Crops and Soils
When the first white settlers began clearing land for agriculture, they found 18-24 inches of rich black topsoil. With reckless abandon they plowed everything from steep ridge tops to alluvial flood planes along the creek bottoms. Then came the timber barons and the coal mining. After WWII, chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides came into heavy use. We farm old pastures and hayfields that have little topsoil and practically no organic matter. When you scoop up a handful of soil, the dirt is full of broken shale pieces. It’s hurting for nitrogen, phosphorous and other trace minerals. When people ask me what crops I grow, I say, “We’re not the real farmers here. The real farmers are the micro-organisms that make plant food available to the root systems. We’re here just to cooperate with them.”