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Cooks Creek, Manitoba, Canada

If anyone has some time on their hands you may want to look into the practices of late 19th and early 20th century farmers around Paris, France. I stumbled across this by accident, but have not had the time to see if there is more information available.

What I found was these farmers would often rented patches of land just outside of Paris for use as market gardens (supply and demand - land was too expensive to own but there was a lot of people nearby to sell to but, more importantly, it gave them acess to an unlimited supply of cheap manure). Combining their supply of manure (along with other wastes) with their strong understanding of composting they could significantly increase their growing season and yields by controlling the soil temperature, air temperature, and fertility through composting directly in the field plot. This, along with cold frames and fencing was reported to, in some cases, increase productivity a 100 fold. On one plot that was just shy of 3 acres, a farmer in one year produced the following (mind you he had eight workers):

More than 20,000 lb. of carrots; more than 20,000 lb. of onions, radishes and other vegetables; 6,000 heads of cabbage; 3,000 of cauliflower; 5,000 baskets of tomatoes; 5,000 dozen of choice fruit; and 154,000 heads of lettuce; a total of 250,000 lb. of vegetables.

A good indication of how much work they put into creating their soil and just how valuable the soil was could be found in their rent agreements, where it often allowed them to take the soil they created with them when they moved. It amazes me how much great information has been lost or forgotten over the years, often because people simply assume that new ways are better. -TheBez

3/14/2002 10:51:23 AM

Pulaski Tn [email protected]

i wonder if their bushel is the same as our bushel?? you know the world was created in 7 days but some folks think a day back then was different than a day is now..

3/14/2002 1:54:14 PM