The most delightful book ever - 1960 Complete Book of Compost

[ScottinAtlanta]

While at Goodwill, I picked up for $1.25 today the "Complete Book of Composting" by J.I. Rodale and staff (Of Organic Gardening and Farmer Magazine). Copyright 1960. About 1,000 pages. If you have never read this book, you should. It is delightful. The history of composting alone is great. Here is a sample:

"In the soft, warm bosom of a decaying compost heap, a transformation from life to death and back again is taking place."

"The searcher after the compostable will go in the strangest places. He will clean out the shop of a butcher in order to retain the sweepings of sawdust saturated with an aroma of meat and entrails which are rich in nitrogen. He will do the same for a lazy neighbor's chicken house if he can exact the chicken droppings as payment. He will go to a barber for the hair cuttings, to a restaurant for coffee grounds, to a fish market for fish offal. He will all but mow the neighbors lawn for the grass clippings. He will gather rubbish, trash, refuse, debris, decaying animal and vegetable remains, cast-off materials-anything decomposable. He will forget pride, dignity and his delicate sensibilities, so long as he comes into possession of the kind of detritus matter which will turn into a proper compost."

[maf]

Nice, I never knew they had organic gardening magazines back in 1960.

Reminds me of the time I told my mother she could compost human hair. At the time I had longish hair and I asked her to cut some off for me, which she did. A few days later she opened the lid of the compost bin, only to be freaked out by what she perceived as the top of a human head buried in there. She has never composted hair since.

[peppero]

Originally Posted by maf

Nice, I never knew they had organic gardening magazines back in 1960.

Reminds me of the time I told my mother she could compost human hair. At the time I had longish hair and I asked her to cut some off for me, which she did. A few days later she opened the lid of the compost bin, only to be freaked out by what she perceived as the top of a human head buried in there. She has never composted hair since.

FUNNY!

jon

[mensplace]

Organic Gardening Magazine has been around since 1942. It was standard reading for many decades. There have been many different variations upon the theme of alternative gardening approaches that borrowed from practices around the world such as French Intensive and growing under glass cloches in Europe and England. There were also plenty of more unique approaches based upon such sources as the Farmers Almanac, folk wisdom, and spiritual or pseudo science, Some were avid followers of stringing copper wire along the tops of rows with vertical wires down along the sides of plants, as well as Bio-Intensive techniques, etc.. Then came square foot gardening, double digging, and many others. The Victory Garden on TV used to be standard viewing in the days of James Crocket and his excellent successor. Silent Spring was a number one best seller that really got the public's attention. Even the FOXFIRE series had a huge following for years. Probably the biggest event to wake folks up came in the era when Oklahoma tilled up so many acres only to have the dustbowl as a result. After WWII came the use of Ammonium Nitrate which led to decades of heavy nitrogen applications that some say was a key factor in the loss of so much topsoil in our attempts to grow more, and more. Soil science has come a log way, but so have the introductions of new science, antibiotics, genetic engineering, the growth of virtual monopolies among the multinationals as well as a considerable change in the definition of sustainability as an key driver of land use planning.

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by ScottinAtlanta

While at Goodwill, I picked up for $1.25 today the "Complete Book of Composting" by J.I. Rodale and staff (Of Organic Gardening and Farmer Magazine). Copyright 1960. About 1,000 pages. If you have never read this book, you should. It is delightful. The history of composting alone is great. Here is a sample:

"In the soft, warm bosom of a decaying compost heap, a transformation from life to death and back again is taking place."

"The searcher after the compostable will go in the strangest places. He will clean out the shop of a butcher in order to retain the sweepings of sawdust saturated with an aroma of meat and entrails which are rich in nitrogen. He will do the same for a lazy neighbor's chicken house if he can exact the chicken droppings as payment. He will go to a barber for the hair cuttings, to a restaurant for coffee grounds, to a fish market for fish offal. He will all but mow the neighbors lawn for the grass clippings. He will gather rubbish, trash, refuse, debris, decaying animal and vegetable remains, cast-off materials-anything decomposable. He will forget pride, dignity and his delicate sensibilities, so long as he comes into possession of the kind of detritus matter which will turn into a proper compost."

I have to agree Scott. Stelar find. I used to own a copy, but it was lost in a fire along with many years of Mother Earth News and Organic Gardening and Farming Magazine (and The New Farm after the split) And a complete FoxFire set.

[Tracydr]

I read a free book off the IPAD Book store called "The Field and Garden Vegetables of America" by Fearing Burr. This is a book written back in the 19th century, I think. It's fascinating to read about the varieties, planting recommendations and even recipes.

[habitat_gardener]

Originally Posted by ScottinAtlanta

..."The searcher after the compostable will go in the strangest places....

Great quotes! I regularly compost dryer lint, clothes worn threadbare from gardening, hair from my hairbrush, "compostable" spoons and cups, old bank statements, corn stalks other gardeners were going to put in the greenwaste bin, old underwear, neighbors' refrigerator-cleanout moldy food, expired soymilk and protein powders from another friend, etc. Once I needed some "browns," so I posted a freecycle request for fall leaves and offered to rake a yard! It was a small yard, but I raked a carful of bags of leaves, and I was happy to help out a busy family with small kids who hadn't had time to do yardwork. Unfortunately, I stepped in fresh cat poop, which had been hidden by the leaves! Since it was already in the bag, I collected the poopy leaves as well.

I've seen several editions of that book at local book sales.

[ScottinAtlanta]

The book is full of great information. For example, it has instructions for a 17 day composting cycle - leaves to compost.

And this factoid was news to me: "The leaves of one large shade tree can be worth as much as $15 in terms of plant food and humus. Pound for pound, the leaves of most trees contain twice as many minerals as manure. For example, the mineral content of the sugar maple leaf is over 5%, while even common pine needles have 2.5% of their weight in calcium, magnesium, nitrogen and phosphorus, plus other trace elements." $15 in 1960 is $120.73 in 2014. Amazing value!

[peebee]

I have a copy of that book as well. A friend found it at a local library book sale, along with several copies of old Organic Gardening magazines, which I must've read and re-read hundreds of times back in the day before I started my very own garden.
I just found some not-so-old copies (2009) yesterday in my shed and finished reading them today, coincidentally. And I will post a question later about a tomato variety I read about that no one seems to grow anymore but was popular then.
Lots of timeless wisdom in that Rodale book.

[maf]

I picked up "The Organic Way to Mulching" by the editors of Organic Gardening and Farming for a pound while on holiday in Cornwall. 1976 printing.

[COMPOSTER]

Originally Posted by ScottinAtlanta

The book is full of great information. For example, it has instructions for a 17 day composting cycle - leaves to compost.

And this factoid was news to me: "The leaves of one large shade tree can be worth as much as $15 in terms of plant food and humus. Pound for pound, the leaves of most trees contain twice as many minerals as manure. For example, the mineral content of the sugar maple leaf is over 5%, while even common pine needles have 2.5% of their weight in calcium, magnesium, nitrogen and phosphorus, plus other trace elements." $15 in 1960 is $120.73 in 2014. Amazing value!

I enjoy this book also. Not only is it informative it is inspiring and a lot of fun to read. I like it much better than the 1979 version.

I spent all day today collecting grass clippings,maple and oak leaves. Must have picked up at least $500 worth of plant food and humus. Going to mix them with the coffee grinds I pick up at Starbucks.

Glenn

[ScottinAtlanta]

I am a big big fan of coffee grounds. My local coffee shop puts them in 5 gallon buckets that I supply. One five gallon bucket can easily compost 100 pounds of mulched leaves in a couple of weeks. The heat coming out of the pile is amazing 24 hours after mixing (don't forget to wet down the mulched leaves - they don't compost when dry).

[BigVanVader]

Ditto Scott, Have any of you seen this Ted talk? I tend to agree but probably because less work is always appealing to me
http:// m.youtube.com/watch?v=n9OhxKlrWwc

[peppero]

Scott I decided to look for this book and found it at the thriftbooks site; the only one left.

Total price was $4.07 shipping included. Their prices are so cheap with free shipping.

jon

[ScottinAtlanta]

Great buy, Jon. You will enjoy it. Of course, anyone who sees you reading it will consider you a garden nerd, but who cares? Now, which is the next one of my neighbors whose bagged leaves will end up in my mulcher?