THE NEW ALCHEMY INSTITUTE STARTS ITS SECOND DECADE

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Also dotted about the landscape are the latest versions of the alchemists' aquacultural efforts: double-layered fiberglass cylinders (made from a product called Kalwall) which hold about 700 gallons of water apiece and can produce two 50pound harvests per year of a hearty tropical fish called tilapia. The fish grow rapidly, thrive in the warm temperatures of solar-heated water, and—because they are vegetarian—tend to produce less toxic waste than do carnivorous species.

Ron Zwieg, one of the aquaculture experts at Falmouth, points out that each of the aquariums is an independent ecosystem that must be kept in balance. Algae grow readily in the water, and thrive on the waste products left by the fish (thus serving as biological filters). The plants also provide oxygen through photosynthesis, serve as mini-heat-sinks (as does any dark colored body), and provide a large part of the tilapia's food.

To do their job correctly, the algae must be kept in a constant growth phase ... a requirement which demands a partial exchange of water each week, filtering, and provision for an adequate (but not excessive) air supply. Any fluctuations of such factors as light, temperature, oxygen, and acidity are monitored by sensors in the tanks at fifteen-minute intervals. The results are then stored in a computer housed in a converted farm building, and are being used—according to Ron, alchemist systems analyst John Wolfe, and computer specialist Al Doolittle—to develop a manual which will enable nonscientists to control the aquatic conditions by sight and smell. (Over the past few years Zwieg himself has learned to recognize and identify the color and odor variations that signal problems in the solar pond.)

The New Alchemists are also reaching out into experimental agricultural realms. One of their horticultural researchers, Hilde Atema Maingay—who pioneered much of the group's work with raised-bed intensive gardening (see the story about this growing technique beginning on page 92 of this issue), irrigation with fishpond water, experiments in composting and mulching, and studies of the use of parasitic wasps to control Mexican bean beetles—has turned her attention to arboriculture, or farming trees.

Orchards, Hilde believes, hold the potential for producing significant amounts of food while being closely interplanted with other crops. Such an integrated agricultural landscape (as Nancy Jack Todd, editor of the organization's yearly journal, calls it) includes the planting of Manchurian apricots, Chinese chestnuts, filberts, and a variety of amazing grafted hybrids.

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