Greetings from Russell's Remnant:
Russell Whitesell's Teacher suggested that the Tuesday Night Group read The Secret Life of Plants on two occasions. We took him seriously. We studied it and then the subsequent book - Secrets of the Soil. We thought some of their comments about the soil and earthworms might be interesting - especially if we are to help save the planet.
Mass spraying poses the greatest threat that animal life in North America has ever faced - worse than all other decimating factors combined. SLP p. 252
The effects of hundreds of agricultural chemicals on future generations is as little understood scientifically as those of Thalidomide. If it is true that you are what you eat, then most of us and our livestock are a complicated chemical cocktail of insecticides, pesticides, fungicides, weedicides, and synthetic fertilizers. The worst poisons today do not even show a toxic physical symptom when they pass through the body. Almost impossible to detect, they nevertheless cause irreversible changes in the DNA pattern of cell production. SOS p. 61+
In the long run we must give up chemical fertilizers and gradually revive the soil organically. All animal manures, garbage, perhaps sewage sludge, can be composted and returned to the land. SLP p. 256+
The massive use of commercial fertilizer in the underdeveloped nations will bring them the same massive increase in metabolic disease that we already have in America. SLP p. 257
No amount of argument appears to put over the fact that healthy crops are naturally pest resistant, keeping the insects at bay. SLP p. 253
Plants grown on well-balanced, fertile soils do not have the same attraction for insects as those grown on poor soil, artificially stimulated by chemical fertilizers. Fertile soils have a natural immunity to insects and disease, just as a properly nourished body has an immunity to disease. Bugs and worms tend to gravitate toward a plant, or a field of plants, that has already been weakened by disease or improper development. SLP p. 252
Most farmers aren't farmers, but miners! SOS p. 59
We are mining our soils rather than farming them. SLP p. 237
Sick soil means sick people. SOS p. 213
People who eat natural food grown in fertile soil don't get heart disease. SLP p. 241
The answer to metabolic disease - heart trouble, cancer, or diabetes, is natural, poison-free food grown on fertile soil. SLP p. 242
If the soil is not properly fertile, not teeming with microorganisms, the whole process goes out of kilter or grinds to a halt. To keep the microorganisms alive, great quantities of decaying organic matter need to be added to the earth. SLP p. 251
Soil restoration would go a long way toward solving problems of floods and water shortages which cannot be solved until organic matter is restored to the soil. The usual 100 pounds of soil in East Texas won't hold 30 pounds of water. But 100 pounds of humus will hold 195 pounds of water like a sponge. Fertile soil is usually dark in color and soft to the touch. The underground water level will continue to fall until organic matter is restored to the topsoil. SLP p. 257
It's humus that gives richness. Humus can hold water up to 75% of its volume - water filled with essential minerals, available to plants in a balanced colloidal form. SOS p. 53
The only inexhaustible wealth is a fertile soil. Topsoil is the greatest natural resource of any nation. SLP p. 257
Protective medicine starts in the soil. SOS p. xiv
Whereas record crops have usually been produced by the use of large amounts of composted manure to produce the organisms, such record crops can now be grown on every acre of land by using rock dust with some carbon. The national average yields in 15 years could triple. SOS p. 197
I have kept as many as two hundred earthworms in a twelve quart pail filled with the soil they were dug in, from early June until the middle of November, with nothing added but a heaping tablespoon of Azomite mixed with the soil at the time the worms were dug up. SOS p. 216+
Earthworms act as nature's plow. Called the "intestines of the soil," they could also be considered its vascular system. Soils get hard-packed as if their arteries had hardened. SLP p. 234
Charles Darwin estimated that in a single year more than ten tons of dry earth per acre passed through the digestive systems of earthworms. In a field well populated with them, one inch of topsoil would be created every five years. Chemical fertilizers and pesticides can kill the entire earthworm population in a field. SLP p. 234+
The earthworm may be man's most useful ally in his struggle to survive, considered by Darwin the greatest plowman, an animal of greater value than the horse, relatively more powerful than the African elephant, and more important than even the cow. It has been grossly neglected and cruelly mistreated in the course of modern agriculture practice. Even Darwin missed the prime asset of the worm: that within its digestive tract it incubates enormous quantities of the microorganisms which, in its castings, become the base for fertile humus. SOS p. 40+
It should be obvious that soil is vital to health. Healthy soil, properly composted, with the right bacteria, fungi, and earthworms, free from chemical fertilizers and pesticides, produce strong, healthy plants which naturally repel pests. Healthy plants make strong, healthy animals and strong, healthy human beings. Poor land grows poor food - poor in vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and proteins; this produces poor, sick people. Worn out land causes people to leave the farms and go live in the slums. SLP p. 252
Earthworms are discouraged if not killed outright by many pesticides and most chemical fertilizers. SOS p. 48
The USDA will sponsor no significant earthworm research. SOS p. 47
Earthworms can produce more compost, in a shorter time, with less effort, than any other method. SOS p. 42 There are 3,000 species of earthworms. They are several hundred million years old, they come in various colors and sizes: brown, purple, red, pink, blue, green, the smallest barely an inch long, the largest a ten-foot giant in Australia, but the most common grows barely longer than six inches. SOS p. 41
Worm castings are 5 times as rich in available nitrogen, 7 times as rich in available phosphates, and 11 times as rich as available potash. Real organic NPK! SOS p. 43+
The earthworms in an acre of good agricultural land can produce well over 5 tons of castings in a year. Earthworms can dig as deep as 15 feet. One worm can move a stone 50 times its own weight. Their tunnels afford planted roots quicker avenues into the soil and the mucus forming humus prevents erosion. In an orchard, during autumn, earthworms can dispose of 90% of the fallen leaves, dissolving even stems and roots. SOS p. 44+
Under good conditions, an average red worm can produce from 150-200 young annually. SOS p. 46
Earthworms consume available mineral nutrients and render them water soluble, easily absorbable by the root hairs of plants. SOS p. 46
Plants suck up five times the billion metric tons of minerals mined each year by man. And the earthworm grinds up even more than that. If we fail to keep free carbon throughout the topsoil, which gives it that black color, the earthworms disappear. SOS p. 197
Cleopatra decreed the earthworm be revered and protected as sacred animals. SOS p. 42
Bibliography: The Secret Life of Plants by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird; Secrets of the Soil by Peter Tompkins & Christopher Bird