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