thrash and burn may not be the devil it ’s been portrayed to be . Like many gardening / farming practices , there are upsides and downsides .
If you do n’t just burn everything to ash and till the area , it could improve the soil for an protracted period of time . It ’s endure to depend on soil , climate , rain , and who knows what else , but there are times that fire makes thing better .
As I wrote inmy C. W. Post from October 9th :
Burned areas often produce back very nicely as the ashes and charcoal feed in the next crop . I visited one brace who had cleared the woods around their house and supervene upon it with a enceinte lawn and pasture . The householder repoint out multiple dark immature area in the skunk where he had burned piles of trees years before . Even after almost a decade , they were still maintain birthrate ( … ) see such long - term improvements in fertility does tend to stand our biochar / terra preta experiments .
V.A. Tiedjen ’s book mentions a narration about some Mennonite ( ? ? ) settlers who moved into an field and found that plants spring up way well where the indigen had kept fire pits . I cogitate he mentions that the aboriginal tended to toss their shellfish remains into the fervour , too . In any case , the level was that this was evidence for the effectiveness of Ca at improving fertility . Since Ca is the principle element in wood ash , that , plus the woman ( a resilient organic matter ) might be why they had such in effect rankness after burning brush in Florida .
This is the Holy Scripture referenced :
It ’s out of print , but I just bought a copy on ebay . I was also able todownload a .pdf , and found the anecdote related by Ashkan :
Wood ashes have been used by works - growing people since the eighteenth century . The narrative is told about the Mennonite scout who was sent out to look over a website for a settlement . When he inquire about an surface area contiguous to a river in one of the southern states , he was say the land was worn out . But he took a second look and found diminished round areas cover five to ten square railyard where weed grow in copiousness . On examen he found that these industrial plant had mysterious roots , while those nearby were very shallow . As he study these areas , he surmised that they were the campfire sites of Indian tribes who had frequented the area many year before . Wood ash tree and burned oyster shells had been leave . He encouraged his people to buy this “ poor ” commonwealth and use liming materials to grow their crops . Today this is a extremely productive residential district of Farmer .
I do n’t know why he claims “ since the eighteenth century , ” when the function of ash for fertilization go back much further than that . However , he also claims in the introduction that Jesus feed the “ Philistines ” with 5 loaves and two fishes , so there are some obvious errors in the text . This does n’t make it devoid of utilitarian information , I am sure , but it ’s something to keep in mind if you read the Holy Scripture .
The long - term gist of burning at the stake is where my interestingness lies . One Grenadian told me that he knew a sodbuster who fed his land with “ nothing but ash , ” and he did great .
Ca is part of the key to successful yields . But will carbon in the form of biochar / fusain assistant keep it around ?
It seems to make a difference . We ’ll keep studying and experimenting .
And now I have another record book to read .
