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I'm reading Tree Crops, written in the 1950s, which goes deeply into the advantages of using trees for fruits and nuts rather than basing agriculture on annual crops. Especially on hilly land, the tilling required for crops is devastating for the soil.

It's basically all about time preference.

"When the Corsican starts a crop, he does it by planting beautiful trees whose crops he and his children and his children's children will later pick up from year to year, decade to decade, generation to generation. When the American mountaineer wants to sow a crop, he must fight for it.. first he cuts and burns forests… in a few seasons the mountainside cornfield is gullied to ruin, and the mountaineer, the raper of the mountain, must laboriously make another field.

There is one argument for corn. It is a great and destructive argument. The plant is annual. The labor of the husbandman is quickly rewarded. The ruin of his farm comes later."

#perennials

#permaculture, #permies

#homesteading

#timepreference

#soil

MichaelJ 2y ago

Obviously, though, annual crops like grains have been historically quite successful in some areas of the world.

I don't know tons about the subject, but I would guess that different crops are suited to different landscapes and ecologies. A fertile river valley with rich soils might better support sustained annual cropping, while a more mountainous region would be best suited for animal husbandry and tree crops like your post describes.

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Discussion

FiddleHodlHomestead 2y ago

Yes, for sure - different crops and animals are suited to different ecosystems.

From what I know, most of the regions that historically have been great for grain - so many beautiful fertile river valleys - are now barren or going in that direction. So, yes, successful in the short term but usually devastating in the long term.

My guess is that there are ways to grow grains at scale that don't destroy the soil - rotating fields, using them for ruminants in the off seasons so that you replenish the fertility? - but we (humans) have tended to approach large-scale agriculture as an extraction.

MichaelJ 2y ago

I'm thinking of the Nile valley, and how it supported Egyptian civilization for thousands of years. But it was fed by the annual flooding. Maybe damming and controlling river flow disrupts the natural processes that replenish the soil.