{"id":63450,"key":"Farmers_of_Forty_Centuries","title":"Farmers of Forty Centuries","latest":{"id":1217704,"timestamp":"2025-12-16T17:16:13Z"},"content_model":"wikitext","license":{"url":"https://www.appropedia.org/Appropedia:Copyrights","title":"CC-BY-SA-4.0"},"source":"{{Farmers of Forty Centuries navigation}}\n\n[[File:Franklin Hiram King.jpg|thumb|Franklin Hiram King]]\n\n{{Publication data\n| type = Book\n| year = 1909\n| authors = F.H. King\n| title = Farmers of Forty Centuries\n}}\n\nIn 1909, American agronomist F.H. King toured [[China]], [[Korea]] and [[Japan]] for nine months, studying traditional [[Fertilizer|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).<ref name=\"King\">Paull, John (2011). [https://www.academia.edu/9148622/The_making_of_an_agricultural_classic_Farmers_of_Forty_Centuries_or_Permanent_Agriculture_in_China_Korea_and_Japan_1911-2011 The making of an agricultural classic: Farmers of Forty Centuries or Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea and Japan, 1911-2011]. ''Agricultural Sciences'' 2 (3): 175–180</ref> 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.\n\nKing's book has been influential on sustainable agriculture in the century since its publication.<ref name=\"King\" /> [[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\".<ref>Northbourne, L., 1940, ''Look to the land'', J. M. Dent, London, p. 17, p. 55, ''apud'' Paull, John, [http://orgprints.org/10237/1/10237.pdf \"Permanent Agriculture: Precursor to Organic Farming\"], ''Elementals: Journal of Bio-Dynamics Tasmania'', no.83, pp.&nbsp;19–21, 2006.</ref> 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 \"''perma''culture\" itself.\n\n== Contents ==\n\n* [[Farmers of Forty Centuries/Preface|Preface]]\n* [[Farmers of Forty Centuries/Introduction|Introduction]]\n* [[Farmers of Forty Centuries/Chapter 1|Chapter 1: First Glimpses of Japan]]\n* [[Farmers of Forty Centuries/Chapter 2|Chapter 2: Grave Lands of China]]\n* [[Farmers of Forty Centuries/Chapter 3|Chapter 3: To Hongkong and Canton]]\n* [[Farmers of Forty Centuries/Chapter 4|Chapter 4: Up the Si-Kiang, West River]]\n* [[Farmers of Forty Centuries/Chapter 5|Chapter 5: Extent of Canalization and Surface Fitting of Fields]]\n* [[Farmers of Forty Centuries/Chapter 6|Chapter 6: Some Customs of the Common People]]\n* Chapter 7: The Fuel Problem, Building and Textile Materials\n* Chapter 8: Tramps Afield\n* Chapter 9: The Utilization of Waste\n* Chapter 10: In the Shantung Province\n* Chapter 11: Orientals Crowd Both Time and Space\n* Chapter 12: Rice Culture in the Orient\n* Chapter 13: Silk Culture\n* Chapter 14: The Tea Industry\n* Chapter 15: Abut Tientsin\n* Chapter 16: Manchuria and Korea\n* Chapter 17: Return to Japan\n\n== References ==\n\n<references />\n\nThis page includes content from:\n\n* [[Wikipedia:Farmers of Forty Centuries]]\n* [[Wikipedia:Franklin Hiram King]]\n\n{{Page data\n| license = CC-BY-SA-3.0\n| keywords = farming, agriculture, sustainable agriculture, Fertilizer, tillage\n| sdg = SDG12 Responsible consumption and production\n| location = China; Japan; Korea\n}}\n\n[[Category:Farming]]\n[[Category:Agriculture]]\n[[Category:Sustainable agriculture]]\n[[Category:Publications]]"}