Explore "An Agricultural Testament" by Albert Howard on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The moment mankind undertook the business of raising crops and breeding animals, the processes of Nature were subjected to interference. Soil fertility was exploited for the growing of food and the production of the raw materials--such as wool, skins, and vegetable fibres--needed for clothing. Up to the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in the West, the losses of humus involved in these agricultural operations were made up either by the return of waste material to the soil or by taking up virgin land.
Where the return of wastes balanced the losses of humus involved in production, systems of agriculture became stabilized and there was no loss of fertility. The example of China has already been quoted. The old mixed farming of a large part of Europe, including Great Britain--characterized by a correct balance between arable and live stock, the conversion of wastes into farmyard manure, methods of sheep folding, and the copious use of the temporary ley--is another instance of the same thing.