Diary 1963 - Murshid Sam's Living Stream

Diaries 1963-2Some study has been made of salt-tolerant crops. For example Casuarinas make good wind-breaksand they have the advantages of desalting to some extent with the companionate disadvantage thattherefore their droppings cannot be used for compost or soil-condition. The Salt goes into the foliages.When Dates are accompanied by another crop, especially Oranges, the returns on the Dates peracre arise, because there is a commensalism—the Citrus regulate the humidity for the Dates and theDates protect the Circus against frost and conditions. Because of the shading, and non-selectivity ofthe soils, one gets only a 50% return on the Citrus, but one gets on the same plot about a 10% increaseon the Dates, plus the Citrus return so the over-all profit is much greater.Without two- or three-story farming a Date Orchid should not be less than 35 acres. It can beslightly smaller if Oranges are added. Benninghoff went further with a cover crop which is used asgreen manure. I like this system best, as being most economical in two different usages of this word.The remarkable thing here is that although the Citrus crops are not so salt tolerant, the Datesare, and evidently move enough salt from the ground or regulate the water table so that the Citrustrees prosper. But where Oranges and Lemons are grown by themselves, they get a much largerreturn for about three years, then between salinity and water-table changes, bang! Only slowly thesepeople are turning to Sugar Beet and other salt tolerant crops.Where the soil is not salty it is alkaline and this condition is met in part by combination of manuringand ammonium compound fertilizers. But some farmers simply go in heavy with barnyardmanure—and I understand, in one case, with human droppings too. The problem here is often oneof shall I say the “odor of ordure.” Outside that it is very effective.I also learned something about Grapes, which do very well and are already on the market, thefirst of the season.I am not through interviews but have a lot of information and literature and can now start writingat length for foreign papers. I am quite apathetic about Kennedy’s programs and have expressedmy views to the local paper whose editor is Virgil Pinkley—no less. This may mean something in thefuture but I am not pressing it now.The last news I have received and the last interview I have had are so ominous in a favorablesense that after a sort of vacation in Mendocino, I am all set to go despite difficulties. Health remainsgood, etc. Howard sends his regard but says he has heard from nobody but Thunem who visits himperiodically.Cheerio,S.A.M.