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Eco-Technology

The Fertile Earth: Nature's Energies in Agriculture, Soil Fertilisation and Forestry

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The Fertile Earth: Nature's Energies in Agriculture, Soil Fertilisation and Forestry (Eco-Technology series #3) How does Nature work? When one looks closely at the enormously complex web of life, it is impossible not to be caught by the wonder of how all living things - including rocks and crystals - are interconnected. Just as there is thought behind action, so there is energy behind matter. Schauberger is able to demonstrate how Nature works because he has been able to observe and describe how its energies manifest and produce the material world.

224 pages, Paperback

First published July 13, 2000

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Viktor Schauberger

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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
Profile Image for Steven Berbec.
26 reviews8 followers
July 19, 2015
Viktor Schauberger is a agro-forest prophet, one of which still haunts and warns today. The book itself is a text you must return to in order to familiarize yourself with his concepts, because you will find that there are words he redefines and gives more specificity and you have to follow closely in order to be taken to the depths he goes. He was the Wendell Berry of his time, but with more of an inventive side. Actually, I was reading Berry's The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture alongside and it was fascinating to hear the same urgencies from both. The deforestation, commercialization and capitalism that plagued Europe then are the diseases that plague America today. There are methods throughout the book that I plan on implementing here on Tanzanian soil, so the book definitely creates a desire to test and practice. What Schauberger does throughout these writings is calls us back to the mystery of Nature, to become mystical rather than specialists. To understand that Nature is beyond reason and lives with an intent to bring life, to conserve water and to share this abundance—we just have to pay closer attention to such phenomenons. There is much to glean here, one only need the diligence to read his work, because the understanding will not come from the book itself but from the field of practice.
Profile Image for Aleksandar.
134 reviews7 followers
April 5, 2020
Long story short - all sciences are wrong, because science is dogmatic. I looked at nature INTENSELY and have monopoly on the TRUE truth. Here are some big words used out of context, now buy my copper plow.

This is a book about agriculture for people that will never produce any amount of food using the techniques described therein. It's pure theoretical masturbation from cover to cover.

Schauberger got it right when he said "we can learn a lot through observation of nature and natural processes". Unfortunately, whatever form of observation he used has lead to some fairly rushed conclusions which have never been implemented and ideas that have died along with him.

A few highlights from the book:

* There is no gravity, all is levitation
* Actually there is gravity, and "natural people" can produce their own spiritual and physical gravitational fields
* Trees don't use water, they produce it
* Metal tools have stored energy, which is extinguished by the suns rays
* Birds achieve flight via sacks in their feathers that look like eggs without shells
* Biology, botany, engineering, hydrology, geology and basically anything based on the scientific process produces cancer

I'm quite surprised that this book is still read today, and translated in numerous languages. I believe it goes to show how far the mistrust in science has gone (not without good cause) and how few people are actually involved in the physical production of food and working the land.
Profile Image for Logan Streondj.
Author 2 books15 followers
May 28, 2022
An excellent book with a wildly different perspective and terminology than one may be used to. From what I could understand,
He says it is best for seedlings to grow in semi shade,
He also says that leaving the ground bare as with clearcutting leads to floods and lowering of the ground water table.
He says that the solar evaporation through leaf tips the leading cause of how plants get water out of the soil. And they do not want the sun on their bark as it messes with the flow of water, the thinner the bark the higher the shade requirements.

Also he talks about the benefits of burying aqueus batteries in the soil, so that the plants can benefit from the electrical current.
He also promotes using copper plated tools for gardening.

I looked into it and there is merit to all his points.

Based on my research a 10:1 zinc:copper plating would be ideal, and can also bury cathodes, such as titanium, graphite, or gold. Though i guess not gold nowadays since people are too ridiculous with it. But yeah graphite rods would act as the cathodes. Can also bury magnesium ingot anodes.

Definitely worth archiving to broaden one's horizons of what is possible in agriculture and forestry.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews

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