Kitchen Garden Guides

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Crikey dot Ken

A little snippet from Ken of Woodbridge, who writes about local things near and far, in his newsletter called Crikey dot Ken..... great name, Ken! Here he is commenting on something he has read in the Channel Living bulletin. I just love the way he describes the simple way the Burbury's went about rejuvenating tired land.....

G'day,

Interesting lot of items in the bulletin.  Especially for me to see that Yeomans Keyline is still on the go.

Years ago I classed the wool, a couple of times, for (old) John Burbury and wife at York Plains.  They were early farmer conservationists and so unusual in that period you would have to open a lot to gates to find a farmer that way inclined.

They followed to some extent the Yeomans way of Keyline.  I had never heard of it until then.  With two books provided I read up on Keyline.

I got some appreciation of water and land in conjunction with each other.  I don't profess about knowing a lot about it however I remember to make the soil so that much of the water remains IN the soil and not runs off.   What runs off has to be slow so it can increase the value of the soil by depositing nutriments and not erode the ground.

The first time I worked for these gentle folk was when they had purchased an adjoining paddock that was run down; clapped out so much that It wouldn't feed a bandicoot.

Burbury's paddock, next to the run down block, had a feed crop on which they put a mob of sheep.  Each evening they would go move the sheep into the clapped out paddock and move them back into to feed paddock in the morning.  The mob of sheep emptied out on the poor ground each evening and soon built the ground up enough to plant a crop of oats which they had eaten down (by the sheep -:) then ploughed in and sowed back with rye and clover to create a reasonable bit of useful land. Minimum cost for maximum return.

There is more of interest about the Burbury clan but that can wait.

Thanks for reading this.  I can't send this to just anyone.  You either get or you don't get it.

Bye,

Ken.

1 comment:

Robert Brenchley said...

Some years ago I read the autobiography of someone who claimed to have been the first deliberately organic farmer in England. He inherited a rented farm with sandy soil that had been ruined by the overuse of chemical fertiliser. his solution was to run pigs on it for a while, then grow grops once the soil had recovered. It makes a lot of sense.