Kokorico

Soil and Health Library

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AN

AGRICULTURAL
TESTAMENT
BY

SIR ALBERT HOWARD, C.I.E., M.A.
Formerly Director of the Institute of Plant Industry
Indore, and Agricultural Adviser to States
in Central India and Rajputana

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO
1940

COPYRIGHT 1943, BY OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York, Inc.
THIRDPRINTING
Nov. 1945

TO

T O GABRIELLE
W HO IS NO MORE

The Earth, that's Nature's Mother, is her tomb;
What is her burying grave, that is her womb.
Romeo and Juliet.

And Nature, the old nurse, took
The child upon her knee,
Saying: ' Here is a story-book
Thy Father has written for thee.'
'Come, wander with me,' she said,
' Into regions yet untrod ;
And read what is still unread
Inthe manuscripts of God.'
LONGFELLOW
The Fiftieth Birthday of Agassiz.

PREFACE

S

INCE the Industrial Revolution the processes of growth have
been speeded up to produce the food and raw materials needed
by the population and the factory. Nothing effective has been done
to replace the loss of fertility involved in this vast increase in crop
and animal production. The consequences havebeen disastrous.
Agriculture has become unbalanced: the land is in revolt: diseases
of all kinds are on the increase: in many parts of the world Nature is
removing the worn-out soil by means of erosion.
The purpose of this book is to draw attention to the destruction
of the earth's capital—the soil; to indicate some of the consequences
of this; and to suggest methods by which the lostfertility can be
restored and maintained. This ambitious project is founded on the
work and experience of forty years, mainly devoted to agricultural
research in the West Indies, India, and Great Britain. It is the
continuation of an earlier book—The Waste Products of
Agriculture, published in 1931—in which the Indore method for
maintaining soil fertility by the manufacture of humus fromvegetable and animal wastes was described.
During the last nine years the Indore Process has been taken up
at many centres all over the world. Much additional information on
the role of humus in agriculture has been obtained. I have also had
the leisure to bring under review the existing systems of farming as
well as the organization and purpose of agricultural research. Some
attention has also beenpaid to the bio-dynamic methods of
agriculture in Holland and in Great Britain, but I remain
unconvinced that the disciples of Rudolph Steiner can offer any real
explanation of natural laws or have yet provided any practical
examples which demonstrate the value of their theories.
The general results of all this are set out in this my Agricultural
Testament. No attempt has been made todisguise the conclusions
reached or to express them in the language of diplomacy. On the
contrary, they have been stated with the utmost frankness. It is
hoped that they will be discussed with the same freedom and that
they will open up new lines of thought and eventually lead to
effective action.
It would not have been possible to have written this book
without the help and encouragement of aformer colleague in India,
Mr. George Clarke, C.I.E., who held the post of Director of
Agriculture in the United Provinces for ten years (1921-31). He
very generously placed at my disposal his private notes on the
agriculture of the Provinces covering a period of over twenty years,
and has discussed with me during the last three years practically
everything in this book. He read many of the...