Farmers of Forty Centuries

In 1909, American agronomist F.H. King toured China, Korea and Japan for nine months, studying traditional fertilization, tillage and general farming practices. He wrote his observations and findings in Farmers of Forty Centuries, Or Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea, and Japan (1911, published shortly after his death by his wife, Carrie Baker King).^[1] King lived in an era preceding synthetic nitrogen fertilizer production and before the use of the internal combustion engine for farm machinery, yet he was profoundly interested in the challenge of farming the same soils in a 'permanent' manner, hence his interest in the agricultural practices of ancient cultures.

King's book has been influential on sustainable agriculture in the century since its publication.^[1] Lord Northbourne, an early advocate of organic agriculture, described it as a "classic" which "no student of farming or social science can afford to ignore".^[2] It is also one of the main works referenced in the early permaculture works by David Holmgren and Bill Mollison, and likely helped inspire the term "permaculture" itself.

Contents[edit | edit source]

• Preface
• Introduction
• First Glimpses of Japan
• Grave Lands of China
• To Hongkong and Canton
• Up the Si-Kiang, West River
• Extent of Canalization and Surface Fitting of Fields
• Some Customs of the Common People
• The Fuel Problem, Building and Textile Materials
• Tramps Afield
• The Utilization of Waste
• In the Shantung Province
• Orientals Crowd Both Time and Space
• Rice Culture in the Orient
• Silk Culture
• The Tea Industry
• Abut Tientsin
• Manchuria and Korea
• Return to Japan

References[edit | edit source]

This page includes content from:

• Wikipedia:Farmers of Forty Centuries
• Wikipedia:Franklin Hiram King