
                              ORGANIC GARDENING
     The term "organic gardening" is of fairly recent origin.  Robert
     Rodale, son of J. I. Rodale, credits his father with first using
     the word "organic" to describe the "natural method of gardening and
     farming".  The senior Rodale used it in founding his publication,
     "Organic Gardening and Farming", in 1942.  The term "organic
     farming" was first used in a 1940 publication, "Look to the Land",
     by Lord Northbourne (London:  Dent). Not just a technique, but a
     philosophy as well, the components of what we now call organic
     gardening and farming have been practiced for centuries.
     Practice of good husbandry of the land was of significant
     importance to ancient writers such as Cato, Virgil, Pliny and
     Columella ("The Husbandry of the Ancients", by Adam Dickson.
     Edinburgh, Scotland:  Dickson & Creeca, 1788).  The rotation of
     crops was recommended by Thomas Tusser in his classic and often
     reprinted work of 1580, "Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry"
     (Great Britain:  n.p.). In this country "green manuring and
     manures" was discussed in depth by John Wolfinger in the "1864
     Report of the U.S. Commissioner of Agriculture" (Washington DC:
     Government Printing Office, 1865, pp. 299-328) two years after
     President Abraham Lincoln established the Department of Agriculture.
     Pioneers of organic practices in the United States have
     acknowledged their debt to these men and to those others whose
     written works continue to influence us.  J. I. Rodale, believed by
     many to be the father of organic practices in the U.S., called Sir
     Albert Howard of England the "father of the movement".  Howard's
     classic study on soil fertility, "An Agricultural Testament"
     (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1940) includes a chapter on the
     "Agriculture of the Nations Which Have Passed Away" as well as
     observations of agricultural techniques practiced in both the Orient
     and the Occident.
     There has always been a wide range of variation in organic
     gardening practices.  From the purist view of followers of Masanobu
     Fukuoka of Japan, who advocates "no tillage, no fertilizer, no
     pesticides, no weeding, and no pruning" ("The Natural Way of
     Farming: the Theory and Practice of Green Philosophy", Tokyo, Japan
     Publications, 1985) to the perspective of those gardeners who seek
     to combine conventional and organic procedures, the field of
     opportunity for choice in organic gardening practice is fertile indeed.
     We hope that this Agri-Topic will assist you in making the choices
     appropriate to your situation and philosophy.  Whether you are
     landscaping a small city backyard, planning a community garden,
     protecting the environment and/or your pocketbook, or just
     endeavoring to grow tastier fruits and vegetables for home or
     market, we wish you each, "Good Gardening!"
     Prepared by:
     Jane Potter Gates
     Alternative Farming Systems Information Center
     National Agricultural Library
     10301 Baltimore Blvd.
     Beltsville, MD  20705
     Telephone (30l) 344-3704
     September, 1989
