Mr. Faulkner’s masterpiece is recognized as the most important challenge to agricultural orthodoxy that has been advanced in this century. Its new philosophy of the soil, based on proven principles and completely opposed to age-old concepts, has had a strong impact upon theories of cultivation around the world. It was on July 5, 1943, when Plowman’s Folly was first issued, that the author startled a lethargic public, long bemused by the apparently insoluble problem of soil depletion, by saying, simply, “The fact is that no one has ever advanced a scientific reason for plowing.” With the key sentence, he opened a new era.For generations, our reasoning about the management of the soil has rested upon the use of the moldboard plow. Mr. Faulkner proved rather conclusively that soil impoverishment, erosion, decreasing crop yields, and many of the adverse effects following droughts or periods of excessive rainfall could be traced directly to the practice of plowing natural fertilizers deep into the soil. Through his own test-plot and field-scale experiments, in which he prepared the soil with a disk harrow, in emulation of nature’s way on the forest floor and in the natural meadow, by incorporating green manures into its surface, he transformed ordinary, even inferior, soils into extremely productive, high-yield croplands.Time magazine called this concept “one of the most revolutionary ideas in agriculture history.” The volume is being made available again not only because farmers, ranchers, gardeners, and agriculturists demanded it, but also because it details the kind of “revolution” which will aid those searching for the fruits of the earth in the emerging nations.

Plowman's Folly

Science & Math

Faulkner, Edward H.

Earth Sciences

University of Oklahoma Press

Edward H. Faulkner startled the agricultural world--all of it, on six continents--when he published Plowman's Folly in 1943. As almost everyone knows, he launched a vigorous attack on the plow and dseveloped in a masterful way the advantages of surface incorporation of organic material. The Readers Digest summed up American interest at the time in the statement, "Probably no book on an agricultural subject has ever prompted so much discussion in this country."  A Second Look is a sequel to Plowman's Folly. In it Mr. Faulkner answers his critics and re-examines the theories expressed earlier, in the light of extensive investigations he subsequently made in visiting experiment stations, soil scientists, and farmers in many parts of the country. Finally, in simple, straightforward language, he gives the lie to "soil impoverishment." Highly condensed, here is his thought: The soil which the gardener or farmer works is made up of tiny crystalline fragments. The action of soil acids, principally those released through the decay of organic matter, unlocks the minerals required for healthy plant growth.  If this is true, then the indiscriminate and continuous use of commercial fertilizer is a mistake. In fact, says Mr. Faulkner, the "bank account" theory of soil is bankrupt. It holds that whatever we take from the soil in the growing of crops must be put back--usually in the form of prepared fertilizers. What the soil needs, on the contrary, is the gentle chemistry described above. If a man cannot learn this, he will pay and pay, ultimately to his ruin.  If Plowman's Folly dealt a body blow to deep plowing, then A Second Look sets in revolutionary perspective the whole problem of soil impoverishment. Whether you cultivate a backyard garden or a thousand acres of wheat, this is a book you can hardly afford to miss.

A Second Look

Engineering & Transportation

Engineering

Uneasy Money

Business & Money

Economics

Plowman's Folly and A Second Look (Conservation Classics)

As the ruinous Dust Bowl settled in the early 1940s, agronomist Edward Faulkner dropped what Nature magazine termed "an agricultural bombshell" when he blamed the then universally used moldboard plow for disastrous pillage of the soil. Faulkner's assault on the orthodoxy of his day will stimulate today's farmers to seek out fresh solutions to the problems that plague modern American agriculture. Plowman's Folly is bound together here with its companion volume A Second Look.

Island Press

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Books by Faulkner, Edward H.