The World's Greatest Fix Quotes

“One of the earliest treatises was written at the end of the twelfth century or the beginning of the thirteenth by a shadowy figure called Walter of Henley, who may have been a bailiff. He seems in some ways to anticipate the changes that were to occur with the breakdown of the feudal system. Walter of Henley describes an essentially feudal estate operating both two-year and three-year rotations and employs the didactic style so popular with Roman writers.8 He advises on how to select labourers, rather in the Roman style. He has a small section on manure, so clearly its value was recognised even then: “Do not sell your stubble… or… you will lose much. Good son, cause manure to be gathered in heaps and mixed with earth… And before the drought of March comes let your manure, which has been scattered within the court and without, be gathered together… Put your manure which has been mixed with earth on sandy ground… Manure your lands and do not plough them too deeply.” Walter seems to ascribe the benefit of manuring to its ability to retain moisture in dry weather, especially if it is mixed with marl or soil.”
― G.J. Leigh, The World's Greatest Fix: A History of Nitrogen and Agriculture