 Bibliography of Organic Gardeners Composting This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org read by Betsy Bush in Marquette, Michigan, December 2008. Organic Gardeners Composting by Steve Solomon Bibliography On Composting and Soil Organic Matter Workshop on the Role of Earthworms in the Stabilization of Organic Residues Volume 1 and 2 Edited by Mary Applehoff Kalamazoo, Michigan Beach Leaf Press of the Kalamazoo Nature Center, 1981 If ever there was a serious investigation into the full range of the earthworm's potential to help Homo sapiens, this conference explored it. Volume 2 is the most complete bibliography ever assembled on the earthworm. Applehoff, Mary Worms Eat My Garbage Kalamazoo, Michigan Flower Press, 1982 A delightful, slim, easy reading, totally positive book that offers enthusiastic encouragement to take advantage of vermicomposting. Barrett, Dr. Thomas Jay Harnessing the earthworm Boston Wedgewood Press, 1959 The Biocycle Guide to the Art and Science of Composting Edited by the staff of Biocycle Journal of Waste Recycling Emmes, Pennsylvania, J.G. Press, 1991 The focus of this book is on municipal composting and other industrial systems. Though imprinted Emmes, this is not the Rodale organization, but a group that separated from Rodale Press over ten years ago. Included on the staff are some old organic gardening and farming staffers from the 1970s, including Gene Lodgson and Jerome Goldstein. A major section discussing the biology and ecology of composting is written by Clarence Goluk. There are articles about vermicomposting, anaerobic digestion, and biogasification, and numerous descriptions of existing facilities. Campbell's Stew Let It Rot Pawnol Vermont Story Communications, Inc., 1975 Next to my book, the best imprint at home compost making guide. Darwin, Charles R. The formation of vegetable mold through the action of worms with observations on their habits. London, John Murray & Company, 1881 Dindal, Daniel L. Ecology of Compost Syracuse, New York New York State Council of Environmental Advisors and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, 1972 Actually, a little booklet, but very useful. Goluk, Clarence G., PhD Composting, a study of the process and its principles. Emmes, Rodale Press, 1972 Goluk, writing in Scientific, says much of what my book does in one-third as many words that are three times as long. He is America's undisputed authority on composting. Hopkins, Donald P. Chemicals, Humus & the Soil, Brooklyn, Chemical Publishing Company, 1948 Any serious organic gardener should confront Donald Hopkins' thoughtful critique of Albert Howard's belief system. This book demolishes the notion that chemical fertilizers are intrinsically harmful to soil life while correctly stressing the vital importance of humus. Hop, Henry What every gardener should know about earthworms Charlotte Vermont Garden Way Publishing Company, 1973 Hop was a world-recognized expert on the earthworm. Howard, Albert And Yeshwant D. Wad, the waste products of agriculture, their utilization as humus. London, Oxford University Press, 1931 Many organic gardeners have read Howard's An Agricultural Testament, but almost none have heard of this book. It is the source of my information about the original indoor composting system. An Agricultural Testament, London and New York, Oxford University Press, 1940 Describes Howard's early crusade to restore humus to industrial farming. The Soil and Health, New York, Devin Adair, 1947 Also published in London by Faber & Faber titled Farming and Gardening for Health or Disease A full development of Howard's theme that humus is health for plants, animals and people Howard, Louise E. The Earth's Green Carpet, Emmys Rodale Press, 1947 An oft-overlooked book by Howard's second wife, this one slim volume expresses with elegant and passionate simplicity all of the basic beliefs of the organic gardening and farming movement. See also her Albert Howard in India Kevin D. Keith Soil Animals, London H. F. and G. Witherby Limited, 1962 Soil Zoology for Otherwise Well-Schooled Lay Readers King F. H. Farmers of 40 Centuries or Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea and Japan Emmys Rodale Press, first published 1911 Treasured by the organic gardening movement for its description of a long-standing and successful agricultural system based completely on composting, it is a great travel adventure book Cough, H. H. B. D. Peterson and W. Shaman Biodynamic Agriculture and Introduction Spring Valley, New York Anthroposophic Press, 1976 A good introduction to this philosophical, mystical system of farming and gardening that uses magical compost inoculants Krasilnikov N. A. Soil Microorganisms and Higher Plants Translated by Y. A. Halperin Jerusalem, Israel Program for Scientific Translations, 1961 Organic gardeners have many vague beliefs about how humus makes plants healthy This book scientifically explains why organic matter in soil makes plants healthy Unlike most translations of Russian, this one is an easy read Kunalt Wilhelm Soil biology with special reference to the animal kingdom East Lansing, Michigan State University Press, 1976 Soil zoology at a level of assuming readers have university-level biology, zoology, and microbiology Still very interesting to well-read laypersons who are not intimidated by Latin taxonomy Minich, Jerry The Earthworm Book, How to Raise and Use Earthworms for Your Farm and Garden M. S. Rodale Press, 1977 This book is a thorough and encyclopedic survey of the subject Minich, Jerry, and Marjorie Hunt The Rodale Guide to Composting M. S. Pennsylvania, Rodale Press, 1979 A very complete survey of composting at home, on the farm, and in municipalities The book has been through numerous rewritings since the first edition This version is the best It is more cohesive and less seeming like it was written by a committee than the version in print now Organic gardening and farming magazine may have been at its best when Minich was a senior editor Oliver George Sheffield Our friend The Earthworm Library number 26 M. S. Rodale Press, 1945 During the 1940s, Rodale Press issued an inexpensive pamphlet library This is one of the series Pfeiffer, EE Biodynamic, Farming and Gardening Spring Valley, New York Anthroposophic Press, 1938 Point Salo, RP The Biochemistry and Methodology of Composting Vol. Bulletin, 727 Connecticut Agricultural Experimental Station, 1972 A rigorous but readable review of scientific literature and known data on composting through 1972 Including a complete bibliography Russell, Sir E. John Soil Conditions and Plant Growth, 8th edition New York, Longmans Green & Company, 1950 The best soil science text I know of Avoid the recent in-print edition that has been revised by a committee of current British agronomists They enlarged Russell's book and made more credible to academics by making it less comprehensible to ordinary people with good education and intelligence Through the introduction of unnecessary mathematical models and stilted prose It lacks the human touch and simpler explanations of Russell's original statements Scholar, Friedrich, Soil Animals Ann Arbor, University of Michigan, 1968 Soil zoology for American readers without extensive scientific background Scholar was Kunalt's student Stout, Ruth Gardening without work for the aging, the busy, and the indolent Old Greenwich, Connecticut Devin Edair, 1961 The original statement of mulch gardening, fun to read Her disciple, Richard Clements, wrote several books in the late 1970s that developed the method further Of interest to the serious food gardener I have learned far more from my own self-directed studies than my formal education From time to time I get enthusiastic about some topic and voraciously read about it When I started gardening in the early 1970s, I quickly devoured everything labeled organic in the local public library And began what became a 10-year subscription to organic gardening and farming magazine During the early 1980s, the garden books that I wrote all had the word organic in the title In the late 1980s, my interest turned to what academics might call the intellectual history of radical agriculture I reread the founders of the organic gardening and farming movement only to discover that they, like Mark Twain's father Had become far more intelligent since I last read them 15 years back I began to understand that one reason so many organic gardeners misunderstood Albert Howard Was that he wrote in English, not American I also noticed that there were other related traditions of agricultural reform and followed these back to their sources This research took over 18 months of heavy study I really gave the interlibrary loan library and a workout Herewith are a few of the best titles I absorbed during that research I never miss an opportunity to help my readers discover that older books were written in an era before all intellectuals were afflicted with lifelong insecurity caused by cringing from an imaginary critical and nattery college professor standing over their shoulder Older books are often far better than new ones, especially if you'll forgive them an occasional error in point of fact We are not always discovering newer, better and improved Often we are forgetting and obscuring and confusing what was once known, clear and simple Many of these extraordinary old books are not in print and are not available at your local library However, a simple inquiry at the interlibrary loan desk of most libraries will show you how easy it is to obtain these and most any other book you become interested in Albrecht, William A. The Albrecht Papers volumes 1 and 2, Kansas City, Acres, USA, 1975 Albert Howard, Weston Price, Sir Albert McCarrison and William Albrecht share equal responsibility for creating this era's movement toward biologically sound agriculture Howard is still well known to organic gardeners thanks to promotion by the Rodale organization while Price, McCarrison and Albrecht have faded into obscurity Albrecht was chairman of the soil department at the University of Missouri during the 1930s His unwavering investigation of soil fertility as the primary cause of health and disease was considered politically incorrect by the academic establishment Invested interests that funded agricultural research at that time Driven from academia, he wrote prolifically for non-scientific magazines and lectured to farmers and medical practitioners during the 1940s and 1950s Albrecht was willing to consider chemical fertilizers as potentially useful though he did not think chemicals were as sensible as more natural methods This view was unacceptable to J.I. Rodale who ignored Albrecht's profound contributions Balfour, Lady Eve B. The Living Soil, London, Faber and Faber, 1943 Lady Balfour was one of the key figures in creating the organic gardening and farming movement She exhibited a most remarkable intelligence and understanding of the science of health and of the limitations of her own knowledge Balfour is someone any serious gardener will want to meet through her books Lady Balfour proved Woody Allen Wright about eating organic brown rice She died only recently in her late 90s. Compassmentus to the end Bordosi, Ralph, Flight from the City, an experiment in creative living on the land New York, Harper and Brothers, 1933 A warmly human back to the lander whose pithy critique of industrial civilization still hits home Bordosi explains how production of life's essentials at home with small-scale technology leads to enhanced personal liberty and security Homemade is inevitably more efficient, less costly and better quality than anything mass produced Readers who become fond of this unique individualist sociology and political economy will also enjoy Bordosi's This Ugly Civilization and The Distribution Age Brady, Nile, C. The Nature and Properties of Soils, 8th Edition, New York, Macmillan, 1974 Through numerous additions instilled the standard soils text for American agricultural colleges Every serious gardener should attempt a reading of this Encyclopedia of Soil Knowledge every few years See also Fawth, Henry D., Fundamentals of Soil Science Bromfield, Lewis, Malibar Farm, New York, Harper and Brothers, 1947 Here is another agricultural reformer who did not exactly tow the organic party line as promulgated by J.I. Rodale Consequently, his books are relatively unknown to today's gardening public If you like Wendell Berry, you'll find Bromfield's emotive and lyrical prose even finer and less academically contrived His experiments with ecological farming are inspiring See also Bromfield's other farming books, Pleasant Valley in My Experience and Out of the Earth Carter, Vernon Gill and Dale Tom Topsoil and Civilization Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1974, 1st Edition, 1954 This book surveys 7,000 years of world history to show how each place where civilization developed was turned into an impoverished, scantily inhabited semi-desert by neglecting soil conservation Will ours survive any better? Readers who wish to pursue this area further might start with West Jackson's New Roots for Agriculture Ernal, Prothero, Lord, English Farming Past and Present, 6th Edition, 1st Published, London, Longman's Green and Company Limited, 1912, and many subsequent editions Chicago Quadrangle Books, 1962 Some history is dry as dust Anyone serious about vegetable gardening will want to know all they can about the development of modern agricultural methods Fawth, Henry D. Fundamentals of Soil Science, 8th Edition, New York, John Wiley & Sons, 1990 Like Brady's text, this one has also been through numerous editions for the past several decades Unlike Brady's work, however, this book is a little less technical and easier read as though designed for non-science majors Probably the best starter text for someone who wants to really understand soil Hall, Bolton, Three Acres and Liberty, New York, Macmillan, 1918 Bolton Hall marks the start of our modern Back to the Land movement He was Ralph Bordosi's mentor and inspiration Where Ralph was smooth and intellectual, Hall was crusty and tween-esque Hammacher, John D. The Survival of Civilization, annotated by Donald A. Weaver, Michigan and California, Hammacher Weaver Publishers, 1982 Forget global warming, Hammacher believably predicts the next Ice Age is coming Glaciers will be upon us sooner than we know unless we reverse intensification of atmospheric carbon dioxide by reminalization of the soil Very useful for its exploration of the agricultural use of rock flowers Helps one stand back from the current global warming panic and ask if we really know what is coming Or are we merely feeling guilty for abusing Earth? Hopkins, Cyril G. Soil Fertility and Permanent Agriculture, Boston, Gin and Company, 1910 Though a venerable lineage, this book is still one of the finest of soil manuals in existence Hopkins' interesting objections to chemical fertilizers are more economic than moral The story of the soil from the basis of absolute science and real life Boston, Richard G. Badger, 1911 A romance of soil science similar to ecotopia or looking backward No better introduction exists to understanding farming as a process of management of overall soil mineralization People who attempt this book should be ready to forgive that Hopkins occasionally expresses opinions on race and other social issues That were acceptable in his era but today are considered objectionable by most Americans Jenny, Hans Factors of soil formation, a system of quantitative pedology New York, McGraw Hill, 1941 Don't let the title scare you Jenny's masterpiece is not hard to read and still stands in the present as the best analysis of how soil forms from rock Anyone who is serious about growing plants will want to know this data McCarrison, Sir Robert The work of Sir Robert McCarrison, editor H. M. Sinclair, London Faber & Faber, 1953 One of the forgotten discoveries of the relationship between soil fertility and human health McCarrison, a physician and medical researcher, worked in India contemporaneously with Albert Howard He spent years trekking around the Hanza and conducted the first bioassays of food nutrition by feeding rat populations on the various national diets of India And like the various nations of India, some of the rats became healthy, large, long-lived, and good-natured while others were small, sickly, irritable, and short-lived Nearing Helen and Scott Living the good life, how to live sanely and simply in a troubled world First published in 1950, New York, Shaken Books, 1970 Continuing in Bordosi's footsteps, the Nearing's homesteaded in the 30s and began proselytizing for the self-sufficient lifestyle shortly thereafter Scott was a very dignified old political radical when he addressed my high school in Massachusetts in 1961 and inspired me to dream of country living He remained active until nearly his hundredth birthday, see also Continuing the Good Life and The Maple Sugar Book Parns Robert, Organic and Inorganic Fertilizers, Mount Vernon, Maine, Woods End Agricultural Institute, 1986 Price, Westin A, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, La Mesa, California, Price Pottinger Nutrition Foundation, reprinted 1970, 1939 Sits on the Family Bible shelf in my home along with Elbrecht, McCarrison and Howard Price, a dentist with strong interests in prevention, wondered why his clientele, 1920's Midwest bourgeoisie, had terrible teeth when prehistoric skulls of aged, unlettered savages retained all their teeth in perfect condition So he traveled to isolated parts of the earth in the early 1930s seeking healthy humans and he found them belonging to every race and on every continent and found out why they lived long had virtually no degeneration of any kind including dental degeneration Full of interesting photographs, anthropological data and travel details, a trailblazing work that shows the way to greatly improved human health Rodale, J.I., The Organic Front, M.S. Rodale Press, 1948 An intensely ideological statement of the basic tenets of the organic faith Rodale established the organic gardening and farming movement in the United States by starting up Organic Gardening and Farming Magazine in 1942 His views, limitations and preferences have defined organic ever since See also PayDirt Schopen, Werner, Nutritional Values in Crops and Plants, London, Faber and Faber, 1965 A top rate scientist asks the question, is organically grown food really more nutritious? The answer is yes and no Smith, J.Russell Tree Crops, A Permanent Agriculture, New York, Harcourt, Brayson Company, 1929 No bibliography of agricultural alternatives should overlook this classic critique of farming with a plow, delightfully original Solomon, Steve Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades, Seattle, Washington, Sesquatch Books, 1989 My strictly regional focus, combined with the reality that the climate west of the Cascades is radically different than the rest of the United States has made this vegetable gardening text virtually unknown to American gardeners east of the Cascades It has been praised as the best regional garden book ever written Its analysis of soil management and critique of Rodale's version of the organic gardening and farming philosophy are also unique I founded and ran Territorial Seed Company, a major mail order vegetable garden seed business No other garden book has ever encompassed my experience with seeds in the seed world Waterwise Gardening, Seattle, Sesquatch Books, 1992 How to grow vegetables without dependence on irrigation Make your vegetables able to survive long periods of drought and still be very productive My approach is extensive, old-fashioned and contrarian, the opposite of today's intensive, modern, trendy postage stamp living Turner, Frank Newman Fertility pastures and cover crops based on Nature's Own Balanced Organic Pasture Feeds Reprinted from Faber and Faber, 1955 edition, San Diego Ray Tever, 1975 An encouragement to farm using long rotations and green maneuvering systems from a follower of Albert Howard Turner offered a remarkably sensible definition for soil fertility In essence, if my livestock stay healthy, live long, breed well, and continue doing so for at least four generations, then my soil was fertile Voizen, Andre Better Grassland, Sward, London, Crosby Lockwood & Sons, Ltd, 1960 The first half is an amazing survey of the role of the earthworm in soil fertility The rest is just Voizen continuing on at his amazing best No one interested in soil and health should remain unfamiliar with Voizen's intelligence See also Grass Tetany, Grass Productivity, and Soil Grass and Cancer End of Bibliography And of Organic Gardeners Composting by Steve Solomon This LibriVox recording is in the public domain