Re: Letter

I agree with Mr. Williamson’s comments.  To use a Tennessee expression I would opine that Heinberg does not know “diddly-squat” about farming.

First, my bona fides: I grew up on a farm.  Both sets of grandparents farmed with teams of mules in west Tennessee.   Some 30% of our farming acreage was used to grow food for the team of mules.  We now operate a mini farm to be self sufficient in food and to grow and save heirloom seeds for barter after “The Crunch.”  We have a Kubota B7510 tractor and all the implements.  This year we’ve some 20,000 sq ft in veggies, 48 fruit trees, oodles of grape vines.  We are professionals at this.

Some comments about returning to farming with mules follow.  Before the advent of fossil fuel powered tractors huge steam tractors were used to harvest wheat with huge combines.  There is a museum in Montana with examples of this equipment.   One issue I see with mule farming is the equipment.  I cannot fathom how to convert a 3 point hitch PTO-powered Bush Hog to be operated by a team of mules.  Around here (Tennessee's 2nd Congressional District) one often sees mule drawn equipment, much of it rusting in the open.  One idea I’ve considered is buying a large metal shed and filling it with mule drawn sickle mowers, corn planters, cultivators, single bottom turning plows, hay rakes and so forth.  These implements at some point will become extremely valuable.   As will horse collars and single trees.  Horses are self replicating, but mules are not.  A valuable business in years to come will be raising and selling mules and fabricating horse collars.

In the South in the 1930s field peas were termed “life savers.”  These require a moderately long growing season and warm weather.  Rabbits do not eat them.  This is important.   This year we have four cultivars of field peas, three of them new to us.  One gets more mass of peas from field peas as beans from any cultivar of shelly bush beans.  Moreover the peas are much more digestible. This year we have five cultivars of shelly bush beans and four cultivars of pole beans. We’ve several raised beds of Egyptian walking onions.  These keep in the ground over the winter and are often called winter onions. - Tennessean