The Soil Organisms – Heph'zibah & Beulah Farms

Heph'zibah And Beulah Farms, A Family Company

A Complex Living System In The Soil

Fungi Nematodes Anthropods Protozoa Bacteria

m y c o r r h i z a e

firstly, the renegade farmers are cultivating the soil to grow earth's best tasting foods

the work of our hands described through our favorite quotes . . .

nature's plough Young Earthworm In The Humus

The burrowing earthworm is Nature's own plough, her chemist, her cultivator, her fertilizer, her distributor of plant food. In every way, the earthworm surpasses anything man has yet invented to plough, to cultivate or to fertilize the soil.

George Sheffield Oliver, Friend Earthworm, 1941

green manure Chop And Drop

The addition of green manure thus brings about a series of changes in the microbial population of the soil, affecting practically every group of microorganisms, either directly or indirectly.

Selman A. Waksman
The Soil and The Microbe, 1931

fecundity a patchwork

Fecundity of the soil is a patchwork of -
√ Livestock,

√ Mixed vegetation,

√ Preservation of self against disease,

√ Conversion of vegetable and animal wastes,

√ The balance of growth and decay,

√ The prevention of erosion,

√ The maintenance of large reserves of fertility, and

√ The storage of rainfall.
The variegation of these elements measure unique to the soil of a particular region providing peculiar opportunities for the soil organisms captured only in that expanse.

fertile soil produces nutrition Roots Of A Tea Plant

How does humus affect the quality and nutritive power of a crop?
The mycorrhizal association in the active roots provides the clue. Living threads of fungous tissue pass from the humus in the soil into the active roots and are digested there. This happens in practically all crops and explains why a fertile soil produces crops resistant to disease and of high nutritive value.

Sir Albert Howard, Scientist and Organic Farming Pioneer

a single spade Soil From Wild Area

A single spade full of rich garden soil contains more species of organisms than can be found above ground in the entire Amazon rain forest.

Journey To Forever

stable manures Vegetation Grows In Manure Piles

The addition of stable manures to the soil results in modifications of the soil population in three distinctly different ways:

(1) The various constituents of the manure, namely, the straw, faeces and urine, offer favorable and readily available sources of energy, nitrogen and minerals (especially phosphates and potassium salts) to many different microorganisms.

(2) Manure contains large numbers of a variety of microorga:q.isms that have originated in the digestive system of the animal; the addition of considerable quantities of manure to the soil may thus considerably modify the soil population through actual mass inoculation.

(3) The addition of manure leads to modifications of the physical condition of the soil.

The general results of all these effects is the creation of an environment more suitable· for the development of higher plants.

Selman A. Waksman
The Soil and The Microbe, 1931

non-cultivation The Surface Tells About The Subsurface

Non-cultivation is essential to natural farming. The earth cultivates itself naturally by means of the penetration of plant roots and the activity of microorganisms, small animals, and earthworms.

Masanobu Fukuoka
The One-Straw Revolution, 1978