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I hesitate to use the word Revenge,
it's more of Nature's desperate attempt at attaining a balance.
In Texas especially, the 'business
as usual' farming activities were abruptly halted when the advent
of the second really dry summer in a row started. Plant material
that was stressed from the previous lack of summertime moisture
finally just gave up and stressed out or died.
The late Spring air pollution affecting
much of Texas came up from Central America, where the cane fields
were burning out of control and sending soot and ash skyward and
Northward. A haze in the air, a hot, dismal gray tone that covered
everything. The particles were so fine, they didn't even leave
a dust, but masks, respirators, etc, couldn't filter it out either.
I'm sure the plant life suffered as much as we did. Of course,
with 100* plus temperatures, any overcast pall seemed to help
keep things from completely burning up, but the long range toll
was more weakening in general.
Large old oak trees sprouted green
leaves that withered and died, indicating the unusual chain of
events. Coastal bermuda grass went dormant during it's prime growing
season.
We saw an unusual number of insects
on plants that rarely are affected. Mature 'tickle tongue' (Slippery
Ash) trees emitted a sticky gum midspring and the beetles were
alerted of severe stress, and flocked in droves to feast on the
gum, then on the leaves themselves. Trees barely recovered in
time for the next wave of plague insects; grasshoppers.
Ranchers began using up the last of
the previous season hay crop just to sustain the cattle herds
until the next flush of grass growth. Which never came. Cattle
were reduced to foraging on woody shrubs like youpon and cedar,
for which their systems aren't designed to utilize. Many cattlemen
were forced to sell out, and some hung on and watched their stock
die.
Late summer brought some hurricane
action in the Gulf, which produced a few rain showers around the
areas. Sporadic and not adequate enough to replenish the water
tables, it did enable the dormant grasses to green up again. It
also started that cycle of grasshoppers that plague the late season.
No matter if your weapons are organic or chemical, the number
of grasshoppers devouring the plant life is still alarming. If
you dust or spray your plants with anything, the insects still
have to get a mouthful of plant to ingest the deterrant. With
droves to battle, the plant is the only real loser.
Slightly cooler weather in early Fall
and some hurricane-induced moisture saw the pastures and fields
spring back to life again. Just in time for the army worm invasion!
Highly fertilized pampered hay meadows are the hardest hit of
all.
Truthfully, until someone announced
we were under an armyworm invasion, I hadn't noticed. We have
quite a bit of native bermuda, some 'very unintensively
cared for' coastal bermuda, lespedeza, and other combined meadow
plants growing on the property along with a generous assortment
of weed species. I do see the pigweed has been ravaged, and I've
seen a couple of worms, but no where does it indicate that I'm
under the severe infestation as more 'intensely farmed' farmsteads.
The neigbors are starting to notice!
Will they emulate our 'do nothing' method of pasture care? I hope
so. At this late date, 'nothing' is about the only thing that
can help the overgrazed, undernourished soil. Will it be soon
enough? No.
November update: The rains came last
month, flooding pastures that were cracked open from previous
dry conditions. The grass came out of it's dormancy and most of
the cattle herds have replenished some of their body condition.
October and November rains that broke the spine of the drought
are now a blessing turned into a problem. Our water tables are
filled again, but the vegetative growth should be preparing for
winter instead of trying to grow. Long range forecasting? I wouldn't
dream of trying to predict what this will do to crop production
for next year!
Hurricane Mitch in the Central Americas
took many lives, dwellings, and livlihoods when it stalled out
over Honduras for several days at the end of October. Belize,
Guatemala and most all other Central American countries did not
escape heavy destruction. What does this mean to the US? You may
not think it means a lot, but the large vegetable and fruit companies
have quite a bit of landholdings in those areas. Del Monte, Dole,
Coca Cola (Maryland Club) are three that come to mind that were
affected. (Fresh vegetables such as bell peppers winter cabbages
and greens, plus canned tomatoes and chiles, fresh bananas and
pineapple, and even the 'lymons' (lemons and limes) in soft drinks
will be in short supply until the damage can be fixed and land
set back into production. We could be looking, at the very least,
for some price increases at the grocery store. (When has the middleman
ever passed up a chance to increase a price?)
1999 promises to be more of the same,
and I'm not sure if even doing 'nothing' will stave off the advent
of extremes we may see next season.
What can we do?
We can prepare to utilize more of
our gray water in the water system. We can set up the washing
machines and shower / bath facilities to run out into the planting
areas rather than off into a useless septic system.
We can compost everything that is
remotely a potential source of decomposed material, and mulch
heavily with finished and even partially finished compost.
We can plant more native species and
arrange the plantings in 'island beds' rather than rows unless
mechanical methods need to be utilized. We can concentrate on
short season crops and plant them successively. Grow early and
late. Leave trash rows for the insects to attack, then burn those
rows. Use water salvaged from graywater areas for rotation watering
plans and mulch everything heavily with composted materials.
We can 'do nothing' aggressively.
Nature is not vindictive, but the cycle of growth includes predation
of all types. Insects, weeds,
fungal attacks, and disease have all had to adapt to man's chemical
ways of farming. Now farmers need to learn to adapt to Nature's
answer.
Addendum:
John
started reading this before I put it up, and is not in agreement
with much of it. He claims that farmers who are operating hundreds
of acres can't afford to go organic. They can't let land lie fallow
and give up the chemical fertilization methods they have begun.
Would be like a drug addict going 'cold turkey', he claims. I
see his point, but it's with a glimmer that maybe there is hope
for the tonnages of food production the world requires.
But, for
backyard gardeners, we don't have to use poisons on our food crops.
We don't have to intentionally plant decorative, weak varieties
that require constant chemical care. We have the luxury of time
and experimentation in our own small plots so we can test out
the theories that work versus those that don't for our own needs.
On the
overall picture, monoculture in America is probably on the downswing,
on the way out. Land prices, rentals, equipment prices, maintenance
and labor fees, chemical dependency and useage, all point to a
different method of crop production. Those on the 'cutting edge'
of agriculture technology will be those who define that huge gap
between large scale food production and a sane way of cultivation
that is less harmful, less intrusive to the soil itself.
Text
and images copyright 1998 Martha
Wells
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