Soil Students Learn Old Fashioned Methods of Field Testing Soil Quality
Everything old is new again. If the Internet and the news are to be believed, many Americans are growing their own vegetables, baking their own bread and eating at home. Part of the impetus is to save money while savoring great eats. Part of it is the food scares - grow your own salad greens to avoid e-coli. Also, with jobs becoming more scarce, there simply is more time to do things at home. My relatively new interest in all things dirt has led me to looking for information everywhere. When we were in California a few months ago, hubby's step-mother generously allowed me to take his grandfather's soil science text book from the family library. In it, the author teaches soon-to-be-growers how to assess their own soils. I love reading the old textbooks and cookbooks. They give me snapshots into our grandparents' and great-grandparents' lives. I wonder if the back-to the-earth movement of the 1960s and 1970s will return. In today's issue of Science Daily, there is a s...