1.2 mb. OUT OF PRINT. Turner, Newman. Fertility Farming. London: Faber and Faber, 1951. Turner's first book, a less thorough treatment of the materials developed more fully in Fertility Pastures and Herdsmanship. Downloads as a PDF of 1.79 mb. OUT OF PRINT Turner, Newman. Fertility Pastures: Herbal leys as the basis of soil fertility and animal health. London: Faber and Faber, 1955. Turner further developed Elliot's mixed grass-legume ley fertility-building techniques and writes passionately about the superiority of the organic method. A marvellous book! Downloads as a PDF of 1.5 mb. OUT OF PRINT Turner, Newman. Herdsmanship. London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1952. Offers a hygienic view of handling diary cattle, with a full battery of natural remedies, the art of proper feeding, growing fully nutritious feed by organic methods. Especially interesting is his proceedure for TB positive animals and for curing hoof and mouth disease without mass slaughter. Downloads as a PDF of 1.39mb. OUT OF PRINT Voisin, Andr. Grass Tetany. London: Crosby Lockwood & Son Ltd. Understanding how soil imbalances produce this livestock disease illuminates aspects of human health and nutritional requirements as well. A mind-expanding study, as are
all of Voisin's contributions. OUT OF PRINT. Weaver, Don. To Love And Regenerate The Earth: Further Perspectives On The Survival of Civilization. Woodside, California: Earth Health Regeneration, 2002. Don says, "The purpose of this book is to offer the world's responsible people a noncommercial gift of potentially world-transforming information, ideas, and insights on the social, ecological and climatic problems now threatening the future of humanity and the whole Biosphere. Also, to offer potential solutions which respond to the causes of these problems, and which might empower us to wisely regenerate the Biosphere and restore health and balance to the sociosphere. The author/editor is an independent (and interdependent) volunteer researcher hoping to encourage humanity's continued awakening . . . " Don asked that special mention be made here of another website, this one created by Joanna Campe, where this title and also Hamaker'sw The Survival of Civilication can be found. That is: http://www.remineralize.org/. The entire book downloads as a single PDF file of 2.92 mb. PUBLIC DOMAIN. Weaver, John E. and William Bruner. Root Development of Vegetable Crops. New York: McGraw Hill, 1927. The classic study, filled with species-by-species illustrations, each worth tens of thousands of words to someone who wants to grow vegetables better. PUBLIC DOMAIN. Weaver, John E. Root Development of Field Crops. New York: McGraw Hill, 1926. It is difficult to restrain myself from praising this book with several hundred words that would be inappropriate in a "card catalog" such as this. However, Chapter I contains what may be the best basic soil's manual there is; Chapter III suggests magnificent realizations about how to grow plants with an awareness of their root activities and how that effects what one experiences above-ground. Anyone intending to grow plants well needs to study both of Weaver's books, especially the first portions of this one. Of interest to Organic growers will be Weaver's frequent citation of Albert Howard's researches in India. PUBLIC DOMAIN. Widtsoe, John A. Dry Farming. New York: MacMillan, 1911. Between the paragraphs of this book one can see how farmer's lack of ethics and greed led them to ignore Widtsoe's warnings, making the Great Plains dust bowls inevitable. I also found the dry-gardening insights here to complete my own book Gardening Without Irrigation. There are lots of clues for someone seeking to reduce their dependence on the water pump and grow their own food strictly on natural rainfall. This rendition is somewhat abridged: the original had many unnecessary (decorative) illustrations and a few too many tables containing evidence to support Widtsoe's contentions that today seem unnecessary. PUBLIC DOMAIN
Wigens, Anthony. The Clandestine Farm. London: Grenada, 1980. Takes a fresh and inspiring look at land ownership, private property rights and what constitutes sensible ecologic-social thinking. The scan was contributed by a library patron. Downloads as a PDF of 1 mb. OUT OF PRINT. Yeomans, P.A. The Keyline Plan. Sydney: P.A. Yeomans, 1954. After only three years of experimentation with the Keyline system, Yeomans selfpublished this, his first of several books. In the tradition of Louis Bromfield and Plowman's Folly, it is an eye-opening look at how to help land retain all the rainfall it receives, opening the whole soil body to root penetration and releasing the natural fertility of the land.This book became an agricultural best seller and sold out. It is still sought after by collectors. The book is offered here without restriction through the permission of Allan Yeomans, who himself is writing a book offering a cure of global warming through better farming by increasing the carbon retained in the earth as humus. Allan Yeomans also runs a farm-implement company in Queensland; a prepublication version of Allan Yeoman's book can be read and Allan and his farm implement company can be reached at through his website. Yeomans, P.A. The Challenge of Landscape. Sydney: Keyline Publishing PTY, Ltd., 1958. This massive illustration-filled book is primarily a practical farming textbook focused on water conservation and small-scale dam construction and gravity-fed irrigation projects. Especially useful for practicing sustainable rainfall-dependent farming above the broad flood plain where water is always feast or famine. Made available here without restriction with the permission of Allan Yeomans. Yeomans, P.A. The City Forest: The Keyline Plan for the Human Environment Revolution. Sydney: Keyline Publishing, 1971. This is a tiny book of barely 100 small pages written in very compressed form, chock-ablock full of partially-developed insight. It should not be the first of Yeomans' books that a person reads, as having the background of his earlier works it will become more comprehensible. It is almost a utopian plan for human betterment, having as much or more to do with city planning and landscape architecture on a macro-scale as it does with farming. Made available here without restriction with the permission of Allan Yeomans.
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