FARMING FOR SHELF-SUFFICIENCY

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Ah, the vicissitudes of time. Two years ago, when there were NO currently relevant small-scale-farming introductory handbooks available, many of us welcomed the publication of Richard Langer's Grow It! with open arms. Now that we're all older and more experienced, however, some folks find it increasingly easy to criticize that breakthrough beginner's guide (see the Feedback sections of MOTHER NOS. 23, 24 and 25). Which brings us to another breakthrough book that is just as important (probably more so) now as Grow It!.

FRUIT AND NUTS

A man who refuses apple dumpling cannot have a pure mind.

COLERIDGE

It is one of the many disadvantages of the landlord and tenant system that there are so few fruit trees in English cottage gardens. No landlord is going to plant trees for his tenants, and no tenant is going to plant trees for his landlord. "No man," wrote that great prophet of the soil, Philip Oyler, "unless he is a saint, can be expected to give the land the same care (the care it needs) if he is a tenant or an employee as he would as an owner." That is so obvious that one would not think it necessary for anybody to say it, but it is necessary. He also wrote: "We should accept it as fundamental that each individual has a right to a plot of the earth on which he was born to as much as he and his family can farm well."

Assuming that our self-supporter does own the land he is living on: his rightful share of the earth's surface shall we take it?, he will obviously wish to plant fruit trees. If there are any old neglected fruit trees on his land he will be wise to leave them in a year or two and see if they can be got to fruit well by heavy manuring, pruning (just cut a lot of the branches out of it), and winter washing. If the old tree still doesn't bear try root pruning, that is digging down and cutting a lot of the roots with a sharp spade. Bark-ringing is another method that has the same effect: remove a strip of bark right round the tree a quarter of an inch wide. More may kill the tree, but a quarter of an inch is not too much for the bark to jump again in a year or two so that the tree can go on growing. Bark-ringing and root pruning give the tree a nasty shock, which may be just what it wants to start it fruiting again. You can't do this with stone fruit by the way, only apples and pears.

PLANTING

Meanwhile, whether you have old trees or not, you should be planting new ones. Do this any time when the sap is down, i.e., in the winter, although November is supposed to be a pretty good time to plant. Go to a neighboring fruit grower (if there is one) or a local nurseryman, and get from him the best varieties to plant on your soil. Get early varieties as well as late, so as to spread the eating season (late store better than earlies: the latter should be eaten at once) and also get various kinds of trees, i.e., some cordons or espaliers, some half-standards and some standards. The reason for this is that your cordons or espaliers, being small and kept small, will fruit several years before your bigger trees, and thus will begin to give you fruit fairly soon. The half standards will come into fruiting next, possibly when your family or community is increasing and you need more fruit, and the standards will come last, but will go on and keep you in fruit for a lifetime. They have the enormous advantage that animals can graze beneath them. Three year old trees are best to buy, although you might try to put one or two older trees in, with enormous care, hoping that they won't die. I have seen ten year old apple trees planted, and they survived, but it was done by an expert.

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