Tilling the Land

Before descending from my soapbox to stick my fingers in the dirt, I will make one last appeal to sustainable living from a Christian standpoint. Without doubt, the following verses have a spiritual application, into which I will not delve at the moment. But listen to this advice, given by wise ol’ king Solomon:

“He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread: but he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough. A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent.” (Pr. 28:19-20)

Notice Solomon’s deduction: tilling, which in this case is based on the Hebrew word for hard work, will produce sustenance enough for the tiller and some to share. Following vain, get-rich-quick people will quickly lead to future poverty and guilt of some sort. Solomon does not specify what this guilt is exactly. Can we safely suppose that this “guilt” is none other than that of taking advantage of someone else?

Let’s keep the subject on “land use” for the moment. Have there been any “get-rich-quick” folks around these parts?

What about abandoned coal mines that are left sit when the “goodies” are all taken out? Would that not be an example of a “get-rich-quick-forget-the-future” land use? Somebody stuffed their pockets and split the scene, probably looking for another vein somewhere else. Meanwhile, the next generations have to deal with scarred-up land, contaminated ground-water, cave-ins, and what-not.

And forestry management? When the Europeans first began to settle Ohio 200 years ago, our state was 90% forested. 100 years later, this figure was reversed: only 10% remained forested. Today, with some careful management, we are at about 30% forest. Looking back, I kind of wish that our forefathers would have had enough foresight to leave some tracts of land in their natural state. There are a couple of virgin forest spots in our state, but you have to really look for them. I can imagine it would be really awesome to walk into a couple of square miles of humongous oaks and chestnuts, stretching their limbs to the heavens as in praise to the Creator.

An occurrence of poor land-use from my childhood remains etched in my mind. Greg had rented my father’s land on a cash-rent basis. One day while waiting on some herbicide-laden water to transfer from one tank to another, Greg chatted with my dad. Whatever the conversation was, it made Greg forget about the tank filling up, until suddenly seeing it start to run over, he made the 50-yard dash to the tanks.

Too late to avert a spill...with long-term results that could still be seen years later. I do not know if the grass will grow on that spot yet, but for the remainder of my days at home, there was always a large bare spot in the yard there. Each year the grass would gain a couple of inches around the fringes.

I realize that this “poor land-use” was an accident. Accidents happen. Yet I have to ponder if some day down the road, the trend towards all-out herbicidal use may not come back to haunt us. Will our descendants look upon us as “get-rich-quick” folks, ready to spray everything to death rather than do it the “hard” way- for the sake of a few extra dollars in the bank now?

I understand that a spill is quite distinct from a normal application of herbicide. But I have to wonder why we do not see the old-time cultivators in the field hardly any more. My wife’s uncle, deciding to cut back on herbicide use, went looking to buy a rotary hoe. When he went to the equipment dealer to ask about one, the man behind the counter did not even know what one was. And row cultivators? Have you noticed how many, or rather how few, are displayed at the dealerships?

In my late teens, I worked on a grain farm in Indiana. With two full-time helpers and a couple of part-time, my employers, two brothers, farmed around 1200 acres. Today, the same man—less his brother—farms around 6000 acres I am told: with less man-power, but more “spray-power”.

Ok, maybe I am just old-fashioned enough to not like what I am seeing. While we, like Greg, chat basking in the sunshine of monetary gain, will we someday find that we have just destroyed something for the future generations?

In my next article, I intend to get off my soap-box as promised, and take a peek into the dirt to see what is happening. Stay tuned...