4. THE PRACTICE OF NATURAL FARMING
1. Starting a Natural Farm
Once the decision has been made to start farming the natural way the very first
problem that comes up is where and on what type of land to live. Although some may
share the woodsman’s preference for the isolation and solitude of a mountain forest, the
best course generally is to set up a farm at the foot of a hill or mountain. Weather is often
most pleasant when the site is slightly elevated. Abundant firewood, vegetables, and
other necessities are to be had here, providing all the materials required for food,
clothing, and shelter. Having a stream nearby helpsmake crops easy to grow. This type
of location thus provides all the conditions essential for setting up an easy and
comfortable life.
Of course, with effort, crops can be made to grow on any type of land, but nothing
compares with richly endowed land. The ideal location is one where enormous trees
tower above the earth, the soil is deep and a rich black or brown in color, and the water is
clear. Scenic beauty perfects the site. A good environment in an attractive setting
provides the physical and spiritual elements necessary for living a pleasant life.
The natural farm must be able to supply all the materials and resources essential for
food, clothing, and shelter. In addition to fields for growing crops, a complete natural
farm should include also a bordering wood.
Keep a Natural Protected Wood
The woods surrounding a natural farm should be treated as a natural preserve for the
farm and used as a direct or indirect source of organic fertilizer. The basic strategy for
achieving long-term, totally fertilizer-free cultivation on a natural farm is to create deep,
fertile soil. There are several ways of doing this.Here are some examples.
1. Direct burial of coarse organic matter deep in the ground.
2. Gradual soil improvement by planting grasses andtrees that send roots deep into the
soil.
3. Enrichment of the farm by carrying nutrients built up in the humus of the upland
woods or forest downhill with rainwater or by othermeans.
Whatever the means employed, the natural farmer must secure a nearby supply of
humus that can serve as a source of soil fertility.
When there is no uphill wood available for use as apreserve, one can always develop
a new wood or bamboo grove for this purpose. Although the main function of a preserve
is to serve as a deeply verdant natural wood, one should also plant companion trees that
enrich the soil, timber trees, trees that supply food for birds and animals, and trees that
provide a habitat for the natural enemies of insectpests.
Growing a Wood Preserve: Being generally infertile and dry, hill and mountain tops
are highly susceptible to denudation. The first thing to do is plant a vine such as kudzu to
prevent the soil from washing away. Next, sow the seeds of a low conifer such as moss
cypress to create a mountain cover of evergreens. Grasses such as cogon, ferns such as
bracken, and low bushes such as lespedeza, eurya, and moss cypress grow thickly at first,
but this vegetation gradually gives way to urajiro (a fern), kudzu, and a mix of trees
which further enriches the soil.
Evergreens such as Japanese cypress and the camphor tree should be planted on
hillsides, and together with these, deciduous trees such as Chinese hackberry, zelkova,
paulownia, cherry, maple, and eucalyptus. Plant thefertile land at the foot of hills and in
valleys with oak and evergreens such as cryptomeria and live oak, interplanting these
with walnut and ginkgo.
A bamboo grove may serve equally well as the reserve. It takes a bamboo shoot only
one year to grow to full size, so the amount of vegetative growth is greater than for
ordinary trees. Bamboo is therefore valuable as a source of coarse organic material that
can be buried in the ground for soil improvement.
Not only can the shoots of certain species of bamboo be sold as a vegetable, when
dried the wood is light and easy to carry. Bamboo is hollow and so has a large void ratio,
in addition to which it decomposes slowly. These properties help it to retain air and water
in the soil when it is buried. Clearly then, this plant may be used to great advantage in the
improvement of soil structure.
Shetterbelts: Shelterbelts and windbreak trees are valuable not only for preventing
wind damage, but also for maintaining soil fertility and for environmental improvement.
Fast-growing trees that are commonly planted for this purpose include cedar, cypress,
acacia, and the camphor tree. Other species that grow somewhat more slowly but are also
used quite often include camellia, the umbrella tree, wax myrtle, and Chinese anise. In
some places, evergreen oaks, holly, and other treesare also used.
Setting Up an Orchard
One may establish an orchard and plant nursery stock using essentially the same
methods as when planting forest trees. Vegetation on the hillside is cut in lateral strips,
and the large trunks, branches, and leaves of the felled trees are arranged or buried in
trenches running along hill contours, covered with earth, and allowed to decompose
naturally. None of the vegetation cut down in the orchard should be carried away.
In modern orchards, using bulldozers to clear land has become the rule rather than the
exception, but a natural farm should be developed without clearing the land. When land is
cleared with a bulldozer, irregular surface features on a slope are flattened and smoothed.
Wide farm roads are built to permit farm mechanization. However, mechanization really
only facilitates certain farm operations such as fertilizer and pesticide application. Since
picking ripened fruit is the only major operation in natural farming, there is no need to go
out of one’s way to clear steep slope.
Another factor that improves the enterprising orchardist’s chances of success is that a
natural orchard can be established without a heavy initial outlay of capital or incurring
large debts.
Starting a Garden
People usually think of a garden as a plot of land devoted to the production of
vegetables and field crops. However, using the open space in an orchard to raise an
undergrowth of special-purpose crops and vegetables is the very picture of nature.
Nothing stops the farmer from having his orchard double as a vegetable and grain patch.
Clearly, of course, the system of cultivation and the nature of the garden or orchard
will differ significantly depending on whether the principal aim is to grow fruit trees or
vegetable crops.
Land to be used for growing fruit trees and intercropped with grains or vegetables is
prepared in essentially the same way as an orchard.The land does not need to be cleared
and leveled, but should be carefully readied by, for example, burying coarse organic
material in the ground.
When starting an orchard, the main goals initially should be prevention of weed
emergence and maturation of the soil. These can be accomplished by growing buckwheat
during the first summer, and sowing rapeseed and Indian mustard that same winter. The
following summer, one may plant adzuki bean and mung bean, and in the winter, hairy
vetch and other hardy leguminous plants that grow well without fertilizers. The only
problem with these is that they tend to inundate the young fruit tree saplings.
As the garden, matures, it will support any type ofcrop.
The Non-Integrated Garden: Gardens are normally created on hillsides and welldrained fields at the foot of larger mountains. Most of the crops grown in these gardens
are annuals and the period of cultivation is generally short, in most cases lasting from
several months to about a half-year.
Most vegetables rise to a height of no more than three feet or so and are shallowrooting. The short growing period allows this cycleto be repeated several times a year,
subjecting the surface of the soil to considerable exposure to the sun. A dry-farmed field,
then, is prone to erosion and soil depletion by rainfall, susceptible to drought, and has low
resistance to the cold.
Soil movement being the greatest concern when establishing a garden, the garden
should be built in terrace fashion with the Surfaceof the field on each terrace level. The
first task in setting up a garden is to build a series of lateral embankments or stone walls
running across the slope of the hill. Knowledge of the soil and the ability to build earthen
embankments that do not crumble or to skillfully lay stones dug up from the field can be
a determining factor in the success of a garden.
Whether the individual terraces in a terraced garden are level or slightly graded makes
a large difference in crop returns and the efficiency of farming work. As I mentioned
earlier, the most basic method for improving soil is to bury coarse organic matter in deep
trenches. Another good method is to pile soil up tocreate high ridges. This can be done
using the soil brought up while digging contour trenches with a shovel. The dirt should be
piled around coarse organic material. Better aeration allows soil in a pile of this sort to
mature more quickly than soil in a trench. Such methods soon activate the latent fertility
of even depleted, granular soil, rapidly preparing it for fertilizer-free cultivation.
Creating a Rice Paddy
Today, a rice field can easily be prepared by clearing the land with large machinery,
removing rocks and stones, and leveling the surfaceof the field. Yet, although well-suited
to increasing the size of single paddy fields and promoting mechanized rice production,
such a process is not without its drawbacks:
1) Because it is crude, it leaves a thickness of topsoil that varies with the depth of the
bedrock, resulting in uneven areas of crop growth.
2) The load that heavy machinery places on the soil results in excessive settling,
causing ground water to stagnate. This situation can induce root rotting and at least
partial suppression of initial crop growth on the new field.
3) Levees and walkways are all made of concrete, upsetting and destroying the
community of soil microbes. The danger here is of gradually turning the soil into a dead
mineral matter.
Traditional Paddy Preparation: Most people might expect open, level ground to be
the most sensible place on which to set up rice paddies. But rather than settling on the flat
and fertile banks of large rivers, Japanese farmersof old chose to live in mountain valleys
where there was far less cause to fear violent flooding and strong winds. They set up
small fields in the valleys or built terraced rice fields on the hillsides.
To these farmers, the work of digging channels for drawing water from the valley
steams, of constructing rice fields, and of building rock walls and terraced fields was not
as hard as the people of today imagine. They did not think of it as hardship.
By spreading the field with the cuttings from ridge grasses, bordering weeds, and
young foliage from trees, rice could easily be grown each year without using fertilizers. A
tiny field of maybe a hundred square yards suppliedthe food needs for one individual
indefinitely. The spiritual peace and security, thesimple joy of creating a rice paddy were
greater than can be imagined. From these activities, our farming ancestors gained
pleasure and satisfaction of a sort that cannot be had through mechanized farming.
I can recall occasionally happening upon small paddy fields deep in the mountains far
from populated areas and my surprise at how well someone had managed to set up a field
in such a location. To the modern economist, this would appear as utter wretchedness, but
I found the field a wonderful masterpiece reminiscent of the past—built alone by
someone living happily in the seclusion and quiet solitude of the wilds with nature as his
sole companion.
In truth, this place, with its artfully built conduit snaking in the shade of valley trees
for drawing water, the rockwork that displays a thorough knowledge of the soil and
terrain, and the beauty of the moss on the stones, was in reality a splendid garden built
with great care by an anonymous farmer close to nature who drew fully on the resources
about him.
As the agrarian scenes of yesterday are rapidly swept off by the tide of modernization,
we might do well to consider whether we can afford to lose the aesthetic spirit of our
farming forbears, who saw the rice paddy as the arbor of their souls and gazed upon a
thousand moons reflected in a thousand paddies. Butof one thing I am certain: fields and
rice paddies imbued with this spirit will reappear again somewhere, someday.
These are not just the fond recollections of bygonedays by a misty-eyed old fogey.
The general method of establishing a rice paddy I have described here accords with
reality as it exists on uncultivated open plains and meadows.
Crop Rotation
Modern farming has brought about destruction of thesoil and a loss in soil fertility
because it breaks crops up into many different use categories and grows each in isolation,
often single-cropping continuously over extensive areas.
On the complete natural farm, fruit trees, vegetables, grains, and other crops must all
be planted and grown in an organic and mutually favorable arrangement. More
specifically, a reliable crop rotation scheme must be established in order to be able to
make essentially permanent use of the land while maintaining soil fertility.
Fruit trees must not be dissociated from the trees of a bordering wood or the weed
undergrowth. Indeed, it is only by having intimate associations with these that they are
able to show normal, healthy growth. As for vegetables, when left to themselves in a
field, they appear at first glance to grow without order, but these develop into splendid
plants while nature solves the problems of continuous cropping, space, disease and pest
damage, and the recovery of soil fertility.
Ever since primitive man began slash-and-burn agriculture, the question of what crops
to plant when has been the greatest problem faced by farmers everywhere. Yet a clearly
decisive system of crop rotation has yet to be established. In the West, systems of rotation
based on pasturage have been established for some time, but because these were designed
for the benefit of ranchers and their animals rather than for the land itself, they have
brought about a decline in soil fertility that calls for immediate improvement.
In Japan as well, although farmers do grow a wide variety of different crops using an
excellent system of crop rotation, a basic crop rotation scheme worthy of more
widespread use has yet to be developed. One reason for this is the staggering number of
possible crop combinations, and the essentially infinite number of elements that must be
considered in stabilizing and increasing yields. Tobring all these together into a single
system of crop rotation would be an exceedingly difficult undertaking.
The diagrams on the following pages are intended toserve as aids to an understanding
of crop rotation.
Rice/Barley Cropping: Japanese farmers have long practiced the continuousrotation
of rice with barley. This has enabled them to reap the same harvest year after year
indefinitely, something which they have always regarded as perfectly natural. Yet this
type of rotational cropping is an extraordinary method of farming that has taken hold
nowhere else in the world.
The reason rice and barley can be grown in continuous succession each year is that the
rice is grown in paddy fields, the soil fertility of which has been built up by a superior
method of irrigation. To tell the truth, I am proudof the outstanding cultivation methods
developed by Japanese farmers and would like to seethese introduced abroad.
Still, some very simple yet significant improvements could be made. For example,
about seventy percent of the nitrogenous components absorbed by rice and barley are
supplied directly by the soil, while about thirty percent are furnished artificially by
fertilization. If all the straw and chaff from the threshed grain were returned to the fields,
farmers would only have to apply at most fifteen percent of the nitrogenous components
required by the plants.
Reports have begun appearing recently in scientific journals on the possibilities of
developing cultivars of rice not requiring fertilization. These propose the creation of
strains of rice capable of fixing nitrogen by incorporating the root nodule genes of
soybeans into rice genes, One has to admit, though,that nature has achieved a smarter
method of non-fertilizer cultivation. True, because my method of rice-barley cropping
under a cover of green manure is, in a sense, just a mimicry of nature, it is incomplete in
itself. But there remains much that man can and should try before he resorts to genetic
engineering, a technology with the frightening potential to utterly destroy nature.
Upland Rice: Wheat and rice are each the staple foods of about half the world’s
population, but if the cultivation of upland rice were to spread and this grain became easy
to harvest in high yield, a large jump would occur in the number of rice-eating peoples.
Growing upland rice could even possibly become one effective way of coping with the
worldwide scarcity of food.
Generally speaking, upland rice is an unstable cropoften subject to drought. Yields are
lower than for rice grown in paddy fields, and continuous cropping gradually depletes
soil fertility, resulting in a steady decline in yields. A workable solution appears to be
rotational cropping in combination with various green manure crops and vegetables, as
this raises the ability of the soil to retain waterand gradually builds up soil fertility.
Minor Grains: This group includes members of the grass family such as millet and
corn, as well as buckwheat, Job’s tears, and other grains. Compared with rice, barley, and
wheat, these grains generally receive short shrift because of their “inferior” taste and a
lack of research on methods for their use, but theydeserve more attention for their very
great value as prototypic health foods essential for maintaining the physical well-being of
human beings.
The same is true also for vegetables and other plants in general. The wilder and more
primitive the food, the greater its medicinal value.
With changes in popular taste, the cultivation of these minor grains as food for man
has rapidly receded to the point where even seed preservation has become difficult. Yet,
above and beyond their importance as a food for humans and animals, they have also
played a vital role as coarse organic matter essential for soil preservation. When singlecropped or grown continuously, these grains deplete the soil, but if rotated with green
manure crops and root vegetables, they improve and enrich the soil. This is why I believe
the minor grains should be repopularized.
Vegetables: People tend to think of vegetables as frail crops that are difficult to grow,
but with the exception of several types that have been genetically over-improved, such as
the cucumber and tomato, these are surprisingly hardy crops that can thrive even under
extensive cultivation.
Cruciferous winter vegetables, for example, when sown just before the emergence of
weeds, grow vigorously, overwhelming the weeds. These also send down roots deep into
the soil, and so are highly effective in soil improvement. That leguminous green manure
suppresses summer weeds and enriches the soil hardly needs repeating. Clearly these too
should play an important part in a crop rotation.
Judicious combinations of vegetables in a sensible mixed cropping scheme can be
grown in fair yield, free of disease and pest damage, without resorting to pesticides. I
have found also, through personal experience, that most vegetables, when cultivated in a
semi-wild state that could be considered a natural rotation, can be grown almost entirely
without fertilizers.
Fruit Trees and Crop Rotation: Because fruit trees are continuously cultivated
perennials, they are subject to the difficulties associated with continuous cropping. The
purpose of having a protected wood and a ground cover of weeds is to resolve such
problems naturally and extend the life of the fruittrees. These trees exist, together with
the companion-planted manure trees and the weed undergrowth, in a three-dimensional
rotational cropping relationship.
When vegetables are grown beneath fruit trees, the number of insect pests tends to be
low. Some diseases and pests are common both to fruit trees and vegetables, and some
are not. These in turn have a host of different natural enemies that emerge at various
times of the year. As long as a balance is maintained between the fruit trees, the
vegetables, the insect pests, and their natural predators, real damage from disease and
insect attack can be prevented. For the same reason, the planting of manure trees and
windbreak trees, and the combination planting of evergreens and deciduous trees may
also be helpful in diminishing damage.
In most cases, serious disease and pest damage in fruit trees, such as by long-horned
beetles and scale insects, is triggered by diminished tree vigor due to depleted soil
fertility, a confused tree shape, poor ventilation, inadequate light penetration, or a
combination of all of these factors. Because they help sustain soil fertility, a ground cover
of green manure crops and the combination planting of manure trees may thus be
regarded as basic defensive measures against disease and pest damage.
Using natural farming methods to cultivate fruit trees creates a truly three-dimensional
orchard. More than just a place for growing fruit, the orchard becomes an organically
integrated community that includes fowl, livestock,and man as well. If a natural orchard
is managed and run as a single microcosm, there is no reason why one should not be able
to live self-sufficiently.
By looking with equal detachment at insects, which man categorizes as beneficial or
harmful, people will see that this is a world of coexistence and mutual benefit, and will
come to understand that farming methods which call for heavy inputs of fertilizer and
energy can only succeed in robbing the land of its natural fertility.
Nature is sufficient in and of itself; there never was a need for human effort and
knowledge. By returning to a “do-nothing” nature, all problems are resolved.
1. Starting a Natural Farm
Once the decision has been made to start farming the natural way the very first
problem that comes up is where and on what type of land to live. Although some may
share the woodsman’s preference for the isolation and solitude of a mountain forest, the
best course generally is to set up a farm at the foot of a hill or mountain. Weather is often
most pleasant when the site is slightly elevated. Abundant firewood, vegetables, and
other necessities are to be had here, providing all the materials required for food,
clothing, and shelter. Having a stream nearby helpsmake crops easy to grow. This type
of location thus provides all the conditions essential for setting up an easy and
comfortable life.
Of course, with effort, crops can be made to grow on any type of land, but nothing
compares with richly endowed land. The ideal location is one where enormous trees
tower above the earth, the soil is deep and a rich black or brown in color, and the water is
clear. Scenic beauty perfects the site. A good environment in an attractive setting
provides the physical and spiritual elements necessary for living a pleasant life.
The natural farm must be able to supply all the materials and resources essential for
food, clothing, and shelter. In addition to fields for growing crops, a complete natural
farm should include also a bordering wood.
Keep a Natural Protected Wood
The woods surrounding a natural farm should be treated as a natural preserve for the
farm and used as a direct or indirect source of organic fertilizer. The basic strategy for
achieving long-term, totally fertilizer-free cultivation on a natural farm is to create deep,
fertile soil. There are several ways of doing this.Here are some examples.
1. Direct burial of coarse organic matter deep in the ground.
2. Gradual soil improvement by planting grasses andtrees that send roots deep into the
soil.
3. Enrichment of the farm by carrying nutrients built up in the humus of the upland
woods or forest downhill with rainwater or by othermeans.
Whatever the means employed, the natural farmer must secure a nearby supply of
humus that can serve as a source of soil fertility.
When there is no uphill wood available for use as apreserve, one can always develop
a new wood or bamboo grove for this purpose. Although the main function of a preserve
is to serve as a deeply verdant natural wood, one should also plant companion trees that
enrich the soil, timber trees, trees that supply food for birds and animals, and trees that
provide a habitat for the natural enemies of insectpests.
Growing a Wood Preserve: Being generally infertile and dry, hill and mountain tops
are highly susceptible to denudation. The first thing to do is plant a vine such as kudzu to
prevent the soil from washing away. Next, sow the seeds of a low conifer such as moss
cypress to create a mountain cover of evergreens. Grasses such as cogon, ferns such as
bracken, and low bushes such as lespedeza, eurya, and moss cypress grow thickly at first,
but this vegetation gradually gives way to urajiro (a fern), kudzu, and a mix of trees
which further enriches the soil.
Evergreens such as Japanese cypress and the camphor tree should be planted on
hillsides, and together with these, deciduous trees such as Chinese hackberry, zelkova,
paulownia, cherry, maple, and eucalyptus. Plant thefertile land at the foot of hills and in
valleys with oak and evergreens such as cryptomeria and live oak, interplanting these
with walnut and ginkgo.
A bamboo grove may serve equally well as the reserve. It takes a bamboo shoot only
one year to grow to full size, so the amount of vegetative growth is greater than for
ordinary trees. Bamboo is therefore valuable as a source of coarse organic material that
can be buried in the ground for soil improvement.
Not only can the shoots of certain species of bamboo be sold as a vegetable, when
dried the wood is light and easy to carry. Bamboo is hollow and so has a large void ratio,
in addition to which it decomposes slowly. These properties help it to retain air and water
in the soil when it is buried. Clearly then, this plant may be used to great advantage in the
improvement of soil structure.
Shetterbelts: Shelterbelts and windbreak trees are valuable not only for preventing
wind damage, but also for maintaining soil fertility and for environmental improvement.
Fast-growing trees that are commonly planted for this purpose include cedar, cypress,
acacia, and the camphor tree. Other species that grow somewhat more slowly but are also
used quite often include camellia, the umbrella tree, wax myrtle, and Chinese anise. In
some places, evergreen oaks, holly, and other treesare also used.
Setting Up an Orchard
One may establish an orchard and plant nursery stock using essentially the same
methods as when planting forest trees. Vegetation on the hillside is cut in lateral strips,
and the large trunks, branches, and leaves of the felled trees are arranged or buried in
trenches running along hill contours, covered with earth, and allowed to decompose
naturally. None of the vegetation cut down in the orchard should be carried away.
In modern orchards, using bulldozers to clear land has become the rule rather than the
exception, but a natural farm should be developed without clearing the land. When land is
cleared with a bulldozer, irregular surface features on a slope are flattened and smoothed.
Wide farm roads are built to permit farm mechanization. However, mechanization really
only facilitates certain farm operations such as fertilizer and pesticide application. Since
picking ripened fruit is the only major operation in natural farming, there is no need to go
out of one’s way to clear steep slope.
Another factor that improves the enterprising orchardist’s chances of success is that a
natural orchard can be established without a heavy initial outlay of capital or incurring
large debts.
Starting a Garden
People usually think of a garden as a plot of land devoted to the production of
vegetables and field crops. However, using the open space in an orchard to raise an
undergrowth of special-purpose crops and vegetables is the very picture of nature.
Nothing stops the farmer from having his orchard double as a vegetable and grain patch.
Clearly, of course, the system of cultivation and the nature of the garden or orchard
will differ significantly depending on whether the principal aim is to grow fruit trees or
vegetable crops.
Land to be used for growing fruit trees and intercropped with grains or vegetables is
prepared in essentially the same way as an orchard.The land does not need to be cleared
and leveled, but should be carefully readied by, for example, burying coarse organic
material in the ground.
When starting an orchard, the main goals initially should be prevention of weed
emergence and maturation of the soil. These can be accomplished by growing buckwheat
during the first summer, and sowing rapeseed and Indian mustard that same winter. The
following summer, one may plant adzuki bean and mung bean, and in the winter, hairy
vetch and other hardy leguminous plants that grow well without fertilizers. The only
problem with these is that they tend to inundate the young fruit tree saplings.
As the garden, matures, it will support any type ofcrop.
The Non-Integrated Garden: Gardens are normally created on hillsides and welldrained fields at the foot of larger mountains. Most of the crops grown in these gardens
are annuals and the period of cultivation is generally short, in most cases lasting from
several months to about a half-year.
Most vegetables rise to a height of no more than three feet or so and are shallowrooting. The short growing period allows this cycleto be repeated several times a year,
subjecting the surface of the soil to considerable exposure to the sun. A dry-farmed field,
then, is prone to erosion and soil depletion by rainfall, susceptible to drought, and has low
resistance to the cold.
Soil movement being the greatest concern when establishing a garden, the garden
should be built in terrace fashion with the Surfaceof the field on each terrace level. The
first task in setting up a garden is to build a series of lateral embankments or stone walls
running across the slope of the hill. Knowledge of the soil and the ability to build earthen
embankments that do not crumble or to skillfully lay stones dug up from the field can be
a determining factor in the success of a garden.
Whether the individual terraces in a terraced garden are level or slightly graded makes
a large difference in crop returns and the efficiency of farming work. As I mentioned
earlier, the most basic method for improving soil is to bury coarse organic matter in deep
trenches. Another good method is to pile soil up tocreate high ridges. This can be done
using the soil brought up while digging contour trenches with a shovel. The dirt should be
piled around coarse organic material. Better aeration allows soil in a pile of this sort to
mature more quickly than soil in a trench. Such methods soon activate the latent fertility
of even depleted, granular soil, rapidly preparing it for fertilizer-free cultivation.
Creating a Rice Paddy
Today, a rice field can easily be prepared by clearing the land with large machinery,
removing rocks and stones, and leveling the surfaceof the field. Yet, although well-suited
to increasing the size of single paddy fields and promoting mechanized rice production,
such a process is not without its drawbacks:
1) Because it is crude, it leaves a thickness of topsoil that varies with the depth of the
bedrock, resulting in uneven areas of crop growth.
2) The load that heavy machinery places on the soil results in excessive settling,
causing ground water to stagnate. This situation can induce root rotting and at least
partial suppression of initial crop growth on the new field.
3) Levees and walkways are all made of concrete, upsetting and destroying the
community of soil microbes. The danger here is of gradually turning the soil into a dead
mineral matter.
Traditional Paddy Preparation: Most people might expect open, level ground to be
the most sensible place on which to set up rice paddies. But rather than settling on the flat
and fertile banks of large rivers, Japanese farmersof old chose to live in mountain valleys
where there was far less cause to fear violent flooding and strong winds. They set up
small fields in the valleys or built terraced rice fields on the hillsides.
To these farmers, the work of digging channels for drawing water from the valley
steams, of constructing rice fields, and of building rock walls and terraced fields was not
as hard as the people of today imagine. They did not think of it as hardship.
By spreading the field with the cuttings from ridge grasses, bordering weeds, and
young foliage from trees, rice could easily be grown each year without using fertilizers. A
tiny field of maybe a hundred square yards suppliedthe food needs for one individual
indefinitely. The spiritual peace and security, thesimple joy of creating a rice paddy were
greater than can be imagined. From these activities, our farming ancestors gained
pleasure and satisfaction of a sort that cannot be had through mechanized farming.
I can recall occasionally happening upon small paddy fields deep in the mountains far
from populated areas and my surprise at how well someone had managed to set up a field
in such a location. To the modern economist, this would appear as utter wretchedness, but
I found the field a wonderful masterpiece reminiscent of the past—built alone by
someone living happily in the seclusion and quiet solitude of the wilds with nature as his
sole companion.
In truth, this place, with its artfully built conduit snaking in the shade of valley trees
for drawing water, the rockwork that displays a thorough knowledge of the soil and
terrain, and the beauty of the moss on the stones, was in reality a splendid garden built
with great care by an anonymous farmer close to nature who drew fully on the resources
about him.
As the agrarian scenes of yesterday are rapidly swept off by the tide of modernization,
we might do well to consider whether we can afford to lose the aesthetic spirit of our
farming forbears, who saw the rice paddy as the arbor of their souls and gazed upon a
thousand moons reflected in a thousand paddies. Butof one thing I am certain: fields and
rice paddies imbued with this spirit will reappear again somewhere, someday.
These are not just the fond recollections of bygonedays by a misty-eyed old fogey.
The general method of establishing a rice paddy I have described here accords with
reality as it exists on uncultivated open plains and meadows.
Crop Rotation
Modern farming has brought about destruction of thesoil and a loss in soil fertility
because it breaks crops up into many different use categories and grows each in isolation,
often single-cropping continuously over extensive areas.
On the complete natural farm, fruit trees, vegetables, grains, and other crops must all
be planted and grown in an organic and mutually favorable arrangement. More
specifically, a reliable crop rotation scheme must be established in order to be able to
make essentially permanent use of the land while maintaining soil fertility.
Fruit trees must not be dissociated from the trees of a bordering wood or the weed
undergrowth. Indeed, it is only by having intimate associations with these that they are
able to show normal, healthy growth. As for vegetables, when left to themselves in a
field, they appear at first glance to grow without order, but these develop into splendid
plants while nature solves the problems of continuous cropping, space, disease and pest
damage, and the recovery of soil fertility.
Ever since primitive man began slash-and-burn agriculture, the question of what crops
to plant when has been the greatest problem faced by farmers everywhere. Yet a clearly
decisive system of crop rotation has yet to be established. In the West, systems of rotation
based on pasturage have been established for some time, but because these were designed
for the benefit of ranchers and their animals rather than for the land itself, they have
brought about a decline in soil fertility that calls for immediate improvement.
In Japan as well, although farmers do grow a wide variety of different crops using an
excellent system of crop rotation, a basic crop rotation scheme worthy of more
widespread use has yet to be developed. One reason for this is the staggering number of
possible crop combinations, and the essentially infinite number of elements that must be
considered in stabilizing and increasing yields. Tobring all these together into a single
system of crop rotation would be an exceedingly difficult undertaking.
The diagrams on the following pages are intended toserve as aids to an understanding
of crop rotation.
Rice/Barley Cropping: Japanese farmers have long practiced the continuousrotation
of rice with barley. This has enabled them to reap the same harvest year after year
indefinitely, something which they have always regarded as perfectly natural. Yet this
type of rotational cropping is an extraordinary method of farming that has taken hold
nowhere else in the world.
The reason rice and barley can be grown in continuous succession each year is that the
rice is grown in paddy fields, the soil fertility of which has been built up by a superior
method of irrigation. To tell the truth, I am proudof the outstanding cultivation methods
developed by Japanese farmers and would like to seethese introduced abroad.
Still, some very simple yet significant improvements could be made. For example,
about seventy percent of the nitrogenous components absorbed by rice and barley are
supplied directly by the soil, while about thirty percent are furnished artificially by
fertilization. If all the straw and chaff from the threshed grain were returned to the fields,
farmers would only have to apply at most fifteen percent of the nitrogenous components
required by the plants.
Reports have begun appearing recently in scientific journals on the possibilities of
developing cultivars of rice not requiring fertilization. These propose the creation of
strains of rice capable of fixing nitrogen by incorporating the root nodule genes of
soybeans into rice genes, One has to admit, though,that nature has achieved a smarter
method of non-fertilizer cultivation. True, because my method of rice-barley cropping
under a cover of green manure is, in a sense, just a mimicry of nature, it is incomplete in
itself. But there remains much that man can and should try before he resorts to genetic
engineering, a technology with the frightening potential to utterly destroy nature.
Upland Rice: Wheat and rice are each the staple foods of about half the world’s
population, but if the cultivation of upland rice were to spread and this grain became easy
to harvest in high yield, a large jump would occur in the number of rice-eating peoples.
Growing upland rice could even possibly become one effective way of coping with the
worldwide scarcity of food.
Generally speaking, upland rice is an unstable cropoften subject to drought. Yields are
lower than for rice grown in paddy fields, and continuous cropping gradually depletes
soil fertility, resulting in a steady decline in yields. A workable solution appears to be
rotational cropping in combination with various green manure crops and vegetables, as
this raises the ability of the soil to retain waterand gradually builds up soil fertility.
Minor Grains: This group includes members of the grass family such as millet and
corn, as well as buckwheat, Job’s tears, and other grains. Compared with rice, barley, and
wheat, these grains generally receive short shrift because of their “inferior” taste and a
lack of research on methods for their use, but theydeserve more attention for their very
great value as prototypic health foods essential for maintaining the physical well-being of
human beings.
The same is true also for vegetables and other plants in general. The wilder and more
primitive the food, the greater its medicinal value.
With changes in popular taste, the cultivation of these minor grains as food for man
has rapidly receded to the point where even seed preservation has become difficult. Yet,
above and beyond their importance as a food for humans and animals, they have also
played a vital role as coarse organic matter essential for soil preservation. When singlecropped or grown continuously, these grains deplete the soil, but if rotated with green
manure crops and root vegetables, they improve and enrich the soil. This is why I believe
the minor grains should be repopularized.
Vegetables: People tend to think of vegetables as frail crops that are difficult to grow,
but with the exception of several types that have been genetically over-improved, such as
the cucumber and tomato, these are surprisingly hardy crops that can thrive even under
extensive cultivation.
Cruciferous winter vegetables, for example, when sown just before the emergence of
weeds, grow vigorously, overwhelming the weeds. These also send down roots deep into
the soil, and so are highly effective in soil improvement. That leguminous green manure
suppresses summer weeds and enriches the soil hardly needs repeating. Clearly these too
should play an important part in a crop rotation.
Judicious combinations of vegetables in a sensible mixed cropping scheme can be
grown in fair yield, free of disease and pest damage, without resorting to pesticides. I
have found also, through personal experience, that most vegetables, when cultivated in a
semi-wild state that could be considered a natural rotation, can be grown almost entirely
without fertilizers.
Fruit Trees and Crop Rotation: Because fruit trees are continuously cultivated
perennials, they are subject to the difficulties associated with continuous cropping. The
purpose of having a protected wood and a ground cover of weeds is to resolve such
problems naturally and extend the life of the fruittrees. These trees exist, together with
the companion-planted manure trees and the weed undergrowth, in a three-dimensional
rotational cropping relationship.
When vegetables are grown beneath fruit trees, the number of insect pests tends to be
low. Some diseases and pests are common both to fruit trees and vegetables, and some
are not. These in turn have a host of different natural enemies that emerge at various
times of the year. As long as a balance is maintained between the fruit trees, the
vegetables, the insect pests, and their natural predators, real damage from disease and
insect attack can be prevented. For the same reason, the planting of manure trees and
windbreak trees, and the combination planting of evergreens and deciduous trees may
also be helpful in diminishing damage.
In most cases, serious disease and pest damage in fruit trees, such as by long-horned
beetles and scale insects, is triggered by diminished tree vigor due to depleted soil
fertility, a confused tree shape, poor ventilation, inadequate light penetration, or a
combination of all of these factors. Because they help sustain soil fertility, a ground cover
of green manure crops and the combination planting of manure trees may thus be
regarded as basic defensive measures against disease and pest damage.
Using natural farming methods to cultivate fruit trees creates a truly three-dimensional
orchard. More than just a place for growing fruit, the orchard becomes an organically
integrated community that includes fowl, livestock,and man as well. If a natural orchard
is managed and run as a single microcosm, there is no reason why one should not be able
to live self-sufficiently.
By looking with equal detachment at insects, which man categorizes as beneficial or
harmful, people will see that this is a world of coexistence and mutual benefit, and will
come to understand that farming methods which call for heavy inputs of fertilizer and
energy can only succeed in robbing the land of its natural fertility.
Nature is sufficient in and of itself; there never was a need for human effort and
knowledge. By returning to a “do-nothing” nature, all problems are resolved.
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