The Soil and Health

By Albert Howard,

Book cover of The Soil and Health: A Study of Organic Agriculture

Book description

The Soil and Health, a classic of organic farming, is an essential introduction to organic gardening and farming.


"The health of soil, plant, animal and man is one and indivisible." - Albert Howard.


At the turn of the twentieth century, chemical fertilizers seemed to offer limitless potential in agriculture. However,…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Soil and Health as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Howard helped me to understand and appreciate the life in soil. How soil is more than an assemblage of chemical nutrients for plants, which was a predominant view when I started farming. 

He wrote: "The agriculturalist must obey Nature's rules,” which was radical in the 1940s! He started as an agricultural chemist but came to distrust synthetic fertilisers and pesticides. He valued and explains the importance of compost and mycorrhizal fungi, and coined a phrase that has become a mantra: ”Feed the soil not the plant”. I value his sincerity which shines throughout his books – they read…

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Tap Dancing on Everest by Mimi Zieman,

Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctor—and only woman—on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.

The team attempts a new route up…

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